Allow me to address the declining standards of education in our country.

Allow me to address the declining standards of education in our country.

I am a volunteer teacher in Grade 12 maths, science and English in schools in Ga-Rankuwa, Makau and Brits.

I remain unemployed, being told there are no vacancies. That does not give me an excuse not to teach. Teaching is a profession, a labour of love.

With a group of competent university graduates and students we started a project called Grade 12 Prosperity Project. We teach every day after school and on Saturdays.

District offices tell me there are no vacancies. That makes a mockery of Minister Naledi Pandor's plan to import Zimbabwean teachers. Somebody is not doing correct audits of teacher availability .

In his State of the Nation Address, President Thabo Mbeki cited the need for quality skills and education for us to break the scourge of poverty and unemployment.

Let us all engage ourselves with the pedagogy of the oppressed. In that we will be selfless in giving our knowledge and be responsible in carrying our youngsters towards normative, purposeful and responsible adulthood coupled with their future economic independence.

We can do it.

Bongi Montsho-Maithufi, Kagiso