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Faizel Patel – 19/01/2021
Professor Labby Ramrathan from the University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Education says there is no clear indication whether learners will return to school this year after failing to return to the classroom after last year’s lengthy closures.
South Africa’s school drop-out rate have been of concern for years, with millions of learners dropping out before finishing Grade 12.
At least 15% of learners did not return when schools reopened last year after lengthy closures, and education experts fear they will not return at all.
Speaking to Radio Islam on Tuesday, Professor Ramrathan says there are many challenges in getting learners back to school.
He says the levels of poverty forces people and families to find alternate ways of getting income.
“One they start getting a little bit of income, there’s no way in which they are going to leave that and go back to school. In fact, the complexity comes in that many of the families education has not made a material difference to their lives. So they don’t hold education with any value that will give them a better lifestyle.”
Professor Ramrathan says the delay in the reopening of schools is expected to have a major impact, especially on matrics.
The Basic Education Department announced last week that all public and private schools will be reopened on 15 February.
“Learners last year may not have had the full experience of engaging in a meaningful learning and teaching. So the kind of quality of going into matric this year is going to be down.”
Professor Ramrathan says parents and the community must motivate learners to return to school adding that communities need to “read the future of the world, where we are going, what will sustain them and give them a good lifestyle.”
Listen to the interview with Professor Labby Ramrathan
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