I had the opportunity last week to talk with a colleague who is an instructional designer and a native of Cape Town, South Africa. She told me it is the most beautiful city in the world. We talked about equity, or the lack of equity, in education in Cape Town and throughout many of the countries on the African Continent. Her summary of education in a word is “ under”. Under funded, under resourced and teachers are underqualified. In families where one or both parents have completed tertiary education (college) the children have a high probability of attending school. As you move down the education continuum of the parents’ educational experience, how the importance of education is viewed decreases and the ability to afford education becomes a barrier. In Tin Can Town - the slums of Cape Town, children may not go to school at all. The few schools that are accessible to those children do not have enough teachers, and the ratio might be 100 students to one teacher. Schools may only serve 500-800 students. Children are often removed from school altogether as soon as they reach the legal age of 15 so that they can work and earn money for the family. While South Africa has laws and policies that require handicapped access, these are often ignored. It is not uncommon for school buildings, and restrooms, to not be handicapped accessible. Students with physical disabilities may not physically be able to access the schools. Corruption has resulted in a diversion of resources from children and schools. In more rural areas, there are no libraries, there may be limited power, there may be limited water.
Her passion is access to education, especially for girls. What keeps girls out of schools? The cost of books (less than $10 of US currency) The access to transportation. (School buses are not common) The access to computers and internet infrastructure (Many schools have no computers, computers pr tech in homes in Tin Can Town are at high risk of being stolen) And, the access to feminine hygiene products. (They are expensive, not readily available especially to girls that don’t have access to a store, and there is Value Added Tax -VAT on top of the base cost). Children are often removed from school altogether as soon as they reach the legal age of 15 so that they can work and earn money for the family. She asked if we had limited power, she had heard there are places in the US that don’t have regular power. Cape Town has power 10 hours a day. She spends time volunteering with children. Some live in Tin Can Town. How, she asked, can you help a child when they don’t have even the most basic learning and they are in a family impacted by generational lack of schooling. The example she shared was looking at the trajectory of an 8 year old girl - how could she hope to attend tertiary school when she couldn’t even identify simple shapes, read or write. Where to even start in tutoring this child? She sometimes wonders if she is even making a difference.
I have been thinking about our conversation for a week. I reflected on the educational divides that still exist in the United States, and what our schools are doing to address it. Worth noting, in a 2016 article on NPR, author Corey Turner discusses the concept of segregated borders in education throughout the US. Three of the top 10 borders he discussed are in Ohio. (See the full Opportunity Atlas HERE) While public school is free, the school funding system in Ohio is still not perfect. The Fair Funding formula is the closest we have come in many years for identifying the cost and a plan for equitably funding a well rounded, high quality education for every child. I know that during the pandemic, there were children who did not attend school at all. How many of them still have not returned? Where are they? And, in the United States, generational lack of schooling is a factor that will have a lasting impact on the future success of a child. I appreciate our policies that have protected access to public education in the US - including child labor laws, a mandatory education age of 18, Title 1, and enforcement of IDEA and FAPE. And I have a similar concern about the lack of access to resources, both computers and internet infrastructure in regions of our state and our country.
She and I are working together on a project around generative AI. We started talking about it as an equity tool. Think about the possibilities of using an inexpensive device and cheap headphones, along with generative AI, a camera that can scan any written material, and text to speech to create something that can then provide simple explanations of steps to complete a task, or simplify complex information to make it accessible. Layer in the ability for generative AI to translate into multiple languages, and the tool then provides access to refugee children and adults to education and job opportunities. She shared with me that she met a refugee who was acting as a car guard (someone you can pay to sit by your parked car) who was an accountant in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Two barriers prevented him from finding a job as an accountant in Cape Town. First, he spoke only French. Secondly, and more limiting, he had never used any technology tools. No excel spreadsheets or accounting systems, no computer - ever. Instead, he was trained to be an accountant using ledger books and paper. I am sharing this because we need to think beyond the boundaries of our classrooms, our district, our state, our country as we work for equity. All people deserve the opportunity to be their best selves, to be safe, to be seen. As my colleague shared, we should not be able to look at a child who is 5 and know that some opportunities for their future have already been taken off the table.
Resources to Spark Your Thinking
CUPP Reports a good tool for looking at local Ohio district funding (Y21 is available, Y22 is not out yet)
Meet some of Cape Town’s innovators - TEDx Cape Town Speakers
UNICEF Girls Education Homepage
Ohio Department of Education - Advancing Academic Equity For All
Achievethecore.org - Planning And Reflecting With Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
Edutopia Youtube - Black Teachers Share Their Stories
Edutopia Article - Why Black Teachers Walk Away -
Upcoming Opportunities:
Do you have a passion for math? Have you thought about sharing an effective instructional practice with your peers? Now is your chance. Join OCTM, the Ohio Council of Teachers of Math…and submit a proposal for the state math conference - Oct 12-13 at Kalahari Resorts. Proposals are open now - https://forms.gle/
ftaaiRU2HDmuqPiJ7 OELMA is offering a free webinar - Clear the Digital Clutter! March 1, 7:00-8:00 PM Angela Wojtecki, Past President of OELMA, is offering a free one-hour session on Wednesday, March 1, entitled "Clear the Digital Clutter." Angela has all kinds of simple tricks of the trade to help us organize our email.
- February 9 4:15 PM Virtual SECO (Science Education Council of Ohio) Free Grade Band Science Meet-up. This is the 3rd one this year, open to all grades, and a great chance to network with colleagues from across the state.