You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here. ADVERTISEMENT CONTINUE READING BELOW JEREMY MAGGS: Here’s an issue. Can we use the past to improve the present and design the future? That question is asked by my guest, Dr Alistair Mokoena, in his new book, Servings of Self-Mastery. Before we talk about that, let me tell you a little bit about him.
So I think as a country, as a nation, we’ve got a very difficult and a painful past that’s taught us a lot of things about how not to live together, how not to treat certain sections of the population and so on – and how to actually become an example of unity and social cohesion. So I think there are a lot of good lessons that we can learn from the past. I think we need to ensure that we don’t eradicate remnants of the past and things that remind us of what we need to avoid going forward.
We are the face of economic inequality in the world. We have a lot of job opportunities but we don’t have enough skilled people – and that’s a remnant of the past.And I think also, to have low crime rates, we need to ensure that there’s equity and there’s equitable distribution of wealth in the economy. We cannot persist in living in a world of two societies, where you have millions of the have-nots and then you’ve got a very few haves – and never the two shall meet.
But equally important is nutrition. Well-being and learning and sustenance – all those things go together, so ensure that everybody is well nourished and has a great start to their education process. So I think for me that would be a huge focus. I would resource TVET colleges, I would make them attractive. I would also ensure that the curriculum gives a nod to the most important skills that the world is looking for today.
ALISTAIR MOKOENA: Absolutely. I think again that’s a hangover from the past, but the past should not be used as an excuse to justify our current failings. But looking at the cohort of teachers, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done. There are great teachers. Many of us have come through very, very good teachers who have done their best with minimal resources. So I think a lesson going forward is that great education must be ubiquitous, must be universally accessible, must be affordable. And hopefully we can get to a point where education is free because it is a birthright, it’s a constitutional right.
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