SA School System in Meltdown

I’m baaacckk!!

 

Yes, I’ve been quiet for a while. Not because I’ve had nothing to write about – quite the opposite actually – just not enough time.

 

It’s quite a claim – South African School System in Meltdown!

 

Since the teachers’ strike here are some headlines from the South African newspapers. Make your own judgments.

 

·         Crisis of the drugs-and-sex kids – Community organizations take action to curb social ills among primary school children (Sunday Times – 9 September 2007)
In this report, 7 children collapsed at Simla Primary after taking Ecstasy tablets. The boy at the center of the scandal faces charges of assault.
A 9-year old girl in the community prostituted herself to fund her own drug habit.
A grade 2 pupil (about 7-years old) is addicted to cigarettes.
Grade 7 pupils (about 12-years old) play truant to host sex and drugs parties at their houses.
According to the report, the drug use leads to sexual molestation, underage sex, alcohol abuse, and theft.
In the Chatsworth community, “Sugars” (a mixture of heroin, cocaine, and rat poison) are in constant supply.

·         ‘Innocent’ bunking can lead to sex, drugs and crime (Sunday Times – 7 October 2007)
The gist of this report – two girls who started bunking when 13 years old, got bored, started to do drugs, and paid for the drugs with sex, then lied to their parents to cover it all up.
The Western Cape Education department found that at age 14, 11% of pupils were bunking. At age 16 – 16 %; 23% at 17. At 18, 49% had dropped out of the school system.
Statistics South Africa found that in 2006, 72000 schoolgirls got pregnant, and 547000 girls aged between 13 and 18 dropped out of school. That’s more than HALF A MILLION girls dropping out every year! That’s horrifying!! It begs the question – If that’s just the girls, how many boys can we add to that total????

·         Teachers can’t take it any more (Sunday Times 9 September 2007)
One in 10 on stress leave.
13-year-old bludgeons teacher with hammer.
Girls raped on the playground during break time.
The harsh reality is that, generally, South African schools are not safe places.
Unions and experts have warned that great damage has already been done to the education system.
Children found guilty of serious misconduct, such as rape and assault … were often not expelled. … even when a governing body recommended expulsion, heads of departments were reluctant to carry this out.

·         School Scam Exposed (The Star – 16 November 2007)
R13.87 for a pencil (costs R4.69)
R120 for R100 calculators
New guitars, but no music lessons taught at the school
Workbooks with 170 errors
Most of the school supplies are handled by EduSolutions as part of a contract from the Gauteng Department of Education. They seem surly, uncooperative, greedy, and uncouth. Yet the GDE insists that certain schools use them as their only supplier. I SMELL A DEAD RAT!! My advice, avoid EduSolutions like the plague if you can.

Heaven help this country with education in the state it’s in.

There’s more – much more – with very little good news. I’m going to stop this post now – I’m feeling positively ill at the thought of educating my young son in this county.