Transcription by Yumna Moosa

“Our research started by looking at what quality education would be for South African learners”

The Equal Education law centre has reported that 80% of state schools are dysfunctional, a majority of which serve Black and Coloured learners. When assessing individual factors, the problem of academic performance overshined other issues such as school safety. Equal Education law centre senior attorney, Tarryn Cooper Bell, speaks to Radio Islam about this.
By definition, Tarryn says underperforming schools are schools that are not performing academically and have issues relating to governance. A dysfunctional school does not function properly. She empathizes that these two concepts do not necessarily stand individually as they can coexist in an institution.
She states, “There are so many factors that contribute towards dysfunctionality and towards underperforming. The law can not be so closed as to ignore these factors. For example, a child cannot be expected to perform academically if they don’t have tables at their schools.”
Tarryn says her organization encourages looking into the factors that hold these schools back while promoting action from the government and school governing bodies.

The full interview can be heard on Radio Islam’s SoundCloud