From the Desk of the Education Cluster

QUANTITATIVE v QUALITATIVE EDUCATION IN OUR LIFE TIME: The Challenges Faced By UBPA!!

The core purpose of all clusters or portfolios at UBPA is to develop road maps and/or guidelines that assess what are the issues or problems confronting our people and come up with ways in which those issues or problems can be addressed. Following that will be to pull together available resources within UBPA to implement and execute those road maps and/or guidelines. What is to follow is a road map from the education cluster.

The education cluster at UBPA currently led by the Chairperson and the Treasurer/Organizer has since its inception been in a forefront of educational development of our people. Obviously assisted by the human resources we have within UBPA our task, particularly during winter classes has been less cumbersome. The education cluster and the current executive of UBPA have focused primarily on matric success. The logic behind this has been that once we increase matric success then the task of getting deserving people to tertiary institutions will be easier.

UBPA is still a new formation and that it is yet to celebrate its second birthday. Because of its infancy it is difficult to give accurate and convincing projections of how the education cluster and UBPA has fared in this task. What is known however is that in our first attempt we achieved the record highest pass rate of 70% in matric of Uthaka Secondary School for the academic year of 2007. The only thing worrying about those figures was the quality of the passes themselves. We are told that there were fewer exemptions and A symbols. This means that we did exceptionally well quantitatively but less convincing qualitatively.

The year 2008 is not going to be anything like 2007. Firstly, this year we have worked with a different class of students. The 2008 class of students looked a year or two younger in comparison to the 2007. Whether this age difference will play any role at all in outputs is yet to be seen. Secondly, the curriculum itself and the methods of assessment are fundamentally different. This year we were dealing with the standardized National Curriculum Statement (NCS). The outcomes of this curriculum worry even the national minister of education because as a nation we do not know what to expect. As UBPA we are optimistically hopeful that once again Uthaka Secondary School will do well even if it is quantitatively.

Quantitative and qualitative outcomes only matter in an advanced stage of success. In the beginning stages where there is no meaningful difference between dawn and sunset we learn to accept whatever we are given even if it is quantitative. But once the difference between dawn and sunset becomes significant we move to accepting nothing short of excellence. This is the advanced stage where we may begin to ponder questions of qualitative outcomes. This distinction is not in anyway suggesting or indicative of the fact that the two cannot go hand in glove or together. The reality of the matter is that it is possible to have students of quality passing their matric in droves at Uthaka Secondary School. However, the trick is to know when to expect this and what under circumstances.

UBPA and the education cluster have been committed to bringing more and more of our deserving students to tertiary institutions. This desire is demonstrated by the fact that we provide information and even application forms that are intended to get our deserving students to the various tertiary institutions. At this juncture we do not have comprehensive numbers or statistics that show how we have done in this regard. But what we have noted is that, probably because of the nature of the institution, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) presents the best opportunity for our learners to enter tertiary. For this reason, we as the education cluster suggest that the open day trip scheduled for next year should go to UJ.

Our task however is not only limited to ensuring matric pass rates and tertiary acceptance. We further have a responsibility towards those who do not make it to tertiary institutions for various reasons. Word out there on the streets of Wakkerstroom seem to suggest that once people have passed matric and not make it to tertiary institutions we forget about them. UBPA we cannot afford to be one dimensional in our approach to societal problems as they confront Wakkerstroom nor can we afford to be naïve in our solutions to such problems.

It will be one dimensional of us to expect every successful matriculant to go to tertiary. We should accept the fact that we live in a country where tertiary education besides what the freedom Charter says remains a privilege for the selected few. The question then will be how we propose to deal with the dilemma presented by those who do not make it to tertiary.

Tertiary is unfortunately a place where success is hard to achieve. It will therefore be naïve of us to expect everybody who gets admission to tertiary to rise to the highest level of success expected of a tertiary going student. The question we need to address is what mechanisms we have put in place that will enable our people to succeed in tertiary once they are admitted. As things stand we are setting our people for failure if we drag them to tertiary institutions but do nothing to ensure that they get all the assistance they need so to guarantee success. This issue ties in with the bigger problems faced by black students in all tertiary institutions and all faculties and departments. There are just not enough support systems in place to ensure that the transition from secondary to tertiary is less scary and cumbersome on a recent matriculant.

Going forward UBPA as a matter of urgency must come up with strategies to deal with matriculants who cannot be absorbed to tertiary institutions. We all know what happens to those matriculants so soon as the school re-opens. They become serious alcohol consumers and drug abusers, they engage in reckless sexual activities that expose them to unwanted pregnancies and serious epidemics like HIV/AIDS. We have to then find constructive and creative ways to prevent them from falling victim to alcohol and drug abuse. We have to assist them to find better ways of recreation.

For those who do make it to tertiary we have to come up with delegations of senior students amongst our ranks who will help them engage and understand their course material. We should ensure that they succeed so to graduate in record times. Our interests to the developmental agenda of our youth should not end after matric but should continue well beyond that.

Going further, there are many dimensions and approaches to education. What the education cluster has discussed above can be termed external dimensions of education. External in the sense that these are strategies targeting people outside UBPA. We now turn to internal dimensions intended for those at UBPA. As UBPA we have not benefited from the knowledge possessed by our associates. The education cluster has not encouraged the culture of sharing, receiving and parting of information amongst associates. How can we then expect to share information with others outside UBPA if we do no appreciate the fact that charity begins at home?

It is a sad day indeed that after two years of being together as associates; we are yet to receive a crash course on basic emergency medical care from our associates who are knowledgeable in the intricacies of medicine. It is equally sad that we have stood in front of learners without any guidance on how to teach from those amongst us who have received knowledge and competence on the art of teaching. The fact that many amongst us are clueless on politics, economics, foreign policy and law could be attributed to the failure of associates to enlighten each other. An educated man or woman is one that possesses knowledge well beyond his or her books.

Going forward, we as the education cluster recommend that associates should bond with one another in the true spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood where we make it a point that we enlighten one another as much and as far as possible. We recommend that there should be formal gatherings particularly at Wakkerstroom where we can exchange and share what we all have learned thus far in our respective universities and career paths. This will further enable us to generally gather if our associates comprehend their course material, and perhaps come up with ways on how to assist where there is a need.

In closing, South Africa in president Monthlante and perhaps Zuma next year is testimony to the fact that such formal gatherings amongst people with the same vision work. Research shows us that in the training of combatants for armed struggle in the various countries where they were stationed, in the evening the combatants will gather in small groups to study and learn. This is where Zuma learned to speak and write English this well. So in these formal meetings that we suggest perhaps people may learn skills that may be handful later on in their lives.

Prepared by the heads of the Education Cluster at UBPA, Thulani Nkosi & Nozipho Khumalo, 2008