A couple of weeks ago, our much loved President Jacob “Jay Z” Zuma joined nine other heads of state as a “member state champion” of a UN campaign on education; the initiative aims to provide global access to education and improve its quality by 2015. At the launch, Zuma said that “children who were uneducated faced a life with two hands tied behind their backs” and that “quality education is essential for the creation of democratic and inclusive societies”.
On paper, Mr Zuma looks like a plausible candidate to champion education. After all, South Africa is one of the few African countries that will reach the Millennium Development Goals. Sadly this success merely exists on paper.
While Jay Z was being lauded as a “champion” for education abroad, at home his Government was being sued for failing to deliver textbooks to students nine months after the school year started. Last week, students in Limpopo had to take their final high school exams without ever having seen a textbook; you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to predict that most of them have little chance of getting a good mark. Thanks to Mr Zuma and his incompetent Government, “their hands have been tied behind their back” and they now face the prospect of “marginalisation, poverty and unemployment” – precisely what the UN campaign is trying to fight.
Pointing out the incredible irony in Zuma’s appointment as a “champion for education”, a spokeswoman for the DA quite poignantly stated that “the only value Mr Zuma could add to the education panel is by showing the rest of the World how not to manage their education system”.
On paper, Mr Zuma looks like a plausible candidate to champion education. After all, South Africa is one of the few African countries that will reach the Millennium Development Goals. Sadly this success merely exists on paper.
While Jay Z was being lauded as a “champion” for education abroad, at home his Government was being sued for failing to deliver textbooks to students nine months after the school year started. Last week, students in Limpopo had to take their final high school exams without ever having seen a textbook; you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to predict that most of them have little chance of getting a good mark. Thanks to Mr Zuma and his incompetent Government, “their hands have been tied behind their back” and they now face the prospect of “marginalisation, poverty and unemployment” – precisely what the UN campaign is trying to fight.
Pointing out the incredible irony in Zuma’s appointment as a “champion for education”, a spokeswoman for the DA quite poignantly stated that “the only value Mr Zuma could add to the education panel is by showing the rest of the World how not to manage their education system”.
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