Yizo Yizo - this is it! This is the reality of our country, a poor education system.

Yizo Yizo, a South African television show that first aired in 1999 highlighted the poor state of schools in South Africa’s townships. It gained attention due to its authentic depiction. Many loved it, equally many despised it. One thing that people agreed on was, Yizo Yizo did not just represent schools in the 1990s, it represents the cruel reality of South Africa’s slow transition to full emancipation. It is for this reason that the show can be described as a time capsule into the South African education system. It highlights how little progress had been made in meeting the demands of the class of 1976 in reforming education, even as far back as 1999.

It is important to delve into the lack of reform and how government needs to look at Pan-African leaders to reach advantageous solutions to these issues.

The first issue that remains prevalent in schools is the poor conditions of schools. Pit latrines, overcrowded classrooms, and learners needing to travel long distances to get to school are all major issues in the education. They point to a lack of progress.  These factors lead to a learning environment that does not stimulate adequate educational growth amongst the youth. Yizo Yizo demonstrates the need to have a safe learning environment. The show further highlights that more work needs to be done to achieve a decolonised education system that has no remnants of the past. This issue is obvious but problems without solutions remain just that, problems.

The solution to creating safe learning environments is revealed in Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement. The movement highlights two important solutions: the first solution can be found in the need to have self-pride. This self-pride must be evident in the state of infrastructures that are meant to facilitate learning. Learners should be able to learn in an environment that will bring the best out of them. Their primary focus should be on the content taught in lessons and not death trap pit latrines. The second solution highlights that reform comes from within and the best way to achieve this reform is to start. This means that the government needs to start building more schools and should not rely on external forces to bring this reform. Biko started the Zanempilo Clinic not because of an abundance of resources but because of a Pan-Africanist attitude that believed in the salience of self-sufficiency.

The implementation of Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement ideals will allow for the government to meet the demands of the class of 1976 and improve the quality of education offered in South Africa.

The 1976 protests were not just a fight against an unjust education system but also an unjust economic system.  When one spoke of the 1970s, the failing economic system was a key component of the black struggle. The lack of progression from the 1970s to present day is evident as South Africa’s gini-coefficient (the measure of a country’s inequality) continues to increase. The economy undoubtedly failed the majority in the 1970s and continues to fail the current generation - but how exactly does this link to education? It links to education as knowledge is a currency that has become so valuable that it leads to economic stability. Kwame Nkrumah said that African countries should measure progress by the improvement in the quality of education. Now that a link has been drawn between education and economic progression - what actions must the government take to ensure that progression in one, leads to the progression in the other? The most basic solution to this goes back to building more schools and institutions of higher education.

The News24 statistics revealed that the demands for admission into institutions of higher education are not met. Therefore, the most obvious solution would be to build more schools. Alternatively, education is not linear, meaning that not everyone seeks to further their education in tertiary institutions. The government also needs to support the youth who aim to start their own business straight out of matric. Now of course, it is rare for someone straight out of matric to have the necessary resources and guidance to start their own business which means that the Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) needs to establish more entrepreneurship programmes. The establishment of these entrepreneurship programmes will lead to the youth gaining access to entrepreneurial education which will, in turn empower the economy as the job market will not be oversaturated. The improvement in education in its various aspects - tertiary institutions and entrepreneurial programmes - will lead to further economic growth thus the same economic issues which plagued the class of ‘76 will no longer plague the youth of today.

It is no coincidence that the premise behind the solutions offered are rooted in Pan-Africanist ideology. Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement highlights the need for self-pride in improving infrastructure and self-sufficiency in building more schools. Furthermore, Nkrumah’s analysis of progression being rooted in the education of a country reveals the need to improve education in order to improve the economy. 49 years later, the blood shed by the class of 1976 should water the roots of educational reform so that Yizo Yizo becomes a depiction of the past and not a reflection of the present.