Our School Education system is broken: This is how we can fix it!

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein

Recently, as part of my educational program, I was required by my Toastmasters club to set up and facilitate two meetings, both with the goal of reaching consensus.

Consensus on what? you may ask. Consensus on any topic of my choice. So I chose a topic which I believe is very important as it affects mostly the youth and therefore the future of our country.

South Africa is plagued with alarming statistics of youth unemployment. I proposed a solution through the following statement as my chosen topic.

“Introducing Rhetoric in High School (from Grade 7 At least) could solve youth unemployment challenges.

The first meeting was conducted with seven members of Toastmasters International, each member was given 2-3 minutes share their views and perspective on the subject. The meeting was scheduled for 20 minutes and at the end of that 20 minutes, I had to give a 2-3 minutes’ summary of what had transpired and based on what the attendees had said, I had made a decision as to whether consensus was reached or not.

The second meeting was conducted in the same fashion but with non-Toastmasters members. Similarly, I had to delineate and decide at the end of this meeting whether the consensus was reached or not. Ladies and Gentlemen, I am happy to tell you that in both meetings, we all managed to reached consensus.

So what really transpired in these meetings. Firstly, I had to introduce the topic to the attendees and I felt the need to give a background on the problem which is youth unemployment.  According to the latest survey from StatsSA, youth unemployment rate is just over 41% in our country.  And a staggering 31% is young graduates (up to age 24).

Then I had to define Rhetoric as the solution to the problem as follows. Rhetoric can be defined in many ways but in simple terms, it is the art of effective, expressive and persuasive communication. It’s basically about empowering people with communication skills (both verbal and non-verbal). It includes public speaking, storytelling, negotiation tactics, oral examination, debates, et cetera.

If you dig deep to this problem (youth unemployment), you will find that the majority of these unemployed graduates are coming from disadvantaged public schools, especially those that don’t have debates, public speaking activities or oral examinations as part of their curriculum or at least as extra-curriculum activities.

It’s not that these unemployed graduates are not intelligent or not suitable for jobs, but they were mostly not equipped and empowered with fundamental communication skills through Rhetoric whilst in High School.

If you noticed, those kids who went to multiracial (especially private) schools seems to express themselves clearly with confidence that’s second to none, they articulate their ideas brilliantly and sell themselves so flawlessly that the moment they open their mouth, they get 20 points advantage during a job interview.

So what the attendees had to say during 2-3 minutes’ time they were given to share their perspectives on the subjects. In summary, there were three major points that I picked.

1.    We agreed that Rhetoric alone cannot solve youth unemployment challenges but it can play a significant role. There are other subjects that needs to be made compulsory such as financial literacy and entrepreneurship. Various kinds of art (poetry, drawing, painting, acting, music etc) must be at least, offered as an extra-curriculum activity just like sport.

2.    The major part of the problem in our school system is lack of resources. Kids are not exposed to enough materials and tools to explore their individual talents. By nature, some kids are artistic (creative), some are athletic, while some are academic. That’s one of the challenges that needs to be addressed and quite frankly, Rhetoric could be more effective when enough resources are available in our schools.

3.    It was clear that even though Rhetoric can play a major role but schools are not solely responsible for teaching kids how to communicate effectively. Parents and the whole community has the role to play too.  As the African proverbs says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Teachers needs to be empowered with the right tools and knowledge so that they can educate not only the children but the parents too, perhaps during Teachers and Parents meetings or whenever possible.

I genuinely believe that the subject of Rhetoric has the potential to demolish the educational inequalities observed between private and public schools. In addition, it can provide all learners with the assurance that they have the right and the responsibility to be in school, as long they are allowed to express themselves in any language of their choice during debates or public speaking activities as part of the Rhetoric syllabus.

Language is not only the heart of any culture but the vehicle that drives the culture forward and upwards to greater heights. If we cultivate cultural flexible minds by placing emphasis on history, culture and language especially in Rhetoric classes, learners we feel as though they are home because the education system allows them be.

It is no secret that when a student feels as though they belong in an educational context, they perform better. Not only in schools but during job interviews and eventually in their chosen careers later in life.

It’s crystal clear that systematic bias and the enduring legacy of colonization is behind this ongoing disadvantaged and poorly educated students from our public school systems who end up being unemployed despite having Masters of PhD degrees.

For as long as Rhetoric, Art, and Entrepreneurship are not introduced in our school systems, and the tools and resources need when teaching these subjects are neglected, youth unemployment rate will continue to rise.