JONATHAN JANSEN | Seven vital lessons I learned from teaching high schoolers and undergrads this year

I have come to the end of an exhausting but fulfilling year in which I taught both high school science (chemistry) and university undergraduates (education policy). This experience has taught me seven vital lessons that, if heeded, could change the trajectory of education in South Africa. These insights fly in the face of seven stubborn myths about schooling in our country.

One, that the pupils are the problem. Not true. When teachers show up ― physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually ― the pupils will show up too.

Far too often teachers dismiss the problems of learning or achievement with: “If only you knew our kind of child.” It is a smackdown often intended for poor and working class children. But it might apply equally to privileged, middle-class children as spoilt or entitled brats. The problems are located in the young person, not in the teachers, not in the schools, not in society. Our kind of pupils.

I can attest after months of teaching that this is a lie. When you come prepared to teach and deliver as if young people really matter; when you take them seriously and believe in their potential regardless of race or class, the pupils rise to the occasion. I have proved that: they are not the problem.

Two, that cellphones and other digital devices are the problem. Not true. The problem is how we manage new technologies, but you are on a fool’s errand if you think you’ve got stop the march of these innovations rather than optimise their potential.

Take out your cellphones, I heard a top physics teacher tell one of my classes this week; without that, their ability to solve complex problems quickly is undermined. Ten years from now we will be laughing at this silliness of banning cellphones, much like we tried to do years ago with the calculator.

It is a hard thing to say, but far too many teachers in our schools should never have been teachers in the first place.

Three, that we need more time to cover a crowded CAPS curriculum. Not entirely true. Good teachers find ways of optimising the time already available to make learning possible within given time frames.

I discovered how many hours upon hours in schools are lost to absentee teachers, shortened school days, non-teaching in the post-quarterly exam week and a remarkable lack of consistency in teaching from one day to the next. Schools routinely waste time on activities that have nothing to do with teaching and learning. That is the problem, the poor management of the one resource that especially poorer schools do not have to pay for ― instructional time available.

Four, that if only schools had more resources, systemic change will happen. Definitely not true. The single most important reason for academic underperformance is the poor quality and inconsistency in teaching performance. It is a hard thing to say, but far too many teachers in our schools should never have been teachers in the first place.

A critical number are either poor in classroom management or deficient in subject matter knowledge or, crucially, weak in their ability to convey (teach) what they know. When all three weaknesses are present in even 5-10% of the staffing complement, the entire school suffers.

South Africa must be one of the most difficult countries in the world to fire incompetent teachers. I am pro-unionist, but I am also a hard-nosed realist: when you cannot teach, you risk the futures of far too many children. The exact same thing is true of university lecturers, especially those who train future teachers.

Five, that the government is coming to save education. Not true. Inequalities have settled in. Poor schools are asked to do what privileged schools will never be required to do.

One example is the over-enrolment of desperately poor and working class children in the very schools that lack the resources to appoint more teachers. A privileged public school will dig in its heels and not compromise on class size; a working class public school often becomes the dumping ground for thousands of parents scrambling to find a seat for their children having been turnt away everywhere else. Forget social justice and inequality talk: this is our reality.

Six, that AI is a threat. Not true. AI has been a blessing in disguise because it showed up the poor quality of assessments in schools and especially universities.

If you ask dumb assessment questions, of course AI will rattle off easy answers. If you ask questions that are challenging, nuanced, complex and context-bound, AI as an input-output model would not be able to help lazy students very much. Pose assessment tasks that make AI responses the subject of critical assessment or part of an intelligent, evaluative conversation. But don’t try and dodge this powerful technology; outthink it.

Seven, that the NSC (matric, the grade 12 results) results are an important barometer of the health of the school system. Nonsense. The foundation years are and should be the measure of how well we’re doing. Strong foundations in literacy, numeracy and digiteracy are the real indicators of whether we are preparing children for productive and fulfilling futures in our democracy, or not.