IMPROVE QUALITY OF EDUCATION AND INVEST IN BLACK, DECOLONISED NATIONAL EDUCATION
• Education and National Liberation
Education is the greatest tool we have to bring about national and human development. Throughout the liberation struggle, AZAPO has always been known for being the most caring organisation about Black Education. We were not in support of the disruption of schools because we knew that it would be destroying the future of our own children and our own country.
• Improve the Quality of Education in Townships and Rural Areas
An AZAPO government will invest in public education and improve the quality of Black Education, so that our children do not have to wake up at ungodly hours in the townships and rural areas, in order to access better education in formerly white schools.
Liberation not based on education will be difficult to sustain, as citizens will not have the required ability to nourish and protect it. It is therefore critical for any government to ensure that society is adequately rooted, by giving it good and sustainable education. In this regard, AZAPO will ensure that the education of the Azanian child is decolonised, African in content, but most importantly, liberatory.
Key Education Interventions by an AZAPO Government
The government of AZAPO will:
- Make education from Grades 1 to 12 free and compulsory;
- Expand Early Childhood Development to all areas of need, including in townships and rural areas;
- Review the school curriculum with a view to ascertain that its objectives and values resonate with our Azanian context and national development goals;
- Restructure the tertiary institutional landscape in line with principles of equity and redress to improve access to higher education;
- Strengthen Universities of Technology and clearly position them in the higher education value chain;
- Invest in the improvement and development of infrastructure at universities;
- Provide greater funding support for needy students;
- Increase bursaries for post-graduate students to encourage them to study up to PhD level;
- Encourage and support development of academic staff to increase the number of potential PhD supervisors;
- Provide grants and bursaries for postgraduate study and research overseas, to those candidates who show potential and excel in their academic studies, as a strategy to develop new knowledge, innovation and to enhance the technological edge of our country; and finally, to
- Work towards making education at universities free and fully funded by private and public contributions.
