A public lecture recently hosted by CUT Welkom Campus brought to the floor a number of burning issues in the basic education sector. 

The lecture attended by the academics, school principals, teachers, teacher unions, school governing bodies, students and members of the community was entitled “A comparative perspective on the South African education system: Challenges and expectations”. The guest speaker Professor Johan Beckmann, an expert in the field of Education Management and Policy Studies, as well as a NRF rated C2 researcher, highlighted some of the challenges still experienced by South Africa with regard to education, chief amongst which is access. He compared South Africa’s education system with that of Finland, and highlighted that as a country we could learn from what Finland did. There model of poverty eradication was to invest in the education system – starting at pre-school all the way to tertiary level. On the question of free education, Beckmann stated that “if the South Africa can spend wisely, free education for all will be possible.” 

The question and answer session was a lively debate mostly focused on the educational right issues. One of the students who attended the lecture commented following the event “the lecture was very informative and has motivated me to learn more about issues relating to educational law in South Africa.” Earlier in the afternoon of the same day, Professor Beckmann shared his vast knowledge on school governance with the Bachelor of Education (Honours) students. Issues brought to the floor for deliberation was the separation of powers in the governance of schools. He highlighted the importance of school governing bodies as juristic and accountable entities to their schools and not the Department of Basic Education. The prominence of human rights culture and respecting minority rights in South Africa schools was highlighted in the recent court case of Lerato Radebe vs. The Leseding Technical School (for more information visit http://www.equaleducation.org.za/article/2013-08-08-respecting-minority-rights-in-schools-the-case-of-lerato-radebe-1). 

Dr Solomon Makola, Director of CUT Welkom Campus, and Prof. Beckmann.