State run education in South Africa has been dominating media headlines for all the wrong reasons. Stable, functional and quality education appears to be deteriorating at an alarming rate.
The Eastern Cape Education Department appears to lurch from one crisis to the next. Apparently text books in that province were delivered in the wrong language to the wrong schools.
The latest debacle follows overspent budgets and teacher strikes at the start of the academic year.
In KZN thousands of school girls are impregnated by teachers. Schools are raided and weapons, cigarettes and dagga are regularly confiscated. Quality teaching is at an all time low.
Schools in Limpopo Province have still not received all their text books halfway through the academic year. Thousands of text books – costing millions – have been dumped in bushes.
The SA Institute for Race Relations (SAIRR) released the results of a survey they conducted which shows SA teachers spend less than 50 percent of their teaching time in class each week.
Apparently, parents are increasingly turning to private schools in the hope of giving their children a decent education. Government is failing dismally to fulfill its most fundamental duties.
But private education itself will not address the startling moral decline in SA. The ideology of our educational instruction is probably more important than the standards of our education.
Education without godly values produces educated barbarians. When one considers the moral collapse amongst the youth, values based education becomes the nation’s most critical need.
For example, James Holmes, the 24 year old Colorado man who massacred 12 people and injured 58 others in a movie theatre, is highly educated. However, he is a product of godless education.
Anti-family activists at the UN are lobbying for sexuality education that indoctrinate children as young as 10 with pro-abortion and pro-homosexual propaganda. They also want legislation introduced in all nations that provide children sexual “rights” independent from their parents.
Private schools can still adopt curriculums that impose the sexual rights agenda on young children.
The Body of Christ must respond to this crisis with a plan to rescue education from the clutches of the devil. The Christian Church was once at the forefront of educating the future generations.
The three days Arlene and I spent with Christian educators at the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) Administrators Seminar in KZN was an eye opener. We met many ordinary Christians doing extraordinary exploits in the field of education. These heroes are making a huge difference in SA.
The Church needs to intervene in education for the sake of our children and the glory of God.
Churches across the country must begin establishing schools of value-based and quality education. This is a challenge the Church dare not ignore. Without quality education – we have little hope.
History records Christian based education produced the best results. It is time to repeat history.
This is scary to read this article, i support the re-introduction of christianity to our school.
The Maclear Christian School in the Eastern Cape is a school endeavouring to spread the Gospel via the national curriculum. God has blessed us richly, but more such facilities are needed to do the same with other ACSI schools in this beautiful country of ours.