School dropout rates have an impact on students, their families and communities, and on society as a whole. While everyone in South Africa is impacted by the phenomenon, everyone has the potential to be part of the solution. Education experts explored the strategies that can be employed to protect learners’ constitutionally guaranteed right to education at a panel discussion at the Constitution Hill Human Rights Festival on Saturday, 19 March.
Even before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, South Africa was facing a crisis in the form of school dropout, with around four out of 10 learners who started school in grade one dropping out before reaching matric. The phenomenon has become normalised in many communities, the shrinking of classes between grades 8 and 12 an accepted reality.
Other speakers on the panel included Dr Andile Dube, education specialist for the United Nations Children’s Fund; Atilla Dag, co-founder and director general of the Universal Rights Association; Kgomotso Kgasi, head of Equal Education in Gauteng; Dr Nedson Pophiwa, senior lecturer at Wits School of Governance; Gretchen Wilson-Prangley, founder and CEO of Play Africa; and Dr Kagiso ‘TK’ Pooe, senior lecturer focusing on public policy themes at Wits School of Governance.
In 2021, Essop, along with a number of education researchers and activist groups, wrote a letter to the Department of Basic Education calling for a. This was after seeing the harmful impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the learning losses affecting learners – particularly those in lower quintile schools.
“We… know that performance and quality are not going to be attained unless we have environments [that are] conducive. By conducive, we mean infrastructure, we mean care and support, we mean mental health, receiving good nutrition, we mean being protected, we mean safety in the schooling system,” she continued.Improving school culture is a large part of preventing dropout.
Kgasi pointed out that there is also a need to provide the “basics” in many schools, such as textbooks and infrastructure. With most schools severely under-resourced, and most learners attending low fee-paying schools, there is an inherent dependence on government for the quality of education.However, communities should also play a role in supporting the education system, according to Pooe.
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