South African streets are filled with beggars, prostitutes, car guards, street vendors, piece job seekers, street performers, street loiterers etc. These people are seen and labelled as the ‘’low lives’’ as they depend upon street hustling to make ends meet, particularly for themselves as what they make barely contributes significantly in taking care of their families. These people, amongst many, feel that there’s a need to go out there and find something to make money following being a ‘’burden’’ at home where they are told to find means to take care of themselves. Most of these people have few things in common – lack of matric certificate and thus have been asked by their families to find means to support themselves. Another common denominator about them is that they are coming from impoverished families where they live off government’s elderly and child support grants. What really happened to these people? This paper seeks to unpack how the education curriculum system of SA (NCS) failed people such as these.
Most of these people would share their stories that they had dreams like everyone else. Some would argue that they were talented that school never concentrated on the talents they possessed. Some amongst them wanted to be musicians, farmers, footballers, poets and poetess, artists, actors, and actresses, etc. unfortunately the curriculum they undertook at school (OBE – NCS) never explicitly catered for their educational needs for them to realize their life aspirations. They ended up dropping out because school curriculum disregarded their life aspirations and forced subjects upon them that they couldn’t deal with. Sadly, those subjects were compulsory, and the same subjects were a mechanism to determine their school career success or failure. In short, they came to school already filled with different desires and life aspirations, unfortunately the curriculum did not meet those aspirations, instead the curriculum wanted to alter them to succumb to its requirements.
That is why sometimes we witness, on different media platforms, a homeless man/woman who sings or dances or can-do radio personality imitations or even sport commentary and many other different talents they display. When you see this happen, you ask yourself ‘’How did the school curriculum fail to cater for such an individual?’’ The answer to that is… the NCS couldn’t help this individual because NCS is not an individualized curriculum that seeks to cater for the unique talents and aspirations of every child, instead the NCS is a curriculum that imposes irrelevant subjects to the child and hope the child alters his uniqueness and follow what the curriculum provides. In reality and in matured education system zones, the child educational needs dictates what the curriculum offers and not the other way round. In south Africa, the curriculum forces a child to take what is on offer, irrespective of whether it`s relevant or not. Thus, these people are victims of that curriculum conundrum, hence they dropped out and have ended on the streets today.
The South African education curriculum (NCS) has victimized people and have left them with no option but to remain in the streets. The only people who survived the wrath of the NCS are those who were able to dump the passions and aspirations they came to school with and adopted the curriculum requirements of success. Today those people are doing better in life because they had to alter themselves to accommodate the curriculum since the curriculum couldn’t accommodate them. Meaning those who are on the streets became victims because they were resistant and never wanted to accommodate the curriculum. Some amongst them were not even capable to accommodate the imposing curriculum, they simply needed a curriculum that would appreciate their uniqueness and individuality and provide them with the relevant tools to face life. It would always remain an educational pain and injustice to expect a learner to undergo a curriculum system that forces him/her to do subjects not corresponding with his/her internal and personal life desires and aspirations – this is educational career abortion committed by the curriculum.
These are the hidden skeletons of the NCS that nobody talks about. This is the side effects of the NCS you never hear about. This is the damage the NCS has caused that nobody speaks about. Learners who struggle to do Mathematics are already threatened, by the curriculum, to be unsuccessful in life. Some struggle with Literature and these learners already, through the curriculum, see no future for themselves. This is exactly what happened to some of these people on the streets and sadly it still happening to this very day. Does the curriculum (NCS) even have the mechanisms to identify the learners` individuality and unique traits of life? Is it fair to judge all learners on the basis of ability to do Literature and Maths? Are all learners interested in Maths and Literature? Why a leaner who won’t need ‘’SOLVE FOR X’’ and Shakespearean Literature in his/her career suffer the educational agony of being labelled the ‘’failure’’, isn’t that the curriculum failure itself?
Personalized education curriculum system (PECS) is here to put a stop to the continuation of the damage NCS has been doing over the years since 1994. PECS is a curriculum designed with careful consideration of individual traits and unique talents of every child – A learner who can`t do ‘’SOLVE FOR X’’ and can’t be as poetic as Shakespeare would still have a bright future under PECS. Our curriculum is clear on language policy – the language and identity dignity of all people will be restored and embraced. PECS is a number one enemy of mass education – grouping learners with different life aspirations and capabilities in one class. Learners should be provided with a more career corresponding environment that stimulates sense of belonging and yet appreciating individuality. PECS seeks to ensure that teaching and learning takes place at a 50/50 scale of theory and practical for technical subjects. This curriculum is the future of education in south Africa and the whole of Africa. This is the curriculum that sees something worthy and something educationally beautiful from a prostitute, beggar, taxi rank car washers, car guards, street vendors, piece job seekers, street performers, street loiterers etc. PECS is designed to drastically alleviate the number of such people in our country by providing all people with the education curriculum appealing to their educational needs. (PECS is explained in details here: https://simnandisolutions.co.za/personalized-education/ – See: PECS PowerPoint presentation)