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The school fees crunch threatens education

By Ray Hartley | 26 November 2009

TODAY we publish details of how school fees at both private and public schools are rising dramatically as cash-strapped parents default.
The average fee is rising at a rate way above inflation while the income of the average household remains stagnant or in decline.
Investing in a child’s education is the number one priority of most parents. It follows that for a parent to default on the payment of school fees suggests very difficult personal financial circumstances, indeed.
The effect of this defaulting is then felt by the other parents.
The school’s fixed expenses have to be paid and so the fees go up to make up for the fee-payment shortfall.
While the growing cost of education is most dramatically illustrated by the fees of “Model C” and private schools, the rising fees of less expensive schools are also affecting less affluent parents.
Since 1994, the government has promised its people free and compulsory education and it has, to a large extent, delivered on this promise.
But there are signs that the public education system is depending increasingly on funding from parents.
Government needs to look closely at how its education budget is spent and eliminate expenses that it cannot afford such as the costly experimentation with “outcomes based education”.
In yesterday’s edition of this newspaper, columnist and UFS rector Jonathan Jansen quoted from a heartbreaking letter written by a teacher who was living in poverty despite decades of success in the classroom.
Teachers and principals must become the priorities of the education authorities and of society as a whole.
Wasteful spending must be slashed in favour of improving their pay and the status they enjoy in society.

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Jonathan Jansen and the four phases of controversy

By Ray Hartley | 22 November 2009

THE row over University of the Free State rector, Professor Jonathan Jansen has entered the “sub-radar” phase of its life, which is a good thing.
Like all South African controversies, it has enjoyed — or endured, depending on how you see it — four basic phases.
The first was the “pre-radar” phase during which Jansen talked to representatives of the university workers and the students accused of racism, tried to understand the root causes and put together a plan of action relatively free of political noise.
Then it entered it’s second, more volatile period, the “sensation phase”. During this phase, news broke of Jansen’s decision to pardon the students behind the race video and all hell broke loose as politicians, unions and commentators desperately tried to find some way of making political capital out of the issue.
During this phase, Jansen was pilloried, characterised as a racist in cartoons and treated with the same contempt reserved for those who poison Labrador puppies.
Many who had said one thing during the pre-radar phase found it convenient to now say completely the opposite.
Then came the third “life-goes-on phase” as those who had shouted themselves hoarse realised that despite their best efforts, Jansen was still rector, there was still an unresolved race issue on the campus and their posturing was starting to look a little over-the-top.
During this phase, the shouting was toned down notch by notch and eventually became part of the general background noise of shouting which is a permanent feature of South African life.
Now we are finally, thankfully, in the “sub-radar” phase where Jansen is getting on with his very difficult task and the shouters are shouting about something else. Good luck, Prof.

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Jansen hugs the youth leader who wanted him dead

By Ray Hartley | 14 November 2009

THIS gives you an idea of the relentlessness with which Free State rector (and The Times columnist) Jonathan Jansen will seek to promote tolerance.
ANC Youth League leader, Thebe Meeko, was the firebrand who said that Jansen was “a criminal like these racist young students,” adding “We agree with the president of the ANC, shoot and kill a criminal.”
Here’s Jansen’s account of how he defused the hostility:

“At the end of this meeting with Mr Malema I said, as if I didn’t know who it was, I said, where is Mr [Meeko]. He put up his hand, and I took him into my office. He stood at the far side of the office I said come towards me and he was very hesitant to do that. I said don’t worry, come, and he came. I went towards him and I took my two arms and I put them around him and I said ‘I need you to know that I love you very much and I think you will still become a good leader’.
“I wish I could describe to you that emotional moment for him and for me. I wish I could tell you the full apology that came quickly. And I wish I could tell you the sense that he had and I had, that there is another way for getting out of our troubles.”
Wow. This man has got it.

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The way has been cleared for Jansen to tackle university racism

By Ray Hartley | 29 October 2009

JULIUS Malema’s announcement that he stands by Free State Vice Chancellor, Jonathan Jansen, despite a week of war-mongering by his spokesman and his Free State leaders, is to be welcomed.
Jansen has been under fire since he said that the four students responsible for a racist video would be allowed back on campus.
He has since said he is reviewing the decision in consultation with stakeholders.
Malema met with Jansen yesterday and, much to the surprise of the nation, gave him strong backing.
“We do not agree with any call that he must go. Jansen is one of our own. We cannot feed Jansen to the enemy” said Malema.
While it is odd that a university Vice Chancellor needs the blessing of the youth leader of a political party, it is a relief that Malema has chosen not to add fuel to the fire.
What must happen now is a return to the central issue: How to transform the UFS from a segregated campus into one where students are not defined by their race but by their academic needs and progress.
This is the task which Jansen has set himself. It is one which previous vice chancellors have failed to achieve.
It requires an end to the segregation of university residents, a review of policy on the language of instruction and a massive commitment from staff, students and administrators to unite the campus around the values of a free and democratic South Africa.
It will not be achieved by political grandstanding, violent threats and the crude stereotyping which often substitutes for debate on such matters in our country.
It will be attained by a calm engagement with all parties and by winning all over to why racial integration is in their interests. Jansen must be supported in this effort or the racists will have the last laugh.

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Now Malema backs Jansen … but for how long?

By Ray Hartley | 29 October 2009

ANC Youth League firebrand, Julius Malema, has backed Jonathan Jansen to stay on as University of the Free State Vice Chancellor. Yep, that’s right. Just days after his local representative took a slightly different stance (“Jansen must be shot”), Malema had this to say:
“We do not agree with any call that he must go. Jansen is one of our own. We cannot feed Jansen to the enemy.”
The students accused of racism at the center of the storm could return to the campus, he added. “They must apologise and show remorse when they come back,” said Malema.
This represents a substantial shift in Jansen’s favour after he was accused of failing the victims of racism by their trade union, Nehawu.
But will Malema’s support carry enough clout with the students and the workers at the University of the Free State. This will be an interesting test …

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South Africa: Home of democracy and hate speech

By Ray Hartley | 27 October 2009

SOUTH Africa, home of Nelson Mandela, brilliant sports teams, incredible natural wonders, the world’s best constitution and hate speech.
Hate speech used to be a fringe phenomenon that was ignorable. It is now threatening to overwhelm our public discourse.
The latest statement from a Free State youth leader that UFS vice-chancellor Jonathan Jansen should be “shot dead” because he is a racist has once more hogged the headlines.
There is an upside: The fact that people are free to say the most outrageous things without legal consequences is to be welcomed.
It shows that we are country in which freedom is cherished above all else.
What is disturbing is the fact that these statements are not contradicted by those in power.
On the contrary, they are endorsed, sometimes with searing sarcasm, by very powerful people who should know better.
So when the MK Veterans Association said that Kader Asmal “should die” because he dared criticise the political naivety of certain ANC leaders, the political establishment ought to have put the remark in its place.
Instead, the ANC’s secretary general, Gwede Mantashe, had this to say: “In line with ANC tradition, Comrade Kader is welcome to engage us on any issue. But wish to warn that in taking on issues, self-destruction can bleed you to death.”
This amounts to an attempt at humour when a political leader ought to have attempted to assure the public that such speech is not acceptable language.
Free speech should be allowed, but it would be encouraging if our political leaders made it clear that they distance themselves from this sort of outrageous rabble rousing.

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Mary Metcalfe’s letter to Jonathan Jansen – full text

By Ray Hartley | 22 October 2009

Mary Metcalfe, the Director General of Education has written to UFS Vice Chancellor, Jonathan Jansen, questioning his decision to allow students accused of racism back onto the campus:

Dear Jonathan
I wish to congratulate you on your installation as the Vice Chancellor of the University of Free State and to thank you for the many positive accepts of your inauguration speech. I particularly welcome the ban on initiation, and the intention to take positive steps to promote multilingualism.
As has been indicated by the Minister in his Press Statement today, we believe that the decision to withdraw the university’s complaint against the students is fundamentally flawed in several respects. The Minister has itemized some aspects of this in his statement, and I have added to his concerns below. Read More…

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Jonathan Jansen’s inaugural speech as Vice Chancellor of UFS – full text

By Ray Hartley | 20 October 2009

In case you missed it, it’s worth a thorough read:

Inaugural speech of the 13th Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State (UFS)
For such a time as this
Jonathan D Jansen
In Honour of Adv. Bram Fischer

Preliminaries
Welcome, welcome, welcome. I thought this would never happen. In fact, many of you told me it could never happen because of my refusal to snuggle up to power. Yet here you are, some from foreign lands like Chris and Lynette Abels from the United Kingdom, Joel Samoff from Stanford University (California), Josephine Allen from Cornell University (New York), and half of you from the Western Cape. All foreign protocols observed. To my South African friends of Indian descent, welcome to you too; you may stay overnight.
Thank you so much for honouring the University of the Free State this evening.
I am accompanied tonight by two high school leaders. Foster Lubbe was the first Free Stater to write to me, while I was still working in Durban, to welcome me to the province; he is the next head boy of Sentraal Secondary School in Bloemfontein. Portia Lehasa is the first black head girl in 134 years of the famed Eunice Girls Secondary School also here in Bloemfontein. Foster and Portia represent our future as a country; they remind me of my first love, school teaching. And when I sit down and talk with these two youth leaders, I become profoundly optimistic about the future of our country. Read More…