To whom it may concern
I am a father of a handsome six year old son, a three year old and two year old of the cutest daughters you could ever lay your eyes upon. I as many parents love my children to bits. I can only but wish for them to have better than I ever had just as any parent always pleads to the greater beings that his / her children live a better life than you have. You wish for them peace, prosperity, love and care with all due successes. And yet in comparison to peace, love and all else, I wish for my children that they receive a better education than I had. Angie Motshekga just cannot bring herself to take of the blinkers and realise that admitting to a problem is the first step to resolution.
And the problem did not necessarily start with her, she did not introduce OBE, but the problem worsens with her every denial that it exists. I was educated under the apartheid education system, and it pains me to make a comparison that distinctly shows I was better off under the oppressive educational system than my children will be in the ‘grand’ South African dream. It hurts that my children are not expected to know more than I did at their age, my son does not even closely show me a piece of home work that I would have done at his age in grade one. I always thought my children would – under the South African dream – learn in a better environment, achieve more than I could have, and receive text books. You see I never did have textbooks, well until high school that is, and I didn’t have all of them as we had to buy our own, but the November delivery of text books as happened in Limpopo is worse than not having.
The difference between teachers of today and the teachers that taught me is attitude. My teachers knew we were oppressed and the only way to get out of this was via education, (beat the NATS at their own game, as per say) furthermore they knew they had the future of black youth in their palms and thus were sensitive and gentle in their methods, hence they would have weekend classes at their homes for free at times. Currently there are very few if any teachers who do that; bar my younger brothers maths teacher who used to invite them for a beer on Saturdays at his house, the current crop of teachers just don’t go out of their way to accommodate their learners. *thank god he was eventually fired, but the point is he saw his students even weekends*
I never attended a private school in my life, and as far as I could tell, the only difference between my school and Hilton College was their facilities, and the fact that when we played sport against them they served us gourmet burgers, ribs and delicious finger foods and freshly crushed fruit juice rather than the Oros and orange slices we had at our school. Plus their parents arrived in Helicopters to see them, and they had school shuttle services, and they had horses and cows, plus their school is the size of a large village and the principle drives a super car... etc etc.. but besides these meaningless and obviously minor differences that I never even took note of, there was no difference at all. Our educational level were similar, I could look at any one of my peers from other schools learner books and easily find myself able to do the same level of work. But now there is a difference, and it is these disparities that have left me thinking about finding the nearest ATM and a stick of dynamite so that I too can take my kids to a school like the aforementioned.
And all I am really pleading for is that government produce for my children an education I never received, and although I never received these shambles they are learning currently, I want my children to receive better than I. The world is laughing ladies and gentlemen... and they are not laughing with us.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
