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A note from Madiba. “What is often overlooked …is the immense, untapped potential of rural communities to take the lead in shaping a better future for themselves”
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A note from Madiba “What is often overlooked …is the immense, untapped potential of rural communities to take the lead in shaping a better future for themselves” This study, Emerging Voices: A Report on Education in South African Rural Communities, acknowledges the voices of members of rural communities across South Africa, and ensures that policies undertaken to improve the quality of rural education are informed by the powerful insights of the people in those communities. Nelson R. Mandela
Why argue for rural education • The Constitution requires it • Everyone has the right to basic education • People are living there • Popular demand • “…South Africans believe in education...” • Human development • The joy of learning and individual well-being • Social progress and political participation • Social justice • Democracy and development • Democracy requires development, and development requires democracy. Both require the highest levels of education amongst all citizens
Purpose • To improve our understanding of the phenomenon of rurality, poverty and schooling and enhance our approach to development more generally • To enable us to analyse what rural schooling is all about and what the key barriers to learning might be • To help us identify possible strategies for responding to the challenges of rural schooling • To elicit the voices of rural communities, their knowledge, experiences and their understanding about the relationship between schooling, rural life and poverty • To achieve genuine freedom and development
Where was the study conducted • KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Limpopo • More than half of all school going learners in South Africa attend school in these provinces • These provinces include former homelands within their boundaries • They have the highest levels of poverty and unemployment • They have the highest levels of adult illiteracy and youth unemployment • Traditional authorities still play a powerful role and have a strong presence in these areas • The study focused on those parts that fell within former homelands.
Contextual issues • Rural communities are engaged in ongoing struggle for survival under harsh conditions, poverty and unemployment • Large numbers of economically active people between the ages of 15 and 65 years remain unemployed • Unemployment rate is high: 54.6% in EC and 49% Limpopo and KZN • Just over 90% people living in these provinces earn below R6 400 per year • High dependency on social grants, pension and low remittances • The labour of children is used for fetching water, tending livestock and supporting small scale farming
Contextual issues • People in rural communities do not derive their main income from farming and yet cultivation of land and livestock are central to their lives • Lack of basic services such as electricity, water and sanitation • A feeling that rural education is not at the same level as in urban areas • A feeling of a need to impart skills that children will need for survival in rural areas e.g. cultivate farms, look after livestock • Parents want their children to go to school with the hope that they will get a better future
Methodology • Survey and participatory • Survey adapted from a survey conducted for the Public Report on Basic Education (PROBE) in India • Survey covered 595 households, 144 primary schools in the three provinces • A total of 4305 respondents to questionnaires • Respondents included caregivers, principals, educators and learners • Participatory action research done in nine sites (three from each province over four months). In each community, two Community Researchers were identified. They worked with Volunteer Youth Research Teams and Community Reference Groups • Richly illustrated with graphics, pictures and cartoon strips
Conclusions • Provides a comprehensive understanding of the challenges of rural schooling in the context of poverty (it underlines the integrated nature of poverty and the right to schooling) • Great majority of children in rural communities are getting less than is their right. The system remains unequal and the greatest deprivation still exists in the former homelands • Highlights the importance of engaging with and listening to the voices of rural communities. • The methodologies for eliciting the voices are as important as what is discovered through listening to the communities • The potential to facilitate informed public policy dialogue and assist policy makers to develop policies and interventions that are responsive
Community voices • “If you have enough money you take your child to a township or urban area” • “I would like our school to be equal in condition to those in urban areas …the schools there are very beautiful and learners don’t get cold because the classes are well built” • “Our art and culture needs to be improved and must be taught to the children …” • “We are forced by the situation to use old fashioned methods of teaching because we don’t have materials. We need laboratories and libraries” • “It would be better to teach agriculture. A child could live from it whether he or she passes or fails” • “I’d like our children to have skills that help them to survive; that’s the long and short of it”
Teachers’ voices • “I never liked teaching and I still don’t like it as we speak now” • “I wish parents would co-operate with staff. Since we help in moulding their children, they should not relax and leave everything to the teachers” • “Children’s education can only improve if this government can provide employment for their parents. Then they will be able to pay schools fees…” • Our system of education needs the co-operation of parents, children and the community as a whole”
Learners’ voices • “…there is a problem of long distances that learners have to travel from home to school…” • “When I wake up in the morning, I fold the blankets and the grass mats and I have a bath. I herd the cattle to the pasture and come back to eat. Then I get ready for school.” • “…the beating of learners when they make noise must be stopped” • “I want flowers in school because I like it to be beautiful” • “I want our teachers to take us on tours to see places”
Chapter 2[PMG note: Photograph not included]Dust and Deprivation
Dust and deprivation • Income sources: pensions, social grants and low remittances due high levels of unemployment • Link between family and learner literacy and the importance of mother’s education • Land and livestock remain vital to communities’ sense of themselves and for survival • A deep commitment to schooling but decisions to send children to school are influenced by economic circumstances • Concerns that traditional values may be eroded by the culture of the rights parents perceive are advocated by schools • Exceptions: interspersed between traditional houses are a few face-brick houses with multiple rooms
Chapter 3 [PMG note: Photograph not included]The Road to School
The road to school • The right to education is undermined by the obstacles to meaningful participation such as: Transport HIV/AIDS Nutrition Disability Health Sexual abuse Schools fees Bullying School Uniform Traditional ceremonies • Basic needs are not met and so the rights to education are not realised
Impact of HIV/AIDS “Quantifying the impact of HIV/AIDS on education – rural or otherwise – remains a frustratingly inexact science. The problem is that the primary impact of HIV/AIDS on education is to make existing problems in the system worse: HIV/AIDS is not a stand-alone problem; it is subtle, insidious and erodes long-standing cracks in the education system, increasing educator attrition, depressing enrolment and distorting flow rates and outcomes” Peter Badcock-Walters
Patterns of daily life are shaped by domestic economies and rural geographies Poor performance Repetition, late-coming and absenteeism Drop-out Unemployment Rights to and through education remain unmet: Educational inequalities and disparities continue to exist for both girls and boys Consequences
Chapter 4[PMG note: Photograph not included]School and Community together
School and community together • Continuity between lack of basic services in schools and communities: impact on access to and quality of schooling • water and sanitation; • electricity • infrastructure • Communities say these can be addressed through a combination of government intervention and community mobilisation • For rural development strategies to be sustainable they need to integrate both educational issues and community development
Chapter 5 [PMG note: Photograph not included]Experience in the Classroom
Experience of the classroom • Difference between vision and reality: educators expected to seed democratic values in society through democracy and social justice in the classroom • Educators stymied by lack of resources and support: educator are ill-trained and ill-equipped to meet the high expectations • Learners experience classrooms as authoritarian • Corporal punishment is a concern for learners while some parents see it as a normal way of disciplining children • Many learners say they do not understand the teacher • Rights to education within schools not met • Parents and learners see the link between education and development • Parents hope that education will promote rural development • Learners hope that it will promote their participation in social, economic and political life
Chapter 6 [PMG note: Photograph not included]Democracy in Schools
Relationships • Tensions between parents and educators as well as parents and learners • Survival of families requires the participation of all family members • Routine and requirements of schools • High expectations placed on educators and schools • Some principals dominate SGBs while some chiefs wield their authority in SGBs • Generally, SGBs do not live up to the expectations of democracy for robust link between schools and communities • A few pockets of innovation: • Fundraising and partnerships
Who are the principals Mostly Christian between the ages of 45 and 55
Chapter 7 [PMG note: Photograph not included]Rural Education Development
Educational deprivation • Principals, educators, parents and learners place a high value on education and the benefits they think it can bring. However, Education in rural areas is far from realising these expectations • Rights to, within and through education are not met • Direct and indirect costs of education are important contributors • Poorly trained teachers with poor incentives and limited facilities and resources • Poor social relationships between educators and learners as well as between parents and educators do not enhance the learning of children and the participation of the wider community in the educational possibilities • Lack of educational opportunities outside or through schools for adults and out-of-school youth
How do we respond • There are no quick-fix solutions to the complex challenges of rural schooling and development: integrated rural development strategies must form part of the solution • There are no top-down planning and answers; listening to communities and facilitating meaningful participation of communities is critical • The locus of control and decision-making lies in communities - the challenge is to provide the inspiration for action • Not to pretend that the context in which children find themselves in different parts of the country are the same • The establishment of a Forum for Rural Education by Minister Pandor offers great excitement and hope
