I cry for my beloved country…
Not only scary, but depressing and frustrating because of the apathy in dealing with the problems.
I have friends who used to teach in public schools and it’s as grim as brianvds describes it. Which is why my grandson goes to a private school. It’s horrendously expensive, but unfortunately there was no other choice (other than homeschooling which is a whole set of other problems).
I was chatting to a bunch of people in my age-group (early 30s) over a braai this w/e. And the topic got quite serious.
The whole group (a bunch of married couples included) is childless. The common consensus was that, at least in joburg, it’s impossible to have children atm without doing significant financial planning and saving up front. No-one wants to send their child to a public school because of the sad state of education. However the exhorbitant cost of getting and keeping your children in a private school is preventing pretty-much all of us from having kids in the first place.
The current rule seems to be R50k on the day your child is born just to get them on a waiting list for a school. There are waiting lists for NURSERY schools already! After that the costs just get much worse. To our math when your kid hits gr1 you’re spending more on school for 1 child than on your house. Maybe your house and car combined.
Some of us are getting a bit nervous about this situation. How much money must we make to be able to give our kids a proper education? And can we make it before it’s too late to have kids at all?
Hi BoogieMonster,
You’re right about the waiting lists, some of them are ridiculous. They were discussing schools on the radio a couple of weeks ago and a few moms phoned in to say thay had put in applications for some good schools shortly after their babies were born, but were still turned away ???
My daughter makes big sacrifices to send my grandson to a private school. His school fees for grade R are R 5000 / month. Then there are the extra fees for sports and other extra curricular activities. She also has to get him up early and leave by 6.30 at the latest to get him to school on time because the school is in Senderwood and we’re in Walkerville.
It helps that they live with us and that my husband and I also contirbute when and where we can. We are not well off by any means, but we work together to make sure he gets the best education.
My brother’s kids are in King Edward School in Johannesburg. It’s one of the remaining excellent public schools, but the school fees are higher than at the private school where I work. Those fotrmer Model C schools are often quite good, but they are basically semi-private, and often very expensive.
However, education is and really has always been primarily the responsibility of parents. If you arms your children with good manners and a good work ethic, they can make good use of even a mediocre school, where as the kids of uninvolved parents don’t fare well even in excellent schools. We have at least as much of a parenting problem in South Africa as we have a problem with our schools.
@ Brianvds
I read your replies to my response… v interesting yes - I didn’t quote it here as it’s long!
By ‘here’ I mean SA - I sympathize with you massively!
I didn’t know about the political edge to the teacher training here at all! but on further reflection I’m not at all surprised… it’s embedded in matric exams as well.
So yeah a few years left here for me as so far life outside of work is bliss - but reality and career prospects set in, I don’t fit the required profile to advance in the ranks of school improvements and change facilitation so I will be back off to my little rainy isle before an eternity of mediocrity and propaganda descend on my unpensioned fate!
Proper education starts at home, as someone mentioned here as well. A fairly good government school in the suburbs will serve the purpose as well as a private school would. My boss’ daughter goes to Roedean at R93k a year, and she has to take private extra math classes… along with most of her class mates. I seriously doubt whether the actual education is any better, the only main difference is the class sizes and amount of extra curricular offered - and of course - the indoctrination of “status and privilage” which is offered as standard at most of the private schools.
Have your kid if you’re that way inclined, you will never have enough money to see you through anyway, but you tend to find a way to offer them what you want to at the end of the day.