The South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) said today a report of theirs exposed the extent to which the State-run school system was stunting the development of South Africa’s children, especially black pupils.

The IRR said the report, titled “Parents, not politicians, must run South Africa’s schools” was the first edition of FreeFACTS that they complied.

“The report argues that the bulk of our state schools ‘are not in the main inferior because of a shortage of money. Many emerging markets spend less on education than South Africa, but produce much better results,” the IRR said.

“In South Africa’s case, however, ‘corruption, destructive trade unions, ideological dogma, and incompetent bureaucrats and politicians are responsible for the fact that only a small majority of children will be well educated’.”

The institute said their research showed that ‘when communities control schools, results improve’, they said the report marked the case for a constructive alternative, suggesting that ‘a short cut to much better education is to get bureaucrats out and let parents take over’.

“The data in this report shows, among other things, that only 33 percent of matric candidates ‘passed’ maths with a grade of 40 percent or higher, that just 29.2 percent of schools have a library, that only 18.3 percent of government schools have a science laboratory, and that only 13 percent of the 2006 grade-1 class managed a university entry qualification when they wrote matric in 2017,” author of the report, IRR campaign manager Marius Roodt said.

“This may be the future of your child if you don’t find an alternative outside of the government school system – but few people can afford private schools.”

The report noted, however, that alternative approaches capable of achieving the “short cut” to better education outcomes were feasible.

The IRR said schools should be sold to community groups, churches, non-profit organisations, and private education providers for a nominal fee and let them run such schools within agreed guidelines.

“We estimate that these vouchers will be sufficient to finance high-quality education for every child in the country. Parents can redeem these vouchers at any school of their choosing and top up the voucher with their own funds in the event that the school charges higher fees,” Roodt said.

“By giving parents the choice and buying power to decide…” continue reading here.