The Non-recoverability of an Education System and the Resetting Option: Case South Africa.

The theme of the conference seems to assume that most countries had functional and well-performing education systems before the COVID-19 pandemic. All they need to do now is to recover and restore their systems to their former glory. Evaluations of the South African education system between 1994 and 2022 have been extremely negative. The question arises whether all systems could be restored and whether there are systems simply not worth restoring and needing a complete mind shift and a new start to begin to be able to provide quality education. I surveyed the South African school education system and the degree to which it complies with the legal framework that regulates it. I also consulted published material on education quality. I came to the conclusion that the system is performing extremely poorly and is probably not worth "recovering". I then turned to the suggestions of prominent economic and education policy specialists. It became clear to me that an education system not worth recovering needs a mindset change in its leaders to be reset and begin over. Certain education systems will probably need to be reset and not merely recovered. I explain briefly what the literature suggests about resetting a system and then list a number of steps that might be taken to reset an education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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