SOWETAN | Equal access to quality education remains a pipe dream

In September last year, former president Thabo Mbeki once again drew focus about the reality of two worlds that exist in SA. 

The most unequal society in the world, Mbeki reminded us, the growing need for privatisation of basic services – be it education, healthcare or security – is driven by systemic government failures.

These reinforce the stark disparities in experiences and access between those who have and those who don’t. 

He warned that “in years to come, SA will become a case study of how private initiative succeeds where states fail” .

It is in this context that we must understand the public debate, which occurs every academic year, about the performance of public schools compared to those owned and managed by private entities as demonstrated by matric results.

Private schools recorded a 99% pass rate for the matric class of 2023. 

At the time of writing, minister Angie Motshekga was yet to release the results of public schools, which historically are much lower but have shown steady improvement in parts of the country.  

Public discourse around these outcomes is often about whether private schools, some which have exorbitant fees, offer any significant difference in quality compared to public schools. 

The reality is they do, both in the daily experiences of children who have access to quality amenities and learning infrastructure, which their counterparts in most of SA often do not have. 

Indeed, there are many public schools in our country that are well resourced, some not so much, yet do fantastic work to produce quality results that rival the best in the world.

But their existence must never blind us to the reality that the vast majority of school going children learn under exceptionally difficult conditions. 

This week we told stories of children who lacked the most basic needs to kick off their academic year. 

From school uniforms, food, schools where classrooms are overcrowded, where infrastructure is broken and learning is near impossible.

All these are systemic failures of the government, which keep children who grow up in conditions of poverty at the bottom of the ladder with little chance of success compared to their peers who enjoy a higher standard of living. 

While government leaders would have us believe otherwise, this is ultimately the crux of the matter. 

It is against this that we must measure the government’s true commitment to equal access to quality education regardless of economic class.