Civil society body to help pre-empt student unrest

A civil society movement to collectively address a ‘systemic’ crisis in South Africa's education system was launched last week.

Led by former Constitutional Court deputy chief justice, Dikgang Moseneke, the formation of the National Education Crisis Forum comes in the wake of student protests which, towards the end of last year, plunged the country’s universities into a state of paralysis.

The launch was held at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory on Thursday.

Moseneke said that as the 2016 academic year drew to a close in the midst of a delicate reprieve in the cycle of heightened violence at universities, it was clear to all who cared to analyse the situation even on a cursory basis that the crisis and the related instability were not likely to abate.

Instability

"It was also clear that the 2017 registration process was likely to trigger instability unless appropriate attention was given to the immediate issues, and processes were initiated to address structural and policy defects in education," he said.

Along with Moseneke, the forum is made up of nine co-conveners who are prominent members of South African civil society and have been directly involved with education at various levels and specifically engaged with the recent crisis at universities. They are:

• • Santie Botha, chair of the listed education company Curro.
  
• • Sello Hatang, Nelson Mandela Foundation CEO.
  
• • Jabu Mabuza, chair of Telkom and of Business Leadership South Africa.
  
• • Thabo Makgoba, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town.
  
• • Mary Metcalfe, professor of education at the University of the Witwatersrand and former director-general of the Department of Higher Education.
  
• • Yvonne Mokgoro, former Constitutional Court judge.
  
• • Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, secretary-general of the South African Council of Churches.
  
• • Jay Naidoo, African National Congress stalwart.
  
• • Professor Pitika Ntuli, poet and former university deputy vice-chancellor.

Systemic crisis

Moseneke said South Africa was on the cusp of a systemic crisis in education.

“The education crisis affects all levels of education in South Africa – from early childhood development through to tertiary education – and reflects a societal problem produced by policy choices made over various epochs in South African history," he said.

The forum began its work in early December when it held a meeting at which the convenors and the body known as the Higher Education Parents Dialogue exchanged views with vice-chancellors on the state of education and on possible education funding models.

The forum later held a broader stakeholder engagement attended by student representatives, vice-chancellors, the South African Universities Staff Network for Transformation, the faith-based community and labour at which issues such as fee increases for 2017, historic debt, internal disciplinary action against students, and student arrests and criminal cases against students were discussed.

The issues raised at that meeting will be taken further at the Higher Education National Convention to be held from 25-26 February 2017.

Although the forum is intended to deal with challenges facing the entire education system, issues at tertiary level are regarded as the most urgent.

One of these is ensuring the 2017 registration process goes ahead without disruption. Barriers to entry for students include the cost of registration, and historic debt.

Decolonisation

In response to one of the core demands made during the Fees-Must-Fall protests, a forum objective will be to look at the decolonisaton of curricula and how it would be implemented.

Like many of the challenges within the education system, the issue would have to be resolved through dialogue as one person's interpretation of what that means will invariably differ from another's interpretation, said Mokgoro.

"We have engaged with many role-players [involved] in the higher education crisis and the one thing over which there is consensus is that these issues have hardly been engaged in a cohesive way. And there is a much-needed safe space for role-players to engage each other on these issues, including de-coloniality."

The forum will also look at legislation and policy amendments in order to regulate the transition and transformation of the education system, both nationally and within each institution. Student accommodation will also be on the agenda, said Moseneke.