The public service strike is going the way these strikes always go. People are dying, the second half of this year’s matric seems to be pretty much a write off, and you have people talking about how bad this all is.

And they are perfectly right – the behaviour of the strikers in this has been anything but good. People are dying, there is no way one can spin that.

But there is another side to this that I keep on thinking about: Just before this strike happened, six babies had died.

There was an investigation, and medical negligence was ruled out – but what the investigation found was (to quote sapa)

However, it identified “deficiencies” at the facility, including a lack of routine supplies and equipment, such as towels and thermometers.

Now say you went into nursing, or medicine with the idea you were there to save lives. Say you are a highly empathic person, who cares about your patients – all the things everyone imagines a nurse should be.

How long would it take for that to get totally burned out of you by a level of management that doesn’t even make sure you have enough towels or themometers, or for that matter soap? Our nurses and doctors are not being given the tools they need to do their jobs properly, and we are surprised that they seem to have stopped caring?

Now take our teachers. Over 12 years they were expected to teach using the Outcomes Based Education model, with heavy pressure to succeed or else be deemed “Failed” teachers. Now the thing about Outcomes Based Education, is it was a system based around having the kids go out and research the answers for themselves – rather than having those kids get directly taught those answers by the teachers.

Sounds good doesn’t it? Right up until you realise a few basic South African truths.

To quote The Times:

• A weak and superficial curriculum that was “unrealistic” and lacking in “specific objectives”;
• The assumption that pupils had access to research facilities such as telephones, the Internet, libraries and newspapers; and
• It being open to a wide variety of interpretations, and teachers had no clarity about what was required of them.

So, you are basically the ideal teacher. You see yourself as one of the shadowy figures shaping a South African golden age, you are out there to essentially cure stupid. Feels good, right up until you are teaching using a vague system which the country just does not have the infrastructure to support. How long are you going to continue caring?

My big problem with this strike is mainly that like a lot of strikes, the main issue has been around the money, while I think the money has very little to do with it. What I think the real issue is,  is that the state of management in our public services is such that it actively hampers our state workers doing a good job.