“Councillors’ inability to read and write symptomatic of SA’s broken education system”

July 14, 2023 78

The level of educational skills exhibited by some South African leaders is a clear reflection of the country’s broken education system, says Political Analyst, Tessa Dooms.

She was reacting to news that almost 300 councillors in KwaZulu-Natal are unable to read or write.

The skills audit report on 1 944 councilors in the province, show that 298 out of them were unable to meet the standards.

Dooms says the findings are not shocking considering the fact that only half of the group of learners who start Grade 1 at South African schools finish matric.

“We now have a cohort of adults in society who come from that broken education system.”

She says a lot of people miss out on the basic education phase, which means they don’t get the necessary quality education.

While this has raised questions on whether the poor literacy also has had a negative impact on the councillors’ ability to effectively deliver services, the head of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) in KwaZulu-Natal says there’s no need to lose sleep over the matter.

“I am not quite sure that it can be attributed to this (illiteracy) because on record as SALGA and COGTA we have councillors who are good with the community and attending to the issues of the community without that higher level of education, Thami Ntuli said in an interview on Talk Radio 702.

Written by: Nokwazi Qumbisa

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