Wednesday 15, kids went back to school and the attention was on the little Grade R and Grade 1s. It is always so adorable to think of those little people, with their skinny legs and huge backpacks.While #SouthAfrica boasts some of the best schools it lags at the back when it comes to Health and Primary Education (132 out of 148 Countries) and 84th for Higher Education and is amongst the worst in Maths and Science. Only a small pool of the children who flooded the gates of schools in SA will receive high quality education.
In contrast we are ranked amongst the top in regards of financial institutions out of those same 148 countries - we rank third in the entire world, beating most 1st world countries.
So where is the disconnect?
Yesterday the news used one school in Limpopo to illustrate a challenge that most #school children face in South Africa. Part of the school's roof was blown off by heavy storms 11 months ago and is still unfixed. Should it rain, the children will be sent home as the classes cannot continue.
The children have to use drop bucket system and there are too few toilets for the sheer volume of students in the school - as a consequence children have to wait in long ques to use the loo. The teachers of the same school.
The South African government has the money to turn this around and needs to truly pull its weight in service delivery and honoring teachers the way they should. There are countless NGOs around the country doing what they can. I believe that it is through active citizenship where things can really change. Yes, I would like the government to actually do its job, but we cannot wait forever, communities should start building themselves up and create self-sufficiency.
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