Assessing the Potential Benefits of Expanding the Ancient African Educational Proverb “It Takes a Village to Raise a Child” to “Can Village South Africa Improve South Africa's Underperforming Education System”

Abstract

Purpose

This article was triggered by many allegations about the failure of the South African education system after 1994 and. The allegations have been worsened by the inclination of educational and other leaders (including our immediate past and current president) to still resort to the adage “It takes a village to raise a child” as a solution to the national problem of an underperforming education system.

In the 1960s, McLuhan pointed out that the world had become a “global village” where people are no longer isolated in small communities as they are increasingly exposed to modern communication and other influences. I took the liberty of modifying McLuhan's idea of a village to a country and to investigate the suitability of the South African national environment in the role of raising a child. Because the term village has become inappropriate and obsolete in this context, I believe it is appropriate to believe that countries are now logically responsible for fulfilling the roles of the erstwhile villages in education.

Design/Approach/Methods

A literature review seemed appropriate as a research method to gather data to assess the suitability of the national environment for children's education. Information that emerged in the recent past was deemed most suitable as the situation now may not reflect literature from longer ago. The main data sources were newspaper and journal articles, research reports, and national and international informative publications.

Findings

The current national environment in South Africa is unlikely to contribute significantly to the improvement of the education of the country's children.

Originality/Value

The article applies McLuhan's views in an expanded form to apply them to a country instead of a village. It also provides information that developing countries might want to re-examine.

Introduction

South Africa is a fairly new democratic society still transitioning from one era (beginning 1910) to another since 1994. It is an emerging country in economic terms and also a country characterized by enormous racial and other disparities originating in the pre-democracy times before 1994.

A racial vernacular characterized the pre-1994 era. White people represented the privileged echelon of South African society. Black African, Colored, and Indian people were treated as inferior people. The democratically elected government that assumed power in April 1994 carried the promise of a new dawn where everybody would be equal before the law with equal and equitable access to opportunities that would help them live dignified lives without crippling shortcomings.

People anticipated a “new” country emerging from apartheid, characterized by citizens’ dignified lives, acceptable standards of living and of public services as well as ample access to fair and equal opportunities to improve their standards of living. However, after 30 years of democracy, there is no conclusive evidence that the predicted and anxiously awaited transition to an equal, just, well-performing, and nonracial system has been realized. On the contrary: “South Africa has one of the worst-performing education systems in the world, plagued by incompetence and corruption, and the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) is calling for the head of the minister of basic education, among other things” (BusinessTech Business Opinion, 2023). Assessments by die World Bank and other agencies confirm the poor state of South Africa's education system and will be discussed below.

Currently, there is considerable consensus that the two previously race-based education systems (one for white English and Afrikaans speaking learners) and one for Black (indigenous African languages speaking), colored (mostly Afrikaans but also English speaking), and Indian (almost exclusively English speaking) learners have not really disappeared but have been replaced by two systems described as functional schools (about 20% of public schools) and underperforming or dysfunctional schools that constitute about 80% of the public schools and that the system as a whole is severely underperforming (Sterne, 2021).

Functional schools are classified as quintile four and five schools in terms of the government per capita financial support they get and the underperforming or dysfunctional schools are referred to as quintile one to three schools (Republic of South Africa, 2006). The quintile status of schools is linked to the economic environment in which the schools are located. Quintiles four and five schools are also called fee-paying schools as their school governing bodies (SGBs) are entitled, subject to sections 39 to 41 of the South African Schools Act, to levy school fees that all parents are by law compelled to pay (Republic of South Africa, 1996b). These fees are meant to supplement the government per capita money supplied to them, which is markedly less than what the state makes available to quintile one to three schools (which are not allowed to levy school fees as their school communities are classified as poor and are thus entitled to greater government financial support) (Republic of South Africa, 2006).

The quintiles one to three schools are known as no-fee schools and are mostly located in poor former “Black” areas while the quintiles four to five schools operate in richer mostly formerly “White” areas. Although race is no longer a criterion for admission to schools, the two different “systems” still have racial overtones as many Black, Colored, and Indian parents are often not able to pay the fees of the fee-paying schools and are thus compelled to use schools that are widely regarded as performing worse than quintile four and five schools.

Naturally, there is a great deal of dissatisfaction with the current underperforming education system in South Africa. Many suggestions about how the education system can be turned around are being bandied about. A very popular suggestion is that the principles underpinning the proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” should be (re)introduced into the education discourse as solutions to many of the obvious problems. A cynical observation could be that the insistence on re-introducing or promoting the practice of villages that raise children is only a thinly disguised accusation leveled at communities by the government, suggesting that communities are not doing their share of the education of children satisfactorily. In 2012, the then president, Mr. J. Zuma (2012) launched Child Protection Week in Kimberley in the Northern Cape Province and pointed out that, to protect children, the proverb meant that families had to be strengthened, the values of ubuntu and respect had to be promoted, children had to be taught the “basics of non-racialism, equality and diversity” and those that abused children had to be exposed. In 2020 the current president, Mr. C. Ramaphosa (2020), in his weekly letter to the nation linked the adage directly to the development, well-being, and safety of each child.

To assess the credibility and viability of this suggestion, a literature review of approximately 2 years’ duration was conducted. Newspaper articles, official national and international reports, websites of research and other agencies and articles written by expert columnists in various publications were explored to enable an understanding of the present education environment in South Africa. Analyses of recent laws and court cases were also undertaken.

In the rest of this article, the origin of the proverb that it takes a village to raise a child will be explored and placed in the current discourse about the maladies of education and the search for remedies. The possibility of enlarging the definition of a village in light of the work of Marshall McLuhan (cf Gibson et al. 2012) to enhance its applicability in contemporary debates will also be considered. In this process, the nature and the fabric of the broader South African society will be examined in light of an expanded definition of “village.” The possible positive influence of an adjusted understanding of the pre-colonization and pre-industrial concept of an African village as “village South Africa” to a turnaround of the currently underperforming education system in the present educational environment in South Africa will also be probed.

It is assumed that this process can contribute to the theoretical or conceptual framework for understanding education and the traditional African view of a village as a utopian setting where villages create or represent an environment where quality education for all educands/students/learners is normal. In such environments, education reflects the values of the community and embodies the positive aspects of the philosophy of ubuntu (generally understood to imply I am who I am because of who we all are) which were popularized in South Africa by people like the late Archbishop of the Anglican Church, Desmond Tutu (2012). Also confer Thompsell (2019) who refers extensively to him.

To develop the investigation, the focus will first be on the origin and original meaning of the adage. Some reasons supporting the view that South Africa's education system is seriously underperforming will then be provided. This will be followed by an examination of the environment in which schools in South Africa operate before a conclusion is provided about whether the proverbial village really offers a solution to the multifarious problems confronting the South African school education system.

About the Proverb “It Takes a Village to Raise a Child”

When advocating a re-modeling of the education system on the notion that it takes a village to educate a child, the proponents of the idea tend to invoke an almost quixotic picture of a secluded village where all the inhabitants promote education in a positive manner. They seem to be harking back to pleasant memories of growing up in a traditional rural village and they see the maxim as a magic wand to cure all ills in education. They sketch a village where everybody works in harmony with everybody else so that the children of the village acquire all the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to fit seamlessly into the village at maturity. The question is whether modern countries and modern-day education have the potential to provide a child with all the skills, values, and knowledge necessary to live an independent, dignified, and sustainable life in accordance with the old aphorism in a modern much broader environment.

A Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_takes_a_village) entry touches on two aspects of the proverb that one needs to factor into the exploration of its potential to be instrumental in turning an underperforming system around. Firstly, the entry indicates that the proverb means that an entire community of people must provide for, and interact positively with children for those children to experience and grow up in a safe and healthy environment (Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_takes_a_village). It is noticeable that the focus seems to be on a healthy and safe local environment in which a child can grow up until he or she meets the adulthood criteria of the community in question. The education of the child is not linked to a broader environment such as the country in which the people live, the economy of such country, and the responsibilities of people toward their country and fellow citizens.

Secondly, the entry (Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_takes_a_village) points out that the proverb has been attributed to African culture. This may represent an over-simplified view of the proverb as will be pointed out below. The entry adds that in 2016 the USA's National Public Radio “researched the origins of the proverb but was unable to pinpoint them, although academics said the proverb embodies the spirit of several African cultures.”

To gain more clarity on the origin, meaning, and application of the village raising a child proverb, a renowned expert on African languages and traditions was consulted. In an email message (Potgieter, 2022) to the author, Prof Ferdinand Potgieter (the expert) expressed the view that the maxim should be “re-enchanted” in light of its pedagogical potential and added that “to this day there is no scholarly consensus on the exact origins of the … proverb.” Potgieter (2022) made the following points that are relevant to the analysis of the proverb:

There is still no scholarly consensus on the exact origins of the proverb but it is likely to have originated hundreds of years ago in and around the equatorial forests of Africa.

The proverb is, essentially, the gelled amalgamation of a wide variety of traditional African proverbs or adages that all communicate more or less the same moral story. For instance, in Swahili, a language spoken by African people spread over more than 14 countries in Africa, “Asiye funzwa na mamae hufunzwa na ulimwengu” means roughly the same: “Whomsoever is not taught by the mother will be taught with (sic) the world.”

This maxim essentially refers to an entire community of people who are ethically and morally obliged to interact with children (i.e., an entire community of people who are voluntarily present, active and accountable in children's lives) so that those children may grow up in a safe, healthy environment that can provide continuous reassurance of the German concepts of “Geborgenheit” or “Sicherheit.” Potgieter (2022) defines these terms as “the sum of anthropocentric embrace, communal warmth, protection and security, as well as collective trust, love, peace, closeness and comfort. These concepts are all popular elements of widely-held views of one of the main aims of education.

The proverb was in all probability popularised by Western missionaries working in the relevant parts of Africa at the time. This would certainly help to explain why this saying happened to become so popular in pockets of the American and Canadian cultures several decades back (traceable to the early 1960s) (Potgieter, 2022).

In America, there is a strong following of the notion that the book “It takes a village,” written by Cowan-Fletcher (1994) was the catalyst behind the increasing popularity of this maxim (Potgieter, 2022).

Pierre Enry (1981) wrote what is probably the most authoritative book on the Black child and his/her education in a traditional Black African environment. It touches on the education of a child by the people in a traditional village. If one compares Enry's (1981) narrative of the Black child and his/her environment and the role that a village plays in the education of a child with Potgieter's view that “[T]he notion that a village should assist in raising a child has to do with the values, responsibilities and life lessons that the village is obliged to share,” it becomes clear that Enry (1981) also views a village's involvement in a child's education as adults’ sharing of values, responsibilities and life lessons with children. It also implies that adults will contribute to the raising of children's awareness of, and compliance with the values and morals of the entire community and not just those espoused by their own families.

Although the above may suggest that the proverbial African village should not be seen as a magic wand that can turn an underperforming national education system around, one cannot assume that it could not play a role together with other factors such as leadership, teachers’ qualifications, and ethics in strategies to address predicaments in education provision. Potgieter (2022) ends with the observation that, while the usage of the phrase is presently at an all-time high, a sense of communal society and shared values in raising our children might be at an all-time low—especially in South and Southern Africa.

He believes that this situation begs the valid question: How do we go back to relying on our own immediate communities to help truly raise our children from an authentic ethical and moral perspective? (Potgieter, 2022). Byrne (in Potgieter, 2022) echoes this vexing question about the difficulty of using the proverb to breathe life into the education of a nation's youth: “So let's work together to live out the whole phrase and work together to raise good people to become good role models in the future. … Find your village, let them help you and most important: let them help in raising your children.”

One has to remember that education is not only about ethical and moral issues but it also encompasses the acquiring of skills, attitudes, and conduct needed for the youth to become responsible and self-sufficient adult members of a society who accept their co-responsibility for the advancement, development and progress of the countries in which they find themselves. The Vatican Council's Declaration Gravissimum Educationis (Vatican Council, n.d.) puts this idea succinctly and lucidly in their definition of education: “… a true education aims at the formation of the human person in the pursuit of his ultimate end and of the good of the societies of which, as man, he is a member, and in whose obligations, as an adult, he will share.” To achieve this is patently more demanding than just learning what the Black African child in a traditional village learns through interaction with community members.

It would seem risky to apply the traditional African village concept without further ado to contemporary discourses in modern developing countries on how a village can contribute to the achievement of the goals of education. One needs to explore different meanings that may have been added to or may have replaced the original concept. One also needs to explore the possibility of expanding the concept of ‘a village’ to constitute more than a traditional African village.

In regard to the possible expansion of the concept, the work of McLuhan (cf. Gibson et al. 2012) about the global village comes to mind. Gibson et al. 2012 observe that the media theorist Marshall McLuhan coined the term “global village” in the 1960s to “describe how human beings are increasingly connected by electric (or electronic) technologies, which virtually eliminate the effects of space and time so that the globe contracts into one interconnected, metaphorical ‘village.’” A village can therefore mean a world compressed into one village or a village expanded to include the entire world.

The above information supports the view that it would not be too radical a step to expand or modify the traditional idea of an educating village by viewing a developing African country as a modern-day equivalent of the traditional African village raising a child. The term “village South Africa” was therefore coined by the author as part of the process of exploring the involvement of a specific country in the education of its children.

It was also assumed that the global village concept could be applied to a developing country by viewing a country as similar to a traditional village as far as its involvement in the education of its children is involved. This view is underpinned by the trite knowledge that everything that exists and happens in a country rubs off on the children of a country and, inevitably, also on their education. The environment infuses itself into the minds and behavior of children.

There is no way one can ignore the larger South African population and environment's influence on the education of South Africa's youth. Although a few traditional African villages are still to be found in South Africa, they are part of the broader South African biosphere which inevitably impacts the education offered to children in the country.

As indicated in the title of the article, South Africa's education system is underperforming and that opinion will be justified in the following section. The question that has to be answered is whether the present South African national environment can contribute to solving the well-known problems of the underperforming education system of the country.

Indications of the System's Underperformance

Saki Macozoma (2023) (a prominent South African billionaire who created his wealth after the transition to democracy in 1994) began his participation in the debate on the performance of South Africa's education system with an intense statement. He believes that the “Economic marginalisation decades after the end of apartheid is driven by the collapse of the education system.” He posed a very valid question that South Africa as a whole needs to answer: “Are we focusing enough on education, because surely that is the key, basic numeracy and literacy? I don’t think we are.”

Macozoma's statement that the education system has collapsed is perhaps extreme but it links the state of education to the economic marginalization of the majority of South Africa's previously disadvantaged Black Africans. He points out that the economy cannot be expanded and developed to serve all of the population if education does not provide what it should namely numeracy and literacy.

He also touches on something that seriously affects education namely corruption, which will be discussed in the next section. He avers that a small group of Black Africans propagates the idea that white people need to be robbed of their wealth (and, one needs to add, prevent state money from reaching the people for whom it is earmarked). The “robbing of white people” uses corrupt and criminal phenomena like “tenderpreneurship” and money laundering which result in services like education, health, electricity, transport, and water not being delivered to the people (Macozoma, 2023). For instance, when the state made money available for providing personal protective equipment (PPE) for people during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people (including government ministers) were found guilty of redirecting the money to their own and their families’ bank accounts, thus causing the failure of many government attempts to ameliorate the effects of the pandemic. Isilow (2021) provides information on a report that implicated a former Minister of Health in a coronavirus contract scandal in which 30 million US dollars was siphoned off the PPE budget for his department and landed up in the hands of his family.

Macomozoma's very strong statement that education has collapsed can perhaps be toned down to saying that there can be little doubt about the failure of the education system in South Africa to deliver what is expected of an education system. I do not believe that the failure of education can be ascribed entirely to the devastating effects of corruption and criminality. Apart from the negative impact of corruption and criminality on the successful operation of the education system, there are some other conspicuous shortcomings of the education system. Reflecting on the possible influences of criminality, corruption and other shortcomings in the education system can help educational functionaries at all levels reach a conclusion about whether the environment in which education has to operate can help to turn the system around.

The information provided about the state of South Africa's education system has been derived from an intensive scrutiny of the results of international and regional investigations ¹ of agencies, organizations, functionaries, role payers, and stakeholders like the World Bank, the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Some research-based reports like the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), and the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) (Department of Basic Education, 2017).

Sources limited to South Africa like the General Household Surveys (GHSs) of Statistics South Africa, research and annual official reports of state departments as well as newspapers, magazines, and reports on public debates featuring various authoritative experts on aspects of education were also thoroughly studied. Publications by institutional research groups like the Research on Socioeconomic Policy (RESEP) group at the University of Stellenbosch and nongovernmental organizations such as the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), the Joint Education Trust (JET) and educational journals like Perspectives in Education (PIE), the Journal of Humanities (Afrikaans title “Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe”) and the South African Journal of Education (SAJE) have also been consulted.²

Although I have published some of my own observations on the quality of education in South Africa before (Beckmann, 2018, 2019), I have added insights gleaned from more recent publications and events. I even experimented with the possible contribution of the fairly new search engine ChatGPT (ChatGPT https://chat.openai.com/c/e6e3cf17-b6f2-4606-b372-748f71df19d0) to research and found it a useful and “interesting” source.

The following section will consider the characteristics of the South African system post 1994. Some of the sources may seem old but it is generally accepted that the system has not made huge strides forward, and improvements have been no more than mediocre.

For a more balanced view on the quality of South Africa's education system, one also has to consider other opinions regarding South Africa's education system. News24 reports on the 2014 WEF Global Information Technology Report 2014 (NEWS24, 2014). In an article titled “SA has worst maths, science education in world” published on June 2, 2014 (News24, 2014) the publication reports that a WEF Report places “The quality of South Africa's maths and science education last out of 148 countries,….” In terms of the sub-skills category, “the quality of South Africa's maths and science education comes in last place, behind the likes of Haiti, Lesotho, Chad, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Kenya.” In terms of its quality, the WEF report puts of South Africa's education in 146th place.

In an infuriated article published on June 5, 2014 Nic Spaull (2014), dismisses the education rankings [of the WEF] as “nonsense.” He was particularly annoyed by South Africa being ranked 148/148 on the “quality of math and science education.” Spaull refers to an opinion piece written by Martin Gustafsson which criticizes the fact that the WEF does not make use of any standardized testing system in producing its report. Instead, it makes use of an expert opinion approach. In the case of South Africa, around 50 respondents, all from the ‘business community,’ are asked to rate the quality of education along a seven-point scale from very good to very poor.

There are factors making it very difficult to provide “a definitive rating” when assessing the quality of education, especially in a system such as South Africa's (ChatGPT https://chat.openai.com/c/e6e3cf17-b6f2-4606-b372-748f71df19d0). The new government that took over in 1994 had to confront the legacies of the much-maligned apartheid system that preceded it and which was unequal in many respects. The new government inherited human resources that were not really qualified and competent to remove all traces of an undesirable system to create a new system that would serve all the people of the country adequately. In addition, the laws and policies that were introduced after 1994 were often the results of compromises reached through negotiations and were often difficult to interpret and apply.

Despite acknowledging the progress in education since 1994, Jansen and Taylor (2003) made some alarming statements about the lack of progress in the South African education system since 1994 in the executive summary of their convincing and influential research-based work on the state of South Africa's education (which does not contain page numbers).

While the response of the South African government has been to acknowledge the crisis in the form of strategic plans, major policy conferences, and statements on the part of the Department of Education, these broad policy positions and program interventions have to date shown little impact [Emphasis added by the author]

The new South African state has achieved a number of notable successes in the post-1994 period.

Jansen and Taylor also state that manifest inequalities between schools persist for a number of reasons.

First, the sheer extent of the backlogs in apartheid education requires a much greater investment than has been achieved through existing levels of budgetary allocation.

A second major source of inequality between schools arises from the ability of more privileged schools to very significantly supplement government grants through school fees.

Third, the management capacity of provincial education departments to deliver on allocated budgets remains a primary explanation for under-spending on schools in the poorest provinces and hence, of inequity in the system.

The above comments by two of South Africa's world-renowned education system analysts cannot be ignored when one considers the capacity of the national education system to function effectively like an expanded village to raise all the children of the country to responsible adulthood.

My ChatGTP (ChatGPT https://chat.openai.com/c/e6e3cf17-b6f2-4606-b372-748f71df19d0) search for ratings of the South African education systems produced two responses that provide assessments supported by many other sources. The responses (ChatGPT https://chat.openai.com/c/e6e3cf17-b6f2-4606-b372-748f71df19d0) contained among others the following views that can be regarded as fair and accurate and match the literature I have used:

✓ There are still several challenges that impact the quality of education. One of the main challenges is the stark inequality in educational opportunities between different regions and socioeconomic groups. Historically disadvantaged communities often have limited access to quality schools, resources, and well-trained teachers. This inequality perpetuates a cycle of educational disadvantage and harms these learners from disadvantaged communities’ education and development to maturity, limits their opportunities for further education and, worst of all, gainful participation in the economic world (https://chat.openai.com/c/e6e3cf17-b6f2-4606-b372-748f71df19d0). The limited access to quality schools, the necessary resources, and well-trained (competent and experienced) teachers and other educational officials would seem to be the most important reasons for the lack of quality education to most analysts (Beckmann, 2018 and 2021).

✓ Another challenge is the high dropout rate and low retention rates, particularly in secondary schools. Many students do not complete their education due to various reasons, such as poverty, lack of support, and inadequate school infrastructure (ChatGPT https://chat.openai.com/c/e6e3cf17-b6f2-4606-b372-748f71df19d0).

✓ Fewer than 50% of Grade 1 enrollments finish their education by completing grade 12. That is an almost unbelievable drop-out rate of more than 50% (Van der Walt, 2023; Le Cordeur, 2023).

✓ There have been concerns about the quality of teaching and learning in South African schools. Some teachers may lack the necessary qualifications, training, and support, which can affect the overall quality of education (ChatGPT https://chat.-openai.com/c/e6e3cf17-b6f2-4606-b372-748f71df19d0).

✓ In international assessments such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), South Africa's performance has generally been below the global average. These assessments measure the knowledge and skills of students in key subject areas like mathematics, science, and reading as well as the degree to which countries provide their youth with what an education system should make available to them (ChatGPT https://chat.openai.com-/c/e6e3cf17-b6f2-4606-b372-748f71df19d0).

✓ South Africa has also performed poorly in the PIRLS (De Beer, 2023) and SAQMEQ (Beckmann, 2018, 2021) assessments. In the latest PIRLS assessment conducted in 2021, it performed worst of all 57 participating countries, and 81% of its grade 4 learners could not read with comprehension and there were considerable differences between learners reading in different languages with those reading in Afrikaans and English did much better than other learners also reading in their mother tongues (indigenous African languages) (De Beer, 2023).

In a media address in Pretoria on June 17, 2023, the then Minister of Basic Education, Ms Angie Motshekga, expressed the opinion that more should be done to promote the use of mother tongue education in schools because it works well as can be seen from the performance of learners receiving education in Afrikaans, their mother tongue (Prince, 2023). In her address, she also referred to an experiment in the Eastern Cape province that provided mother tongue education (in Xhosa, an indigenous African language) to a group of learners up to grade 12 and which provided evidence that these learners performed better than learners who had been taught through the medium of English. These Xhosa-speaking learners also performed better in English than their peers who had been taught through the medium of English.

Ms Motshekga also blamed the poor performance of learners in the PIRLS report on the COVID-19 pandemic. This is patently not true as learners in similar countries did not show the degree of decline seen in South Africa.

In SAQMEQ assessments, it was found that South Africa spent more money on education than its similarly situated neighbors in South and Eastern Africa and yet it performs much worse than the majority of them (Beckmann, 2018, 2021).

✓ In 2015, the “World Economic Forum (WEF) … released its Global Information Technology Report 2015, which ranked South Africa last in the quality of mathematics and science education. South Africa also finished close to last – 139 out of 143 countries – when looking at the overall quality of its education system” (My Broadband, 2015).

✓ Contrary to the imperatives clearly articulated in section 12 of the South African Schools Act (Republic of South Africa, 1996b) that provinces should provide enough schools places for all learners in their provinces, there is an acute and growing shortage of school places in South Africa.

✓ School infrastructure is not properly maintained and is becoming a threat to the lives of children. In February 2019, a bridge connecting two structures at the Vaaldriehoek Hoërskool (Vaal Triangle High School) in Gauteng Province collapsed and killed 4 learners and injured 29 others (Heyns, 2019).

✓ A problem that is not likely to occur in other countries is the fact that at least 3 children have been killed when falling into pit toilets. Children at 3,297 schools have to risk their lives each day by using pit toilets (Fokazi, 2021). The South African Human Rights Council (SAHRC) “has ordered six education MECs to address a lack of sanitation and water, including the use of pit toilets, saying having such deficiencies is not only a safety risk, but it contravenes basic human rights” (Fokazi, 2021). Even after the order of the South African Human Rights Council (SAHRC) mentioned by Fokazi (2021) and a court case (Komape and Others v Minister of Basic Education, 2018) where the court ordered the relevant education authorities to address the problem, the problem still exists.

✓ There is a growing shortage of teachers. A newspaper report of 15 June 2023 (Blauw, 2023) referred to the teacher shortage in the Eastern Cape Province as a “violation of human rights.” The Basic Education Department of the province defended itself saying that it had to reduce the number of teachers in the province from 52,100 in 2022–2023 to 50,717 in 2023–2024 because of a lack of money. This province has not appointed principals to vacancies in 380 schools, deputy principals to vacancies in 39 schools, 723 heads of department to vacancies in 272 schools, and 692 vacancies for level 1 teachers still have to be filled. The net result of all of this is a poor quality of education, failing to meet the aims of the education of children to adulthood and having a devastating impact on their future study and employment opportunities.

√ All provinces experience similar problems albeit it is likely to be to lesser degrees. The situation is aggravated by the fact that many teachers move overseas every year for better salaries and working conditions.

√ In 2023, the youth unemployment rate in South Africa remained nearly unchanged at around 49.14%. … The youth unemployment rate refers to the share of the economically active population aged 15–24 currently without work but in search of employment (O’Neill, 2024). This creates a feeling of hopelessness for the future among them (Van der Walt, 2023).

There are other indicators of the poor quality of education, but the above should suffice to support a finding that large parts of the education in South Africa are performing very poorly. These indicators are also part of the environment constituting “Village South Africa.” They also intimate that it is going to be difficult for “Village South Africa” to address and overcome the problems facing the education system in South Africa.

The biggest problems seem to be the quality (competence) of educational staff and the inability of government officials to perform the roles they have to play to facilitate quality education. Whichever way one chooses to look at these problems, it is incontrovertible that they cannot be solved overnight but that it will take several years and a determined effort by all the role-players to solve these and other identified problems by pursuing a carefully developed and inclusive action plan and strategy, including effective strategies to monitor the success of the implemented efforts.

In the following section, I will endeavor to introduce the nature of the present South African environment as a part of the argument that “village South Africa” is not presently eminently suitable to provide effective education for all the country's youth.

Characteristics of Society That Are Likely to Rub Off on the Education System

In this section, an attempt will be made to provide some outlines of the picture of the South African society in which education is located today.

Corruption

South Africa is increasingly being characterized as a corrupt society where people's corrupt actions such as obtaining government tenders unlawfully and stealing or misspending state funds add to the difficulty of providing quality education to all children. These actions deflect money and resources from the education system and contribute to the underperformance of the system among others by making education an unattractive profession for competent educators and providing employment to undeserving individuals through the process of cadre deployment of the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling political party. ³

Michael Evans (2023) wrote an article titled Cadre deployment sends us headlong towards kakistocracy ⁴ and tore into the cadre deployment practice.

Pointing out how it contributes to the failure of the education system, he observes that there is no doubt cadre deployment has ensured the ineptitude and corruption we see at all levels of government and was used to facilitate State Capture.

There are a number of factors contributing to corruption and ineptitude, but the key factor is cadre deployment: the appointment of officials at all levels within government and within SOEs [State-owned Enterprises], not on the basis of their ability, qualifications, and their experience, but on the basis of their political connection to those appointing them ⁵ [Insertion by the author].

Cadre deployment means primary loyalty to the political party and figures who appointed the “cadres” as they are commonly known rather than to the organization and people they are required to serve. If they are told to make certain decisions, particularly with regard to corrupt procurement, they have no option but to abide by their instruction.

Corruption also impacts negatively on the provision of physical infrastructure (school places for learners in the province concerned as required by section 12 of the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 (Republic of South Africa, 1996b) and human and other resources.

The result of the phenomenon of corruption is among others that, according to an analysis of the 2014 General Household Survey of Statistics (GHS) South Africa) by BusinessTech (2015), people lose confidence in the education system and that a significant number of learners do not have the money to attend schools and also see no sense in attending school. These two major reasons for not attending schools appear in fluctuating numbers in all GHSs of the Statistics South African since 2002. The education system also does not provide society with the skills and knowledge it needs to boost the economy and improve the status of the country.

There were also official reports such as the one produced by the Zondo Commission in 2022, chaired by the incumbent Chief Justice Raymond Zondo appointed by ex-president Jacob Zuma in 2017 to investigate allegations of state corruption (Pillay, 2022). The appointment of this Judicial Commission of Commission was recommended by the former Public Protector Professor Tuli Madonsela of the University of Stellenbosch in her report State of Capture (2016) (Public Protector, 2016) which was a result of her response to “… complaints received by her office ‘in connection with the alleged improper and unethical conduct relating to the appointments of Cabinet Ministers, Directors and award of state contracts and other benefits to the Gupta linked companies.’”

The commission operated from 2018 to 2022 when the final report was presented to President Ramaphosa.

The Commission was appointed in 2017 “to investigate matters of public and national interest concerning allegations of state capture, corruption, and fraud. The Terms of Reference are [were] concerned predominantly with the practices of executive members of the state (and the nature of their relationships with private individuals, and including the Gupta enterprise” (Pillay, 2022, p. 1) [Insertion by the author]. “The Commission ultimately found that state capture did indeed take place in South Africa ‘on an extensive scale’” (Pillay, 2022, p. 3).

The Commission identified a number of “key elements” of state capture including:

the allocation and distribution of state power and resources, directed not for the public good but for private and corrupt advantage;

a deliberate effort to undermine or render ineffectual oversight bodies and to exploit regulatory weaknesses so as to avoid accountability for wrongdoing;

a deliberate effort to subvert and weaken law enforcement and intelligence agencies at the commanding levels so as to shield and sustain illicit activities,

avoid accountability and to disempower opponents;

support and acquiescence by powerful actors in the political sphere, including members of the ruling party;

the assistance of professional service providers in the private sphere, such as advisers, auditors, legal and consulting firms, in masking the corrupt nature of projects and protecting and even supporting illicit gains; and

“the use of disinformation and propaganda to manipulate the public discourse, to divert attention from wrongdoing and to discredit opponents” (Pillay, 2022, p. 4).

In the end, the “Commission estimated the total amount of money spent by the state which was ‘tainted’ by state capture to be around R57 billion” (Pillay, 2022, p. 6). The evidence provides proof of a strong presence of state capture in South African society and its necessarily harmful influence on education by removing resources meant for education from the realm of education. Not much has as yet resulted from the report. Despite the recalling of President Zuma by the ANC and 1918 and replacing him with President Ramaphosa, there are no clear indications that South Africa is becoming a better environment for its citizens.

Some books published by investigative journalists after 2017 dealt with the corruption prevalent in South Africa that benefitted a very small percentage of the population but left the largest majority of the citizens poor and without dependable services like electricity, clean drinking water, sanitation, good education, and health services and without income except for insufficient government living allowances. The corruption made a small number of people and institutions unlawfully excessively rich and powerful in a very short space of time.

These books, written by Pauw (2017), Myburgh (2019), Du Toit (2022), Pauw (2023) and De Ruyter (2023) elicited angry and threatening behavior and caused trepidation in many circles where corrupt people were found to be active in state capturing. The vast majority of allegations contained in these books were proved correct during the hearings of the Zondo Commission.

Crime-Ridden Society

South Africa has developed an international reputation as a crime-ridden country which can in no way be seen as an environment conducive to good education. Although the statistics about the various crimes vary from time to time, there is no firm indication that crime is on the decline in South Africa as a whole.

Ngcobo (2023) analyzed the latest statistics on crimes in South Africa released by the Minister of Police in March 2023.

All in all, the crime statistics do not bode well for an effective school system and the safety and protection of learners as well as teachers.

Teenage Pregnancies

Mashele (of the Independent Online (IOL)) wrote an article that captures the scourge of teenage pregnancies in South Africa neatly and concisely. The article is based on the latest available information.

The prevalence of teenage pregnancies is not the same in all geographical and socio-economic areas of the country. The phenomenon is also connected to some cultural practices—in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape ukuthwala is still practiced “and it is through this barbaric custom that young girls lose themselves to early marriage and pregnancy and end up leaving school” (Mashele, 2023). It is also viewed as resulting in sexual inequality between boys and girls because this practice encourages boys to become sexually active at a very young age.

Mashele (2023) also quotes the views of Jason Behrens, a founding member of Jason Angels. Behrens expressed the opinion that the issue of teenage pregnancy has reached levels of great concern. South Africa has one of the highest rates globally, with 1 in 4 girls under 20 years of age falling pregnant. The current stats released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) indicate that 90,037 girls between 10 and 19 years of age gave birth between March 2021 and April 2022 in all nine provinces. An alarming number of these young girls were under 12 years of age. This should not be allowed or happen.

Other research has shown that only one out of every three teenage girls who give birth returns to school. It means that teenage pregnancy destroys the future of a large number of girls. Behrens's comment also implies that the term “teenage pregnancy” may be a misnomer as a frightening number of girls between 10 and 12 also give birth—before they become “teenagers” (Mashele, 2023).

Sobuwa (2023) presents figures about which the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health is very concerned and which illustrates how the phenomenon may manifest itself in a specific province. The Department reports that 26,515 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 fell pregnant between April and December 2022 and that 1,254 of them were between 10 and 14 years old.

Behrens also pointed out that the government is not addressing gender-based violence which is also a contributing factor to teenage pregnancies. It is also known that the Department of Basic Education published a policy on addressing teenage pregnancies in 2012 but that it only started implementing this seriously flawed policy in earnest in 2021 (Mashele, 2023). The South African environment does not seem to be a place where the optimization of a girl's potential cannot necessarily be optimized.

Gangsterism, Drugs, and Vandalism

Although Ngcobo (2023) does not expressly refer to gangsterism and drugs and vandalism in schools, it is a well-known fact in South Africa that these pose serious challenges to the safety of learners in and outside schools and that the police are struggling to make headway in the battle against these elements (Mncube & Steinmann, 2014, Mncube & Madikizela-Madiya, 2014 and Banda, 2022).

The Impact of COVID-19

The NIDS-CRAM (National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS)—Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (CRAM) Wave 5 report (Spaull and Daniels et al., 2021) is an authoritative report on the impact of COVID-19 on among others schooling and children's hunger. The findings paint a picture of the horrendous effects of COVID-19 on learners and the environment in which they grow up:

School drop-outs have tripled from the pre-pandemic time to May 2021

Learner drop-outs are now the highest in 20 years and school attendance is at its lowest in 20 years.

The highest dropout rates were among the poorest households and in rural areas.

Most primary school learners lost a full year of learning.

In April/May 2021, more or less 10 million people and 3 million children were in households affected by hunger in the past seven days.

Approximately 400,000 children lived in households affected by “perpetual hunger” in April/May 2021.

The functioning of the National School Nutrition Program (NSNP) was uneven in the provinces.

Child-Headed Households

Meintjes, Hall, Marera, and Boulle (2009) published a statistical brief on child-headed households in South Africa.

This brief serves to emphasize that many children in South Africa do not grow up in a traditional core family (father, mother, and children).

Child-headed households are defined as households where all members are under 18 years old (Meintjes et al., 2009, p. 1).

In 2006, 122,000 children lived in child-headed households. This figure is likely to have increased due to the impact of COVID-19 [Author's comment]. 90% of such households are located in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Cape (Meintjes et al., 2009, p. 1).

Despite these figures, 95% of children living in such households attended school (Meintjes et al., 2009, p. 3).

77% of such households relied on remittance money sent by adults living elsewhere (Meintjes et al., 2009, p. 3).

The General Household Survey of 2006 indicated that 61% of children living in these households had two living parents and 80% had a living mother. These households are therefore classifiable as households with parents absent for various reasons (Meintjes et al., 2009, p. 2).

More characteristics of the South African environment that do not add to its suitability to act as “village South Africa” could have been mentioned. Among these is the increase in bullying, unprofessional teachers, racism, nepotism, xenophobia, hate speech, child trafficking, child labor, and justice not done and seen to be done. I can do no better than to end this section of the paper with two quotes from Solzhenitsyn's words (1973) about Russia post the Red Revolution. These words encapsulate the effect of a violent society on children:

“From the most ancient times, justice has been a two-part concept: virtue triumphs and vice is punished. [But] young people are [now] acquiring the conviction that foul deeds are never punished on earth, that they always bring prosperity”. [Editing and insertions by the author].

The overwhelming impression emerging from the sources cited is that the nature of the broader environment (“village South Africa”) is more likely to be a cause of problems than being a part of the solution to the problems of the education system.

Conclusion: Can “Village South Africa” Provide Proper Education to its Children?

From the foregoing sections, it would seem that the idea of the communities of a “Village South Africa” taking responsibility for the education of all its children is not very likely to succeed. It would also seem that one should not be too eager to believe adages no matter how long they have been around. The last conclusion is that there are and will be some “centers of excellence” where communities will make the old African proverb come true.