Partnerships needed to save education

Education Minister Naledi Pandor should engage parents, school governing bodies and communities as partners and not as enemies if she wants to save South Africa from its current education crisis.

This was the reaction of the FF Plus’ parliamentary spokesperson on education, Willie Spies to the publication of a report by the financial weekly Finweek, which reveals that South Africa is facing an education crisis.

The report revealed a fundamental crisis in the education system which is sorely lacking resources to equip a nation adequately for future growth. Some startling statistics and findings published in the report include the following:

During the past two years, 535 000 people were ejected from school without any passing certificate and a very uncertain future

At this time, citizens between the ages of 20 and 24 represent 14% of the labour force, but are already over-represented among the unemployed, accounting for roughly 27% of that number.

Of the 564 775 matriculants who wrote the year-end exam last year, more than 200 000 failed.

The decline in pass rate and a lack of skills, says the report, are creating a slippery slope for further economic growth.

Between 1999 and 2004, an average of only 4,4% of matriculants achieved mathematics passes adequate for gaining entry into university to study natural sciences.

In 1999 only half of the country's maths and science teachers had tertiary qualifications in these subjects.

For the past 16 years, fewer than 7% of Senior Certificate candidates passed higher-grade maths, according to a 2007 Centre for Development Enterprises survey on maths and science in schools.

In 2006, only 4,8% of matriculants passed higher-grade maths, and only 5,7% passed higher-grade science.

When the class of 2010 (now in grade 10) was in grade three in 2001, the national survey of performance showed that 30% did not achieve the required standard in numeracy, and 54% did not achieve the required standard in literacy.

For the class of 2011, the 2005 grade-six evaluation showed that only 28% performed at the required standard in numeracy. For literacy, it was only 38%.

In addition to the education crisis, South Africa is losing skilled professionals to other countries that use South Africa as a hunting ground for recruitment. A study recently found that the loss of one skilled professional in South Africa costs up to 10 unskilled jobs.

It is clear that the ANC government will have to re-orientate itself to save the country from more crises caused by skill shortages and inferior education. Unfortunately the present approach by Ms Naledi Pandor and her provincial education departments to target and victimize the few successful schools such as the Ermelo High School with political activism and court action, while the bulk of the education system remains unchanged, spells nothing good for the future.