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OUR dear president-in-waiting has been saying that teenage mothers “must be taken to colleges and forced to get an education so that they can be in a position to look after themselves”. And, he says, a child who does not go to school “must be taught by force until [he or she] gets a degree. We then return him to his parents as a person who has been developed”.
These rather rash propositions remind me of my five years as a dislocated and home-sick boarder. I went to a privileged state school: not quite the privilege of Spud’s, but privileged in an early 80s state-school kind of way.
Mine was run by a Margaret Thatcher lookalike who was as fearsome as the great dame
herself. The boarding house was managed by three matrons, unique in their particular awfulness. Nothing about them could induce a maternal image in any of the 80 adolescent girls in their care.  I thought, too, about the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. With the best intentions, a massive financial input and a great role model, its reputation was tarnished by allegations of abuse within months of opening. Jacob Zuma has certainly identified serious problems: teenage girls becoming pregnant and children not attending school. And, by omission, his solutions seem to imply that he doesn’t think their parents are up to the job.
His response to this social malaise is troubling, however.
Even assuming he doesn’t have reformatories in mind, banishing truants and hormonally challenged teenagers to understaffed and badly run boarding schools is not going to solve the problem. How, within the reality of our failing education system, will such boarding schools provide the education, care and social and emotional support these young adults need?
Not only will we need expensive physical structures and new infrastructure to run happy and constructive institutions, we’ll need good teachers. So my suggestion to Zuma is, scrap the boarding house idea. Rather spend that money on your most valuable educational resource:  teachers.
A good teacher will go a long way in helping to solve these problems. Teachers who set a good example, who teach well and maintain interest in learning can only be a good thing in a young person’s life.
These girls and young mothers — and their boyfriends — need sex education too,  lots of it. We don’t have many such teachers. Most are unhappy and un-inspired. They are underpaid, under supported and overworked. Many of them are also under-qualified.
We shouldn’t build boarding schools. Find ways, Zuma, of paying, trainingsupporting and retaining excellent teachers.
They deserve it. Our children deserve it. We deserve it. 

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Comments

 

Eli Jikelele

November 24, 2008 at 11:11 am

Unfortunately, Zuma’s penchant for populist oral emissions are being lapped up by ignorant voters who will vote his party into power once again.

One of the biggest disservices we have done our own people was to throw discipline and accountability out with the bath water after taking over power in 1994. Learning no longer takes place in our school system because no teaching takes place. A very small core group of teachers still try to teach but by far the greatest number are either tied up with mountains of paperwork or have simply given up trying to educate our children.

Parents complain that their children are undisciplined and lazy and often blame teachers for this. Truth be told, if we do not teach respect and discipline at home, what chance do teachers have when “learners” have more rights than educators in the eyes of the Ministry of Education.

I always find it ironic that the new black diamonds support the fact “there is no place for religion and physical exercise in the modern South Africa.” Then they complain of the deteriorating morals and poor sport performance in our society. Bafana Bafana will always be a third rate team and our Olympic athletes will always perform way below their potential.

The pipelines that feed our national sports codes will always suffer from poorly coached school kids with little respect for their elders and a sorry lack of discipline.

My same Black Diamond friends would not dream of sending their offspring to these modern government township schools but would spend hundreds of thousands of rands on private school education where religion, arts, and sport are ADDED to an already overloaded curriculum.

If Jacob Zuma is the face of the new ANC, who in his or her right mind would vote for a party that clearly has no ideas on how we should deal with our myriad of social problems.

 

Zodwa Mbuli

November 24, 2008 at 11:49 am

Yep yep yep yep …

Zuma has a vision, I support that vision…

 

Eli Jikelele

November 24, 2008 at 2:26 pm

@Zodwa: Please assure me that you did not start your response with the yapping that a lapdog makes on her master’s lap!

Please inform us what this vision your fearless leader has for our country? The blog above deals with the stupid irrational ramblings of Zuma.

Since any wisdom that he may have uttered has clearly gone unreported by the evil press, maybe you can share these pearls of wisdom with us.

We await with bated breath.

 

Zodwa Mbuli

November 24, 2008 at 2:57 pm

ANC Vision ( Freedom Charter)

THE PEOPLE SHALL GOVERN!
ALL NATIONAL GROUPS SHALL HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS!
THE PEOPLE SHALL SHARE IN THE COUNTRY’S WEALTH!
THE LAND SHALL BE SHARED AMONG THOSE WHO WORK IT!
ALL SHALL BE EQUAL BEFORE THE LAW!
ALL SHALL ENJOY EQUAL HUMAN RIGHTS!
THERE SHALL BE WORK AND SECURITY!
THE DOORS OF LEARNING AND OF CULTURE SHALL BE OPENED!
THERE SHALL BE HOUSES, SECURITY AND COMFORT!
THERE SHALL BE PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP!

 

Rob Hepple

January 12, 2009 at 9:48 am

These are the facts. JZ has no formal education. He cannot run his own budget and then uses another corrupt person as his financial advisor. He has no sexual morals so we can presume the rest of his morals are the same. If JZ was a man of integrity he would (a) welcome the chance to defend himself in court (b) stand down as president of anything until his name was cleared. This man is not fit to hold office in any organisation. The fact that the ANC have nominated this man to lead them makes it abundantly clear that they also have no morals and only want to retain the power that they have. Our country’s public service is totally corrupt, totally inefficient and is in a state of crises. Anyone who votes for JZ will be doing our country a serious disservice.

 

Offidgist

March 13, 2009 at 6:09 am

?????? ????-????? 2008 ???? ?? 200 ??. ???? ????????. ??????!!!
+7 902 283 51 93

 

rena

May 7, 2009 at 9:56 pm

Great Blog…
http://www.boarding-school-directory.com/blog/

 

a

May 30, 2009 at 12:33 pm

d

 

richel

May 30, 2009 at 6:09 pm

Nice article.I agree that teenage mom should still be taught in school.

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  • About

    I am a working mother. Work is my retreat. Home is my challenge. I share my life with a six-year-old daughter, a four-year-old son, and a two-year-old "baby" girl. Once exclusively my love interest, my husband is now the co-navigator through our madness.

    At work, I edit the features pages for The Times, South Africa.

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