|
Education
Crisis
South
African schools are been described as "breeding grounds
for gangsterism." (Cape Times, 12/03/03). To find out
why, one needs to go no further than the new Curriculum
2005 Outcome Based Education. Bible education and prayer
is now to be replaced with diversity and political indoctrination.
Factual presentation of history is being replaced with political
indoctrination, particularly from a Marxist point of view.
Even sport is to be used to serve a political agenda. Instead
of traditional family and Christian values, the schools
now have mandatory sex education and evolutionism.
"They
exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and
served created things rather than the Creator, who is forever
praised. Amen … Furthermore, since they did not think
it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them
over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil,
greed and depravity. They're full of envy, murder, strife,
deceit and malice …" Romans 1: 25-29
Some
of the results of this hijacking by secular humanism of
the South African education system are already evident.
One study claimed that teachers commit a third of all child
abuse in South Africa. In response to this, Education Minister,
Kader Asmal, said child abuse is "not a serious crime."
(Citizen, 31/01/02). A study by the World Bank claimed that
40 000 teachers in South Africa are HIV-Positive. Last year,
17 500 teachers left the profession, while only 2 500 teachers
entered the profession in South Africa. That's a net loss
of 15 000 teachers in just one year!
Our
Lord Jesus taught that we should let our yes be yes and
our no be no. However, pronouncements from the Ministry
of Education have been full of ambiguity and double-talk.
In response to concerns about the radical sex education,
Education Minister, Kader Asmal, declared at a press conference
(15/5/02): "There is no sex education, although we
encourage an awareness of sexuality … "
However,
while the Education Minister claims "there is no sex
education", the latest report is that he has "instructed
his department to urgently implement sexual education in
schools, Technikons and Universities" (Cape Argus,
16/08/02). The state-funded sex education provider, loveLife,
received R600 million, which was aimed primarily at adolescents.
The same article reported (Cape Times, 6/5/02) the demand
for "contraception, counselling and treatment of sexually
transmitted diseases has increased by up to 300%. The African
Christian Democratic Party MP, Cheryllyn Dudley, laid the
blame for this upon loveLife's own programme - "deviant
behaviour and sexual experimentation is, in fact, been encouraged
through Life Skills manuals, which promote homosexual and
lesbian relationships, abortion and contraception, and which
give explicit instruction in oral sex, orgasm, intercourse
and masturbation."
Regarding
religious education, Kader Asmal declared: "There is
no religious indoctrination, but we encourage children to
be aware of the full diversity of South African society
- the rich array of races, ethnic and language groups and
the many religious belief systems, which make up this country.'
Bible education has now been replaced with interfaith promotion
of, primarily, non-Christian religions.
"My
people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you
have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as My priests;
because you have ignored the Law of your God, I will also
ignore your children." Hosea 4:6
Despite
the moral chaos and academic failure of so many government
schools, the Education Department is now attempting to extend
their control -even over private, faith-based schools, colleges,
and home schools. The Minister of Education had set up Umalusi
as "a statutory council", which is "responsible
for monitoring … all public and independent schools,
academic and technical colleges, … institutions and
private providers in these fields …"
Umalusi
means "shepherd." Its full name is "Council
for quality assurance and general and further education
and training.." The Education Department wants to be
the final authority to guide and control all education in
South Africa. Some of the demands of Umalusi seems to include
that all schools must be accredited with them and that no
education qualification in South Africa is valid without
Umalusi!
Kader
Asmal (who is also a member of the South African Communist
Party) has also proposed that private and Christian schools
be subjected to further taxation to subsidize the government
schools.
While
government policy in other areas seems to be moving to privatising
state assets, in the education field, the government is
moving in the opposite direction, centralising power and
control. The Department of Education is proposing changes
to five education acts, under the Education Laws Amendment
Bill, which would make their policy "legally binding
on third parties such as schools and parents" and which
would remove the right of school governing bodies to select
their teachers, leaving teacher appointments entirely up
to the Department of Education. The proposed amendments
would grant the Minister of Education excessive powers to
regulate schooling in South Africa, extending not only over
public schools, but over independent, private, faith-based
and home schools. The proposed change reads: "The curriculum
and instrument contemplated in Section 6a (I) must be applicable
to public and independent schools."
Socialism
has failed in every area that it has interfered in. Socialism
is as much a failure in education as it is in economics.
What South Africa needs is more freedom and decentralisation,
not more state control and centralisation.
Children
do not belong to the state. They belong to God and are entrusted
by Him to parents to "bring them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord." Ephesians 6:4 Parents
are responsible under God to oversee the teachers and textbooks
which will shape and fill their minds for the 15 000 hours
of school teaching.
Anyone
who believes that education can be neutral is mistaken.
Ideas have consequences, actions flow from thought patterns.
Parents are not faced with the choice between sending their
children to a religious school or to a non-religious school.
All schools are religious. Parents must rather choose which
religion will be taught to their children. Will it be Christianity,
Islam, Humanism or something else? Will it be the secular
humanism of Curriculum 2005, which replaces prayer with
pornography and the Bible with evolutionism? Which outlaws
the Christian worldview and introduces interfaith worship?
Secular humanistic education, with its situation ethics,
has proven to be the most effective way to produce illiterates,
lower moral standards and proliferate veneral diseases.
All
education is in inherently religious, because it presents
a certain perspective and selection of history, values,
practices and it prescribes a worldview.
"See
to it that no-one takes you captive to hollow and deceptive
philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic
principles of this world, rather than on Christ.."
Colossians 2:8
Parents
can delegate the task, but not the responsibility for the
education of their children. The control of education should
be in the hands of parents, and the content of education
must be Bible based.
"The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Psalm
111:10
There
is an urgent need for every concerned parent to take up
these issues with their School Governing Bodies and to ensure
that their school uses alternatives to the state funded,
pro-abortion, pro-homosexual and pro-condom groups like
loveLife and Planned Parenthood. These immoral, humanist
groups need to be replaced with values-based learning programmes
such as: "True Love Waits"; "The Bold and
the Brave" by Doctors for Life; and "No Apologies"
by Focus on the Family. Campus Crusade for Christ and Scripture
Union also have other sex education programmes, which emphasise
abstinence before marriage and faithfulness within marriage.
All
parents should be involved in both the Parent/Teachers Association
and School Governing Body of their local school.
In addition, there needs to be increasing support for private
Christian schools and home schooling. If we lose the education
battle, we lose the next generation.
"We
will not hide them from our children; we will tell the next
generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power
and the wonders He has done … so that the next generation
would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they
in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their
trust in God and would not forget His deeds, but will keep
His commandments." Psalm 78:4 -7
Dr.
Peter Hammond
top
|
