Education in South Africa

The school inspector is assigned to the grade 4 class in one of thelocal schools. He is introduced to the class by the teacher.She says to the class: "Let's show the inspector just how clever youare by allowing him to ask you a question." The inspector reasons thatnormally class starts with religious instruction, so he will ask abiblical question.He asks: "Class, who broke down the walls of Jericho ?"For a full minute there is absolute silence. The children all juststare at him blankly. Eventually Sipho raises his hand. The Inspectorexcitedly points to him. Sipho stands up and replies:"Sir, I do not know who broke down the walls of Jericho , but I canassure you it wasn't me."Of course the inspector is shocked by the answer and looks at theteacher for an explanation. Realizing that he is perturbed, the teachersays: Well, I've known Sipho since the beginning of the year, and Ibelieve that if he says that he didn't do it, then he didn't do it."The inspector is even more shocked at this and storms down to theprincipal's office and tells him what happened, to which the principalreplies :"I don't know the boy, but I socialize every now and then with histeacher, and I believe her. If she feels that the boy is innocent, thenhe must be innocent."The inspector can't believe what he is hearing. He grabs the phone onthe principal's desk and in a rage dials the Minister of Education'stelephone number and rattles the entire occurrence to Him and asks himwhat he thinks of the education standard in SA.The Minister sighs heavily and replies:"I don't know the boy, the teacher, nor the principal, but just getthree quotes and have the wall fixed!!"