What's the issue?

Author: Tomas Yoko
Date: 2014-01-17

As the New Year gets off to a running start I am so pleased to see reports that we are still interested in educating our nation. Angie tells us that our matric statistics are as high as 78,2% a major improvement of almost 18% since Angie took over the reigns as Minister of Basic Education.

Well regardless of your pantie size, an improvement of this magnificent magnitude would be remarkable if it were not for the mitigating circumstances that exclude some of the criteria of how this magic number was achieved.

Angie's detractors will tell you that the fantastic stats are a smoke screen aimed at baffling the brains of anyone who would accept them at face value. The SRI, and that is not the Sea Rescue Institute, no it is the Solidarity Research Institute, and they are eager to point out that of the 1,2 million students who embarked on the long journey to matric in 2002, only 34% managed to pass matric in 2013. Not withstanding the number of Varsity entrance passes and the poor level of achievement in Maths and Science. Now in my book, that is not something to be patting yourself on the back about, especially as we are faced with the seemingly insurmountable challenges of poverty and crime, both of which are crying out for a rescue line from the education of our youth.

In the light of our history of supressing the education of our youth, I would say that those panties need once again to be lifted into the air and Angie must be challenged even further to achieve even more. I have not even begun to mention the culling of grade 11 students who were prevented from writing matric, a practise that stinks worse than a rotting corpse.

I can see why the statistics are presented like this, the timing, the concealment, the necessity. I just can't condone the lack of aggression in getting our rainbow nation to be the most educated nation on the planet.

Well seeing as that is not as important as eTolling, we can still hope that the greatness of our nation will find another way to cut through the years of oppressive governance and the incompetent governance and forge a future we all so richly deserve.

So what I'm trying to say Angie, is that while you're patting yourself on the back for a skewed version of the statistical representation of your brilliance, you and the entire education system in this great nation of ours is perpetuating the cycle of educational misrepresentation, which is perpetuating the cycle of poverty and crime and that is perpetuating the cycle of the brain drain, which will inevitably leave our great nation painted into a corner, or just plain f***ed. I put it like that so maybe you will understand it, Angie.

Moving quickly on from there, I must say that I am excited about 2014and hopeful too. Hopeful that the war in Syria will end, the conflicts on the African continent will dissipate and the leaders of the world will realise that unless they do the right thing, we will all end up in the soup.

May it be a wonderful year for all of us, bon appetite.

Springclean

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