Dunkirk, small boats and independent education

Hello

Dunkirk. June 4, 1940

Operation Dynamo, later to become known as ‘The Miracle of Dunkirk’: 336 000 French, British and other Allied troops are evacuated from where they are cornered on the beaches of Dunkirk to England by 850 small, private, boats.

An operation so critical, after these troops had been trapped by a German pincer movement, that the failure of it may well have resulted in the Allies losing the war against Nazi Germany.

In a recent conversation with Professor Jonathan Jansen, I was fortunate enough to spend some  time discussing the parallels between ‘the small ships of Dunkirk’ and independent education in South Africa.

In a country where we have upward of 26,000 schools (over 80% of them considered to be non-functional) and approximately 2,500 independent schools catering to 7,2% of the basic education sector, we feel a lot like the small ships of Dunkirk.

Is it melodramatic to parallel South Africa’s schools with the Allies,
trapped in a hostile pincer movement?

After the unfathomable challenges schools faced in 2020, the shambolic, rudderless start to the 2021 academic year and the continual politicising of education by corrupt and inept officials seeking to further personal agendas, I believe that the parallel is not just apt. It beautifully illustrates the role of independent education in a period where we cannot wait for our country’s leadership to find creative solutions to our on-going education crisis.

Just like 850 small, privately owned boats took it upon themselves to shoulder the responsibility of evacuating the Allied soldiers, Professor Jansen and I were in agreement that it is incumbent on South African independent schools to play their part in raising the tide of South African education. To wait for direction, support, leadership or even rational decision making from our government would be like waiting for the Allies to build one ship big enough to evacuate all 336,000 troops in one go - completely impractical and ultimately a political directive that would have cost them the war.

Or to put it another way,
as ludicrous as spending R430m
on the deep cleaning of empty classrooms.

If we raise the tide of South African education,
all ships rise together.

According to the Professor, there are two areas within our independent ecology where a commitment to excellence should be maintained if we are to achieve this. Firstly, Prof tells us to keep doing what we already do well: keep producing cohorts of graduates with excellent academic results. To maintain this year on year means that the country is injected annually with high academic skill and ability. The second point, however, while as (or even more) important than the first, is where Prof believes that top academic schools sometimes do a “lousy job”: “producing decent human beings in a dangerous world”.

It is not comfortable to hear one of the most distinguished South African voices in education, who we know calls it as he sees it, saying that there are independent schools out there producing academically strong, rich thugs. But in the context of the type of character we need to develop in order “make a difference in the way that this country desperately needs in all nine provinces”, it is a point worthy of deep reflection. Jansen’s belief is that strong academic ability coupled with integrity, a strong value system and an understanding of “the difference between my money and other people's money”, produces young people with the potential for ethical corporate leadership, governance and the inclination to lead from a position of service. We tend to forget that South African developed King I, II, III and IV, which has become a global cornerstone of ethical corporate governance, demonstrates our capacity for integrity. That despite the evidence to the contrary we have seen in recent years, we are not a morally bereft nation. In other words...

if we produce smart graduates who we want to have coffee with three, five, ten years after they have left us, then we have done our jobs right.

Independent education is such a small part of the education sector and the corruption and incompetence within the greater sector so vast, that it is often overwhelming to the point of paralysis. We wonder how our small school’s tiny ripples could possibly make a difference in moving South African education forward. Here again, Professor Jansen encourages us not to underestimate the power of the difference we can make.

Imagine: instead of R430 million being spent (just in Gauteng) on futile, ineffective and unaccounted for classroom cleaning, each independent school had been subsidised to enrol a handful of underprivileged learners. Children know that the world has changed and there is more out there for them than what their parents had, if they are given the chance and if we believe in them. (Watch Rita Pierson’s TED Talk, ‘Every child deserves a champion’ to see the effects of that.) Consider the potential impact these subsidised learners could have on their communities, and later our economy, if we had the opportunity to champion them. Our combined handfuls would equal a significant amount of the type of people who can contribute to the effective ethical governance mentioned above.

Imagine: the R430 million being used, in conjunction with the already existing telecommunications SOE, Broadband Infraco (did you know that even existed?!) to bring teacher-tested hybrid solutions to classrooms in government schools. Not devices for every child but real hybrid classrooms where their classes could log in and piggy-back on ours if they have a teacher who doesn’t arrive for work. Or where classes from multiple schools could piggy-back onto other classes whose teacher is an expert on a particular topic and teaches it exceptionally well. Now the entire landscape of our conversation around education changes to how we can use best practice to up-skill more learners and teachers who we have ever been able to reach before. Imagine.

We can do more than just imagine.

Many of us in the independent school sector, regardless of our size or bank balance, are able to make enough of a difference that our ripples grow, gather momentum and ultimately become the wave of change that our education system so desperately needs. That is how we use our spirit of independence. That is how we leverage our advantage. Some of us are able to give master classes to teachers from less fortunate schools. Some of us are able to subside that handful of learners without external assistance. Some of us are able to create buddy programmes where our learners tutor less fortunate learners. All of us are able to model the generosity of spirit, awareness and the social responsibility we want to see in the graduates we produce. 

This is our Dunkirk. Our sense of academic mission partnered with our sense of social responsibility are the winds that sail our small ships. Together, in independence, we change the outcome of the war.

As always, I welcome your feedback, and if you haven't had the opportunity to visit us yet, we invite you to book a tour so we can show you around and you can see our hybrid classrooms in action.

See you soon.

Share your EduInc experience

Help other families to connect with us by sharing your experience of EduInc when you write a review.