Would a systems thinking approach to education in South Africa work?
A reported R129.5 billion is set to be pumped into the 2015/2016 social assistance programme and as a part of this plan, our government plans to up the number of schools that don't pay school fees. A noble cause? Most definitely but the critic in me that sees the lack of systems thinking involved in such a decision and how this very gesture could potentially affect the standard of education in our country. Will this budget allocation solve the core problem? Only time will tell but I think that the transformational attributes of systems thinking could do the trick.
In recent years, our education systems have been in the spotlight in terms of areas in which these are lacking. With this in mind, the Department of Basic Education has instituted an action plan to 2014, which hopes to strengthen weak areas in our education systems that were previously identified as requiring support. This plan hopes to see better schooling for 2025.
Perhaps before government starts pumping additional billions of rands into its social assistance programme, it needs to look at all of the problems associated with education and social inequality, and not focus on only one solution.
A systems thinking approach could help them do this
Right, so what is systems thinking and how does it relate to me? To education? To anything? This concept has, unfortunately, been somewhat misunderstood and mistakenly associated with mechanical models and metaphors when, in actual fact, it's something we as humans use in everyday life.
A big focus in systems thinking is that it doesn't look at a problem or issue in isolation but rather in the greater context:
- For example instead at looking at education from one viewpoint – i.e. "let's up the number of schools that don't pay school fees" - rather look at the bigger picture of what makes up education systems. These elements include:
- Teacher to child ratio,
- Comparable teacher salaries,
- Level of education,
- Quality and delivery of teaching materials such as textbooks, and
- Adequate classrooms.
Systems thinking: A framework for seeing interrelationships not things
By expanding your thinking to see the bigger picture, you can arrive at surprisingly different ways of solving problems. Traditionally, we tend to analyse situations and break them up into separate pieces. This means we're only able to solve problems in the short term on an incremental basis. While systems thinking also breaks the problem up into separate pieces, each piece is then looked at holistically and solved as one complete problem.
Will upping the number of schools that don't pay school fees solve our education problems? Unfortunately, I think this is only one part of the problem. Perhaps trying to integrate solutions into a cohesive whole will?
There is no doubt that this would allow more children to attend school and to have their basic right to education seen to, but what happens in the years to come when the standard of education decline even more than it has currently and government paying for school fees is no longer an effective solution? Questions such as the following need to be answered:
- How much will it cost to educate one pupil from Grade 1 up to Grade 12?
- Is this a long-term and sustainable plan of action?
- What percentages of children are actually enrolled in, and can attend, a school easily?
- How will we choose which schools don't pay school fees and which ones do?
- Will this cater for learners' other needs such as textbooks and stationery?
Frew Murdoch's article, entitled 3 possible ways to solve SA's skills shortage, illustrates HR's key role within education and how the relationship between HR and national education decisions can either ease or accelerate the crisis shortage we face today. The decisions government makes today can, and will, have a ripple effect in the years to come.
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Cheyanne Ho is an HR administrator at Internet Solutions. She has a BA in Journalism and a BCom in Human Resource Management, both from the University of Johannesburg. Cheyanne started off her career as an HR graduate at the company in 2012 and is steadily working her way towards her goal of becoming a fully fledged HR consultant and business partner in the future. Cheyanne has a passion for both HR and communications, and hopes to merge the two wherever her career path may take her. |
