Our kids deserve better schooling

Funding shortfalls, crowded schools and unequal access to technology threaten learning. Education leaders need to support teachers, improve resources and create safe classrooms for all.

- By Mark Potterton

Some of the six-year-olds in our refugee school project struggle to adjust to routines.

I think of Mpho (Gift), who was always in trouble for not following directions or not keeping her hands to herself. Sometimes, she threw tantrums. She was repeatedly spoken to for screaming, throwing pencils, running away from her teacher or refusing to go to another classroom for a timeout.

Many teachers have had similar experiences with children who don't seem ready for school. Teachers are sometimes unaware of the dynamics of complex trauma and easily mistake its manifestations as wilful disobedience, defiance or inattention. This leads them to respond as though it were mere "misbehaviour".

Mpho lives with a single mother in a low-income inner-city neighbourhood. Children in such circumstances are at greater risk when they start school. Researchers say that the "neurocognitive and social emotional skills integral to self-regulation undergird early learning and are likely to be compromised for children growing up in poverty and other adverse circumstances".

Today's planners can use data and AI to understand difficult social and economic contexts more precisely.

Instead of just focusing on daily news (waves), they can look for deep, slow-moving forces (tides) such as automation, demographic shifts and resource scarcity that cause challenges in schools.

A recent Christmas YouTube video quipped:

"Santa has a list of good children and a list of bad children. The good children will receive lots of presents, and so will the bad children. In fact, the only ones who won't benefit are the poor. That's because Santa judges every child's goodness largely on parental income."

This is the harsh reality the Minister of Basic Education must confront. Her ambitious plan to revamp the system is built on key pillars:

Integrating Early Childhood Development into basic education;