The Importance of Free Public Education

KC JOURNAL NO 9 JUNE 2005

Thabang Mphuti, Tankiso Tamane & Ntokozo Mthembu argue that education should be made free for the poor for therein lies their true liberation.

The Katlehong Concerned Residents is a community-based organisation in the East Rand. It was formed in response to escalating problems faced by members of our community. The main problems began with the concerted attacks waged by commercial banks assisted by the State through a bulldog structure called Servecon, which they used to evict residents out of their homes. Local authorities on the other hand began a concerted campaign for cost recovery. What this meant was that hundreds of households had their water and electricity cut off. Our organisation then began a radical program of resisting these attacks against poor marginalised communities.

Over the years, KCR has grown to represent a diversity of views including the education rights of learners. Through the establishment of an education sub-committee, our organisation has began highlighting and mobilising on issues of school learners as well as youth in general.

Our work in the schooling sphere includes mobilising community members to take up some of the rights written in policy documents and use them in the practice of living. The liberation struggle could not have got as far as it did were it not for the organising of youths especially around the issues of an education system free of the agenda of the apartheid regime- to dominate the black minds. We believe the demand went further to also struggle against an education system suited to the purposes of undoing the damage caused by this evil regime. We campaign for an education system for everyone based on the principles of democracy and free expression.

The reality of a two-tier education system still lives with us today, with black township schools still lacking the types of resources that private and former Model–C schools have. The State’s education funding approach is very conservative and is underpinned by a belief that the government cannot increase education spending as radically as is necessary to ensure that the schooling system is at the same level, both in terms of the content and the material resources available for all schools. The advent of neo-liberalist approaches on the responsibilities of the state makes it even more unlikely that there could be a turn-around. Schools are persistently pushed to sleep with private sector investors who often impose a “business”- that is the profit motive when offering the service of education.

The effects of shifts in the macro economic imperatives of the state Growth, Employment & Redistribution (GEAR) strategy, have been documented by many- the most crucial being the massive losses of jobs and many finding themselves thrown right out of the formal economy (40% of the population is unemployed). It has been estimated that 58-65% of all South African children live in poverty. The most progressive constitution in the world is silent on how to redress the fact that 20% of the richest households are controlling 66% of the nations wealth.

The picture appears gloomy and hopeless for many, but we, refuse to be de-mobilised by “new” economic imperatives. As KCR we have been tirelessly advocating for the right to an education for all.

In 1994 we were promised a lot through well thought-out election manifestos. We were told that the dream of quality equal education was upon us. Our eyes and mouths have dried out and we have awakened to realise that it was nothing but clever marketing on the part of those hungry to replace the oppressive colonial masters.

At the level of school-based organising, our organisation has been taking up the struggles of poor learners who have been systematically thrown out of schools for failure to pay school and admission fees. Schools use dirty tactics such as withholding learners’ results, and some schools go to the extent of sending lawyers threatening to attach parents’ properties. These actions deny the learners their rights to an education,and go against the principles set out in the South African Schools Act which read: “A public school must admit learners and serve their interest without unfairly discriminating in any way.”

For example, there is a case where a child was kicked out of school and the mother was threatened by the school with endless phone calls. The calls threatened arrest and having her property attached. The learner becamse a constant victim of humiliation from teachers and the principal.

We are of the view that education is one of the major means by which the disadvantaged majority can break the shackles of the cycle of poverty. It is the best way through which those who have lived with the brutal realities of oppression and lack of life opportunities can develop themselves – both in terms of their skills levels as well as the expansion of knowledge. Only an educated population can be able to feel empowered enough to be direct agents of changing their particular circumstances. Public education therefore needs to be free and accessible to all – especially those who are vulnerable in the current competitive global environment.

In a situation where poverty-burdened communities have too few success stories and role models of their own, attaining an education could build a greater confidence of members of the community to be self-reliant. This in turn could lead to the general raising of communities’ standards of living and engender a higher sense of dignity of their members.

We will continue the struggle to open the doors of learning and culture because this demand is not abstract, it has real possibilities of attaining self and collective liberation for millions bound by the chains of illiteracy and starvation.

Indeed, it will be a joyful day when we poor people can attain good quality education that is free- for therein lies the weapons of true libaration!

Thabang Mphuti, Tankiso Tamane & Ntokozo Mthembu are all members of KCR in Katlehong and are active in the APF education sub-committee.

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