Happy 21st birthday, South Africa! Like all babies born into this world we told you that you looked beautiful, even though we could see the scars from your birth. We told you that you had potential, giving you nicknames like Rainbow and referring to your spirit as Ubuntu. The whole world looked up to you as a poster child for reconciliation and a model for development; you were going to be different from all those failed states in post-independence Africa.Your father, Tata Madiba, was present at your birth, and he spoke well of you as he took your promise around the world. You were wrapped in a costly garment, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, guaranteeing rights and redress to the millions who bore your family name. For a brief moment, we all believed.But you have disappointed us, and some of us have given you up for adoption by another country. Like all children growing up, you made mistakes, some serious. You confused loyalty to the teacher unions with loyalty to the children, with the result that millions of the poorest children remain stuck in dysfunctional schools.We are now one of the few countries to allow automatic promotion even in the senior phase (grades 10-12) of high school. What this means is that no child is allowed to fail more than once in grades 10 and 11. The result? There are more children writing the National Senior Certificate who did not pass a single grade in the senior phase. In fact, in some schools there are now more children in grade 12 who failed than who passed to get to this final year of formal education.You call them "progress learners" (LOL) but actually they did not progress at all. They failed. It is time for you to change your language as a young adult. The language of adolescence is not cool. Be honest: Fail means fail. A 40% pass means fail. Taking mathematical literacy means failure to teach mathematics properly. I can hear you say in response, DILLIGAF.Fine, all children make mistakes, but you went into adolescence with a stubbornness that still will not accept responsibility for wrongdoing in areas such as education. Instead of doing the basic things right for all our children, you had delusions of grandeur that serve only some of our children. You want to teach Mandarin in schools when most children cannot speak or write confidently in their home languages; you want to do digital education when basic textbooks have yet to arrive in rural schools; you experimented with the most complex curricula on the planet at the same time as you gave tests to teachers to see whether they knew enough to examine the subjects they taught.You are too proud to listen to your critics because, like any adolescent, you believe you know everything and your elders are out of touch. This might be your biggest failure growing up - your inability to listen. I know you are embarrassed. To acknowledge your failures is to concede weakness and to ask for help from the critics themselves; and you are too proud for that, so you surround yourself with people who are not only incompetent but likely to tell you what you want to hear - that there is no crisis. The result? An energy crisis; a crisis in state-owned enterprises; a crisis of corruption; a crisis of governance; all of this alongside an epidemic of crime and a climate of xenophobia.Many of these crises of late adolescence have their roots in the lack of education. Small wonder so many of your most trusted offspring had to conjure up fake qualifications; what they don't realise is that there is a huge difference between a paper qualification and a solid education. The bust-up in parliament is a profound example of the lack of education - where muscles rule over minds. The indiscriminate defilement of statues, from Mohandas Gandhi to Saartjie Baartman, offers glaring evidence of the lack of the most basic civic literacy.Now, in the tradition of our families, you are said to have come of age. You are 21 and independent. Your temper tantrums are supposed to be a thing of the past. Fighting with siblings or your neighbours from other countries is hopefully behind you. You are an adult. Here's the key of responsibility on reaching adulthood. Happy birthday. Now grow up!..