Sunday September 20, 2009, 1:12 pm
"With looming national examinations that would determine whether they were bound for a university or joblessness, they demanded a replacement.

“We kept waiting, and there was no action,” said Masixole Mabetshe, who failed the exams and who now, out of work, passes the days watching TV.

The principal of the school, Mongezeleli Bonani, said in an interview that there was little he could do beyond giving the teacher a warning. Finally the students’ frustration turned riotous. They threw bricks, punched two teachers and stabbed one in the head with scissors, witnesses said.

The traumatized school’s passing rate on the national exams known as the matric — already in virtual free fall — tumbled to just 44 percent."

Read more at site..

Sunday September 20, 2009, 3:08 pm
Related articles:

Parents battle to pay school kids' fees
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=105&art_
id=vn20090802062023924C182379

Rape and murder stalk South Africa’s playgrounds and classrooms
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6823235.ece

Black South Africans worse off under ANC-rule now than under apartheid - research of left-wing journalist
http://www.spainvia.com/leftwingdisaster.htm

Monday September 21, 2009, 2:25 am
America’s ruling oligarchs may believe that the public can be kept ignorant while they and their children can be learned, but they’re wrong. Ignorance is pervasive; it affects the rich as well as the poor, the powerful and the powerless, the famous as well as the obscure. It’s prevalent in the suites of our nation’s CEOs, the Congress, the military, and even our universities. It defines this nation.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14416

And we still think that we can point fingers at an emerging 3rd world country and blame it on "Apartheid" which has been over for 15 years. There should not be one child in school today who was at school during the apartheid era. So.... who is to blame - the ANC, Apartheid or a general attitude of world wide ignorance and unwillingness to learn?????

As for rape and murder in SA classrooms - does this not happen daily in the US?????

Monday September 21, 2009, 3:41 am
Well at least this time they cannot blame it on the previous white government... things are slowly beginning to turn and vast stides have been made... but some of these black teachers need to have their butts kicked..

Monday September 21, 2009, 11:47 pm
Excuse me? It seems to me that it is not the TEACHERS who are rioting and burning the buildings and books denying the other students of an education, I suggest that you rethink just WHO needs their butts kicked!

Tuesday September 22, 2009, 10:41 am
I live in this country, and it is the teachers duty to teach, if they do not pitch up for classes I would also riot, as this denies me an education... In my day this would never ever would of been allowed and teachers would never ever contemplate doing these things... It is the students that suffer and fail continously because of teachers not pitching up... There are also other various underlying causes... teachers don't pitch because of pay, underfunding and for various other reasons... These kids then have such a shot period of time to catch up and as a result they fail... then they get their butts kicked, and meanwhile it is the teachers who are to blame.. in this case this story is the teachers fault.. They a responsibility to their students... LOL Raymond

Tuesday September 22, 2009, 10:47 am
I agree about the students' behavior, Raymond, but I think there is also some blame to go to the teachers as well, if they are chronically absent or striking to get pay increases. It might not only be due to the students' misbehavior that they neglect to show up, though I wouldn't want to teach at a school like that, either.

Wednesday September 23, 2009, 6:36 am
The whole reasoning behind this article is that it is the legacy of apartheid causing the education problem. It seems to me that Chaz is just re inforcing this point by saying that

in my day this would never ever would of been allowed and teachers would never ever contemplate doing these thing

that would have been during the apartheid era - so how can apartheid be responsible for THIS??

Wednesday September 23, 2009, 9:44 am
Karin, that is a good question. It is similar to the way slavery and segregation are blamed for issues in the American Black community today, even though these ended 140 and 40 years ago, respectively. As with apartheid, there are some indicators that there were actually fewer problems in the American Black community during segregation ('separate-but-equal'), such as lower crime rates, illegitimacy rates, and school drop-out rates. Yet, the current problems are still blamed on the past. If you press for an answer, a "chain reaction" effect will be posited, i.e. 'oppression of Blacks in the past created cultural disadvantages which are transmitted from parents to children intergenerationally'. An obvious problem with this logic is that the socioeconomic issues in question existed in the Black community prior to any contact with Whites.

What we see here unfortunately is an unwillingness by some to take personal responsibility for problems, and an effort to shift the blame to others. We also see an effort to impose what has essentially become the religious orthodoxy of Western Civilization: racial equality. People want to believe that everyone, including all races, are inherently equal, and that any socioeconomic differences must therefore be due to some form of oppression. Anyone who dissents from this, even in the light of scholarly data, is attacked viciously and will probably lose his career. The upshot of this 'blame past oppression' attitude is of course ongoing racial resentments and animosities.