How can you make learners benefit more?

Dr Muavia Gallie is currently self-employed as a turn-around strategist and worked with the Tshwane University of Technology on education management. He delivered a compelling presentation to the new cohort titled, The state of our education in South Africa and the challenges facing young teachers.

Using a video clip, Dr Gallie demonstrated how missing a small but important detail meant missing the entire story. He said South Africa had participated in a study in 2007 that compared world education systems, and our level of education rated the lowest. In a study of Grade 6 literacy and numeracy, South Africa’s best students compared to Singapore’s worst.

Dr Gallie said that, in a comparison of pupils’ literacy and numeracy scores in all African countries, South Africa sat in the bottom 10; in South Africa itself the level of literacy and numeracy across all provinces was average.

Of great concern to Dr Gallie was that, although the budget for education had increased and education received the highest spend in the country, the quality of education in South Africa had not improved. “You have to ask yourself, why are learners not benefiting, despite the fact that there is huge funding fed into the education sector?” Dr Gallie asked.

Gallie said learners survived at school despite the education system, not because of it. “They survive because of a teacher who has made the extra effort to ensure learners are adequately equipped with the necessary resources for success,” he said.

“Whether it is to provide past exam papers as revision or to provide the extra lessons, this gives learners a better chance of passing a grade or gaining university entrance.”

In closing, Dr Muavia Gallie said, “How can you give people dessert when you haven’t even given them a meal?” He said this held particular relevance to schools given the necessary funding, but producing poor results. “It is the responsibility of the teacher to ensure their learners are given sufficient subject knowledge, and time and care, to fuel the progress of the learner.”