How do you declare a "go-slow" among teachers in a province that has been on a perpetual "go-slow" for decades? Did they mean "go slower"?

To understand the callousness of our politicians and unionists towards children, and the deep disregard for learning in our nation's schools, take a hard look at the criminal behaviour of consenting adults in the Eastern Cape.

If the apartheid government did to Eastern Cape schools what the unions are doing to them at the moment, there would have been tyres burning in the streets and protest marches through East London and Port Elizabeth.

Yet, it is completely acceptable when black people ruin the lives of black children. Let me be blunt: what is happening in the Eastern Cape is nothing less than disgraceful.

It is not the fact that the province has had more MECs and directors-general of education since 1994 than several provinces combined. It is not that the province suffers from a level of official lethargy and indifference that has become the butt of jokes.

It is not that the province still has ghost teachers and incompetent educators.

It is not that thousands of teachers, often without qualifications, are being laid off. It is not that there are massively overcrowded classrooms and rickety school buildings that have not benefited from investments from the Treasury.

It is, quite simply, that adults do not give a damn about children.

The South African Democratic Teachers Union has a point: the province is incapable of doing simple things right in the way it treats teachers.

The provincial authorities are correct, too: the teachers' union has been a major stumbling block in the delivery of quality education to the poor. A curse on both their houses for, in the end, the children suffer as results show year after year.

Consider the facts. This, we all know, is the province with the lowest matric pass rate in the country and the only region to experience a decline in the 2011 pass rate.

Even with the National Senior Certificate's ridiculously low pass requirements, the Eastern Cape saw its results drop in 2011 for life sciences, history, geography, accounting and, of course, mathematics. Whole districts - such as Libode, where more than 60% of children failed this high-stakes exam - have collapsed.

Let's take the gold standard for measuring education attainment in a large school system - maths. Every year, fewer and fewer children write maths.

There is a reason for this - the forced migration to the infinitely easier mathematical literacy. Even with this face-saving manoeuvre, only 7469 of the 38067 (about 19.6%) who wrote it could manage a 40% pass and higher in this sprawling province, where only 65359 learners reached Grade 12 to write the final examination.

Now, imagine thousands of six-year-olds showing up on the first day of school in a province such as this , excited and energetic because of this brand new experience. Day after day, they find teachers on a go-slow with little interest in them. Many are left alone in classrooms. This goes on for weeks, and slowly but surely that child makes two calculations: they don't care about me, and this is not a great way to spend my time. Before long, that once-upbeat child has learnt a devastating lesson: you might as well stay at home, come late, leave early or just drop out. After all, who cares?

If this so-called go-slow was in a factory that made canned fruit, the only loss to the company would be a fall in the production of stuffed cans for sale to the outside world. When the canned fruit are children and the workers are teachers, the damage is incalculable, and over 12 years you get the results of the most ineffective education department in South Africa.

I blame the adults for messing up the futures of our most vulnerable children while they fight their never-ending battles. I blame the parents for not taking to the streets and saying: "Hell, no, you will not destroy the only ticket the family has for escaping poverty - a good education."

I blame the politicians for not stamping their authority on this chaotic situation and demanding a return to teaching, rather than watching their backs and their pockets in the year of an elective conference. I blame all of us, myself included, for watching this slow-moving train crash, and not speaking out against the rot.