Government must emulate successful education models

The Media has spoken alongside intellectuals about the crisis faced by SA when it comes to education and the levels of drop out. This has raised great concern and has put SA into an unpleasant ranking among the list of literate countries around the world. Then I begin to wonder why a country of such rich potential, seen as a power house on the African continent can be disregarded whenever educational issues are brought up.

The big question is, why the increase in the drop out rate? This leaves me with a huge concern about what I can do as a youth to help improve this disease. Allow me to begin with this worry that has been bordering my mind for a long time. The educational system of SA needs to be transformed. By this I mean the government needs to compare our system to other top literate countries around world and see what similarities exist. Also, they can emulate certain educational models that have worked in other countries and implement them if the government really wants to improve the drop out rate in SA.

Secondly, the training of teachers and lecturers needs to improve so that the quality of education improves. This should be a top priority of government. Many students are at the mercy of less experienced teachers, many of whom seem motivated by their salary rather than their devotion to their profession.

Thirdly, students in high school today just want to pass matric but later on do not know what they plan to study in the future. How can you explain the point that a student succeeds in matric with the following subjects – Biology, History, Afrikaans and English but that same student is planning to become an engineer?

Providing support to other tertiary and private institutions which have government accreditation will work very much to provide SA students with a career objective that will enable them to choose what they want in future.

The government should stop focusing on the tertiary education system because that is not were the problem is found. The highest drop outs are found in secondary schools, with the worst percentage being in Grade 10.