[WS:] He asserts that, but he does not prove it. To prove it, he would need to compare SA to other countries on the independent variable (pedagogic process), and not on the dependent variable (scholastic achievement). What he does instead is to compare SA to other countries on the dependent variable, notes a difference, and then explains that difference by contrasting pedagogic practice in SA with an ideal. But it does not hold water - to prove his conclusion he would have to establish one of the following: 1. that the gap between pedagogic practice and ideal is greater in SA than elsewhere, or 2. that this gap is higher in schools with lower academic achievement than those with higher academic achievement in SA - which he does not.
The complaints that he registers against the pedagogic practice - rigid curriculum, bureaucratization, absenteeism - are a dime a dozen among teachers around the world. I hear them from my wife (a school teacher) daily. So clearly they are not unique to SA.
And one more thing, I noticed a statement that teachers work 41 hours out of expected 43. This begs the question are they paid for 43 hours? My wife is paid for 40 hours but she is expected to put 50.
As to the bureaucratization - here in the US one of the main reasons of it are lawsuits brought by parents and politically motivated efforts to micro-manage classroom instruction. Most of the paperwork is basically CYA efforts of school administration in response to the two. Democracy breeding bureaucracy, indeed.
Wojtek