Grade 12 pupils in Grahamstown’s secondary schools are about to write their exams – and though a small percentage will do very well, the likelihood is that the majority will fail. We know that this is because most of these pupils attend schools that are under-resourced and poorly managed.
Grade 12 pupils in Grahamstown’s secondary schools are about to write their exams – and though a small percentage will do very well, the likelihood is that the majority will fail. We know that this is because most of these pupils attend schools that are under-resourced and poorly managed.
This week on Up4Debate we ask: what can we do to change this situation?
Our panel of guests includes: Ashley Westaway, manager of Gadra Education; Debbie Stott, doctoral fellow in the Rhodes Department of Education and Jon Trafford, headmaster of Kingswood College.
Ashley Westaway
“Every single poor, black child is brainwashed into thinking that they are the problem. The systemic nature of the problem is so veiled and so mystified that … (the students) internalise the notion that the problem is with them whereas the problem is not with them … The problem is fundamentally with a system that produces a school … that fails our children …”
Jon Trafford
“Huge amounts of money have been invested into education into almost a bottomless pit and we are not seeing the results of that in terms of the quality of education that’s been provided … We need to sit down and we need to have some out of the box thinking”
Debbie Stott
“We have a student population, we have parents, there are teachers believe it or not who are very good teachers and they work hard and who are willing but they need help … they still have to deal with shortage of teachers and poorly-resourced schools and that’s where the biggest gap comes from. Those are the two biggest things you see in the poorer schools.” 
