Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training is looking at formulating a 30 year strategy to improve the quality of education and the skills of young people in South Africa.
“We do not need to have a mediocre approach to solve big problems,” said Committee Chairperson Marius Fransman following a presentation by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).
The committee invited the DBSA to brief it on the extensive work it (the DBSA) had done looking at what is wrong with the education system in the country. Graeme Bloch, an education specialist at the DBSA, told the committee that it would take at least two years per grade to correct problems in the education system.
Fransman said the DBSA’s analysis, through the roadmap, confirmed their serious concern that education in South Africa is riddled with huge inequalities. The roadmap identifies achievements that can be built on, blockages and interventions that are institutionally feasible in terms of the time and cost of implementation.
Among the findings in a study conducted in the Western Cape, it was found that 62.5 percent of grade 3s in former white schools could read and count at appropriate levels while the corresponding figure in African townships was 0.1 percent. Also, it was found that teachers in township schools spend 3.5 hours per day on instruction, compared to 6 hours per day in suburban schools.
“We are alarmed by the fact that many students are not able to go through with their education. Thousands enter the system but many are lost in the system and don’t make it till the end,” he said.
“As the Portfolio Committee we believe that the 10 point programme and the non-negotiable for education identified by the President should be monitored carefully and properly,” he said.
Fransman said the committee was also concerned that the DBSA roadmap does not deal with skills at post schooling level. “They should develop a roadmap for skills to deal with close to four to six million youths who are unemployed in South Africa,” he said.
He said the committee took a decision, as a way forward, to engage various stakeholders in discussions on a road map on skills in South Africa.
Fransman said they were also concerned with the perception that children that are troublesome at school need to be sent to Further Education and Training (FET) colleges, “This misconception needs to change, we will speak to the Ministry of Basic Education to capacitate teachers to understand the importance of FET colleges,” he said.
Enquiries:
Modise Kabeli (Mr)
Tel: 021 403 3403
Fax: 021 403 3931
Cell: 082 420 0063
E-mail: mkabeli@parliament.gov.za
Issued by: Parliament of South Africa
19 August 2009
Source: Parliament of South Africa (http://www.parliament.gov.za)
