What Our Learners Need Us to Hear
The Other Side of the Classroom
Alison Scott’s recent article is a very necessary piece of writing. She names what every educator knows but few can say out loud: our teachers are not failing — they are being failed.
She identifies administrative overload, burnout, impossible and conflicting expectations, overcrowded classrooms, the erosion of authority and trust, and the impossible demands of inclusive education without the resources to match — she captures it honestly and with care.
But there is another vital voice missing here.
It belongs to the learner sitting in that overcrowded classroom, in front of that exhausted, burnt out teacher. And if we listened carefully, that voice would be saying something remarkably similar: I am not failing. I am being failed.
South Africa’s SIAS policy (Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support, 2014) recognises that barriers to learning don’t only live inside the child.
They live in the system, the classroom, and the world surrounding the learner — poverty, language, trauma, learning barriers, and inadequate support are all named. More than a decade later, those barriers remain.
So what would learners say, if we gave them the same platform?
“I can’t learn when my teacher is too exhausted and overwhelmed to see me and to see TO me.”
Burnout, from the learner’s side of the desk, looks like invisibility.
It looks like being one of sixty faces no one has time to really get to know.
The child who is struggling learns quickly that silence and disengagement is often the safest option.
Burnout, from the learner’s side of the desk, looks like invisibility. It looks like being one of sixty faces no one has time to really get to know. The child who is struggling learns quickly that silence and disengagement is often the safest option.
“I can’t learn when I’m hungry.”
Research is clear: scarcity consumes the mental bandwidth that learning requires.
The National School Nutrition Programme exists in policy. For many learners, it doesn’t exist in their stomach on a Monday morning.
There are also those children who leave home when it's still dark just to get to school in time and the little breakfast they might have had, has already been used up. Break time is still 2 hours away.
Research is clear: scarcity consumes the mental bandwidth that learning requires. The National School Nutrition Programme exists in policy.
For many learners, it doesn’t exist in their stomach on a Monday morning.
There are also those children who leave home when it's still dark just to get to school in time and the little breakfast they might have had, has already been used up. Break time is still 2 hours away.
“I can’t learn when the language you’re teaching me in isn’t mine.”
Only around 7% of South African learners have English as their home language, yet 99% are taught in English as their language of teaching and learning from Grade 4 onwards.
The cognitive load of learning new concepts in an unfamiliar language is enormous. Change is coming - but for learners sitting in classrooms today, it comes too late.
Scott also notes in her article that vocabularies are shrinking.
For many learners, this was always true — long before a screen entered the room and pictures (emojis) are used in place of words.
Only around 7% of South African learners have English as their home language, yet 99% are taught in English as their language of teaching and learning from Grade 4 onwards.
The cognitive load of learning new concepts in an unfamiliar language is enormous. Change is coming - but for learners sitting in classrooms today, it comes too late.
Scott also notes in her article that vocabularies are shrinking. For many learners, this was always true — long before a screen entered the room and pictures (emojis) are used in place of words.
“I can’t learn when my trauma pushes through the door in front of me and nobody notices.”
Research consistently shows that the majority of South African children face high levels of trauma, and may have at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE) such as pervasive community violence, sexual abuse (1 in 3 children), physical abuse/corporal punishment, high rates of neglect, and witnessing domestic violence.
These experiences often lead to PTSD, anxiety, and depression.
Scott notes that teachers have to manage trauma without access to counsellors or social workers.
True — and unfair. But the learner can’t just be a burden to be managed.
They are a child in a quiet crisis, hoping someone sees past the disruption to the distress underneath.
Often the behaviour we see is due to trauma lying deep under the surface.
Research consistently shows that the majority of South African children face high levels of trauma, and may have at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE) such as pervasive community violence, sexual abuse (1 in 3 children), physical abuse/corporal punishment, high rates of neglect, and witnessing domestic violence. These experiences often lead to PTSD, anxiety, and depression.
Scott notes that teachers have to manage trauma without access to counsellors or social workers. True — and unfair. But the learner can’t just be a burden to be managed.
They are a child in a quiet crisis, hoping someone sees past the disruption to the distress underneath. Often the behaviour we see is due to trauma lying deep under the surface.
“I can’t learn because my brain works differently - and nobody identified it or can tell me why.”
Learning barriers or neurodivergence such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, autism and ADHD, as well as intellectual disability, physical disability, sensory impairments (visual or auditory) and communication difficulties, make learning challenging.
These are learners who were never formally screened, identified or supported - which is precisely what the SIAS policy was designed to address.
That pipeline is largely non-functional in schools because it requires resources, trained personnel, and time.
Often these learners get incorrectly and inappropriately labelled.
This isn’t just naughtiness, laziness or a lack of ‘grit’.
It’s a gap the system created early and blamed the child for later.
Learning barriers or neurodivergence such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, autism and ADHD, as well as intellectual disability, physical disability, sensory impairments (visual or auditory) and communication difficulties, make learning challenging.
These are learners who were never formally screened, identified or supported - which is precisely what the SIAS policy was designed to address.
That pipeline is largely non-functional in schools because it requires resources, trained personnel, and time. Often these learners get incorrectly and inappropriately labelled.
This isn’t just naughtiness, laziness or a lack of ‘grit’. It’s a gap the system created early and blamed the child for later.
“I can’t learn when school has no relevance or offers nothing to do with my life.”
Scott asks why teachers are judged on AI integration rather than whether children can read and comprehend on grade level.
Learners ask a quieter question: why should I invest in a place that doesn’t reflect my community, my language, or my future?
Relevance isn’t a luxury. It’s what makes a child believe that learning was meant for them.
Once a learner believes that they are different, not keeping up, behind, or not ‘academic’, that belief becomes its own barrier.
These learners tend to give up.
We cannot redesign the system on the outside while the child quietly dismantles their own possibility on the inside.
Scott asks why teachers are judged on AI integration rather than whether children can read and comprehend on grade level.
Learners ask a quieter question: why should I invest in a place that doesn’t reflect my community, my language, or my future? Relevance isn’t a luxury. It’s what makes a child believe that learning was meant for them.
Once a learner believes that they are different, not keeping up, behind, or not ‘academic’, that belief becomes its own barrier. These learners tend to give up.
We cannot redesign the system on the outside while the child quietly dismantles their own possibility on the inside.
The Same Crisis, Two Voices
Teachers and learners are not on opposite sides of this crisis.
They are standing on the same side of a system that is failing them both — one with too much to carry, the other with too little to hold onto.
We must ask not only what is preventing teachers from teaching — but what is stopping children from being able to learn.
The questions are related. But they are not the same.
And until we ask both, we will keep trying to solve for the profession while the child sits silently in the back, unseen or quietly exits the building.
The difference between teachers and learners in this conversation is not urgency. It is platform.
This piece is an attempt to offer learners one.
References:
https://www.sadag.org/images/mhm/Impact-of-trauma-on-children.pdf
Teachers and learners are not on opposite sides of this crisis. They are standing on the same side of a system that is failing them both — one with too much to carry, the other with too little to hold onto.
We must ask not only what is preventing teachers from teaching — but what is stopping children from being able to learn. The questions are related. But they are not the same. And until we ask both, we will keep trying to solve for the profession while the child sits silently in the back, unseen or quietly exits the building.
The difference between teachers and learners in this conversation is not urgency. It is platform. This piece is an attempt to offer learners one.
References:
https://www.sadag.org/images/mhm/Impact-of-trauma-on-children.pdf
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