I asked about the scale of the reading problem and was told that between 10 and 20% of Grade 8s cannot read at all. One teacher said, “They cannot build a three letter word like m-a-d.” A further 60% were said to be extremely weak readers – Foundation Phase level. I asked what happened to these learners and was told that they get pushed through to Grade 10, then they fail and drop out of school. Of the remainder that continue around 30% passed matric last year.

I agree with Mark that education involves much more than the 3Rs, and we need our gifted artists, musicians and performers in society. But in a country like ours, with such high unemployment levels and huge skills shortages, we desperately need an educated workforce to drive our economy forward. We cannot afford to pussyfoot around the problem of underperformance in schools.

But lets be careful not to blame the teachers for everything. Multiple curriculum changes have left teachers confused and flailing. The large number of national languages is unworkable in schools and teachers are given poorly translated resources. The curriculum document itself is full of errors in languages other than English and Afrikaans. Many teachers received a second-rate education themselves, because of the political history of this country. The curriculum is not presented in a way that is easily accessible to them. Attempts to make implementation easier often confuse the situation more, with vast amounts of new material that is difficult to match with the curriculum document. A vicious cycle of failure and low morale spirals ever downwards. Our system isn’t working and we have to think of something radically different.

It’s not difficult to teach a child to read. Yet vast numbers of children are emerging illiterate after ten years in school. I believe that a lot of the theories and methods and models forced on teachers are in fact obscuring the simplest and most obvious ways of learning.

People think I’m joking when I suggest that we should throw away the curriculum and just teach kids to read and add up! Britain only got a National Curriculum in 1988. Is this massive, confusing, ever-changing document the best thing for us in South Africa right now?

I was not at this event but where I will make a comment is that there is more to life than science and maths. This comes from me…a person who has a love for these two subjects including technology. Yet, not all can be good at these subjects. There are going to be those who are vrot at it. They tend to be better at other things such as music, art, managing people, etc. etc. There is another life outside of maths and science. I do believe that these subjects are important, but they have been over-emphasized to death neglecting other important things too.

What many don’t understand is that even if somebody cannot formally write an exam in music for example they may still have the talent of playing it. This is a form of education.

One may not formally study from a textbook, but reading a newspaper, magazine is also education. I think our evaluation methods fall short of testing people who do not fall in the same category of education as the “formally educated” do.

The lack of performance of schools are more complicated than you think and the playing fields for disadvantaged has still not being leveled. The ex-model C schools will still do better than township schools. Do a proper study and you will see why. The one problem is that some of the question/answers we know but nobody wants to say it (being politically correct I suppose).

ICT will not solve the lack of performance problem. There is lots of research to prove this, but ICT can change the way we do things in education.

The one thing I want to say about the good performance of learners at ex-model C schools is borne out of a discussion with persons that is much more knowledgeable than myself. Although these schools have good and committed educators, these learners have tutors paid for by well-resourced and committed parents. I know this because I am one of the tutors. I also canvas opinion on this and the tutor issue seems to be case. I know the question of the computer as a tutor will come up, but it does not work unless attitudinal factors are constantly challenged.

I still want to challenge those who have never taught in a township school (coloured or black) to do so and report the realistic situation.