Education, the results rarely mirror the ambition

Education accounts for about a fifth of our total budget expenditure in South Africa but it really is a case of high input, low output. Despite the large annual education spend, education outcomes in South Africa fall behind even our continental peers. By way of example, when you look at GDP per capita,  Kenya spends about $ 2 100 vs. South Africa’s $ 6 200 per capita and achieves significantly better reading and mathematics scores on average, 557 and 608 respectively vs the dismal 495 and 551 achieved in South Africa. 

When I reflect on the decades I have spent navigating the landscape of education interventions, there is a familiar and frustrating pattern. 

To start off with, quite often the problem analysis itself is problematic, we have been quick to diagnose a problem and to cycle to a solution.

If problem analysis is the first issue, implementation is the next sticking point.

Over the years, I have witnessed a carousel of initiatives and many of them well conceived that have not been able to close the gap. Some examples are Curriculum 2005, the ambitious Thousand Schools Project, and rotating focal points that shift from Early Childhood Development to Maths and Science, and now to Literacy and Language. None of these is per se wrong but they just have not made the difference that everyone had hoped they would.

What is at the root of the implementation gap?

There is often a mismatch between the complex reality on the ground and the solutions delivered from the top down. Large-scale programmes often fail because the inputs whether they are high-tech tools or new teaching materials don’t fit the local context. Often, these expensive resources end up gathering dust in cupboards because the internal capacity to use them wasn’t developed alongside the delivery of the goods.

Furthermore, our political cycles demand visible change within five years. This creates a culture where we roll out programmes before previous ones have even been evaluated, effectively ignoring the data in favour of the next “big thing”.

There are other things that need to be in place to close the implementation gap, the first comes from one of my favourite stories. I was asked to help a district with a strategic plan, when I got there, the premises where we were going to hold our workshop was really run down, it was effectively falling to pieces, there were cows walking around and cow dung all over the place, it was a miserable place, a hovel and certainly not the kind of place that a visionary strategy would emerge from. I approached a funder and we agreed that the best use of their resources was to refurbish this building. And when we had done all of that, they had a beautiful building with a fence and I told him that “that was strategic planning.”

This illustrates well the need to shift mindsets. We must move away from “cultural poverty”, the resigned belief that “things are this way because they must be” and toward a belief in collective action and possibility. 

The second is local ownership, instead of centralised control, we should encourage local leaders to take ownership and adapt approaches to their specific realities.

And the third is we need to find a way through technology and online platforms to connect these “pockets of excellence”, and that way we can expose more people to best practices without losing the “soul” of what makes them work.

So, let’s look to what is working 

If we look away from the broad systemic failures and focus on those schools that against all odds, do achieve good outcomes, there is one thing that they tend to have in common. These are the stories that often make the headlines in a press that is looking for rays of hope and “pockets of excellence”. Within some of the most resource-poor environments, some schools achieve and if you look at the reason they do succeed against the odds, there is an energetic, ethical, and effective leader at the helm.

These leaders mostly seem to focus on building internal capacity and even morale. In some cases, this is the school principal but it would be powerful if it was a Head of Department. These Heads of Department would then build capacity amongst principals and teachers, and even be able to bring in School Governing Bodies. 

There are several different ways of making it work, one such way is through mentorship models, where retired professionals reinvest their experience into current principals, providing the practical continuity that a manual simply cannot offer. 

What is noteworthy about this, is that when there is such a leader, this often forms a virtuous circle as these schools also attract additional funding and support from the public in South Africa, and even South African brands and businesses, as the concern about education is broad-based.

This kind of capacity-building intervention I believe can create a multiplier effect. So if you ask me what I would invest in personally, I would invest in strong, visionary individuals and this type of intervention is not a big bang, this is going to give a slower return but the effectiveness will be there.

From single interventions to a movement

Visible, short-term wins like simply refurbishing a school facility can create the immediate hope necessary to embark on building a long-term strategic vision. But ultimately, we must stop looking for the next “silver bullet” curriculum or resource. 

In my belief, the solution is already “in the building”; it is that teacher who refuses to give up, an HOD who mentors with heart and rallies to get additional resources. Our job is to fuel a movement of  leaders who believe that excellence is not a fluke.. By definition then, this needs to be far bigger than a single-point intervention or a rigid, centralised implementation plan. 

One visionary leader creates a pocket of excellence. Ten such leaders create a district-wide shift. A thousand leaders create a movement that no policy shift or political cycle can derail. This is the one thing to change is the shift towards a movement, scalability isn’t about manuals, but it is about the multiplier effect of empowered individuals. The question isn’t whether the system can change, it’s whether we are ready to back the people who are already changing it.

My strong sense is that this is a movement that everyone who cares about education in South Africa would get behind. We don’t need a new policy, we need the same spirit that turned a building surrounded by cow-pats into a sanctuary to build a strategy.

Building empowered leaders who in turn build capacity in education feels like a movement that all of us will get behind. Are you with us?