Bleak future awaits most of South Africa’s matriculants

Cape Town - Looking back, 2022 was a challenging year for education in South Africa and the continent.

It began on a sad note for South Africa’s matriculants as many faced the prospect of a bleak future after being spewed out of a school system that continues to fail millions of pupils.

On the flip side, private schools have continued to get a lousy rap amid stubborn silence from the Independent Schools Association of SA (Isasa) on various issues affecting its members.

Some 45% of parents struggled to keep up with the exorbitant fees for their children at private schools.

At the same time, Isasa’s leadership allows its members to escape without transforming; their silence on bullying at several schools over the past year is shocking, along with other unsavoury practices that have no place in a democracy.

Private schools must be on the agenda for government action in 2023.

On the rest of the continent, there has been a sharp increase in the number of schools closed due to insecurity in the past year, particularly in West and Central Africa.

By the end of the 2021/22 school year, more than 12 400 schools were closed in eight countries – Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Niger and Nigeria – because they were the target of attacks by armed groups or because teachers had fled.

Parents were too frightened to send their children to school or were themselves in the process of repeated forced displacement to safer areas.

The conflict has severely affected access to and continuity of learning. One hopes for better in the new year.

One of the high points for education in Africa occurred in November at a meeting hosted by the UCT of the African Research Universities Alliance (Arua) and The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities.

In a challenging year in South Africa and on the continent, the summit of more than 30 university leaders from Africa and Europe was a bright spot as it looked at developing new types of institutional partnerships to build long-term research capacity in African universities.

They discussed the formation of clusters of excellence with multimillion euros in funding, bringing the two powerful alliances together to tackle the grand challenges of the 21st century.

Arua has previously established 13 Centres of Excellence, each focusing on the challenges the continent faces.

The centres have already played a significant role in fostering collaboration on the continent and providing solid instruments that promote African-centred knowledge.

Inevitably, now that the turkey is done and the new year has kicked in, South Africans will begin the countdown towards the annual public relations pomp around the announcement of the national senior certificate (NSC) exam results for the Class of 2022. Last year’s pass mark for the class of 2021 was 76.4%.

This year’s matric class should do better, given that pupils have enjoyed a full year of contact education in the classroom. Covid-19 disrupted matric preparations in 2020 and the following year.

As reported, the harsh reality is that a bleak future awaits most of South Africa’s matriculants.

An estimated 450 000 matriculants have joined the ranks of the unemployed.

Not everybody will get into university. Last year almost 900 000 pupils sat the exams, with only 127 000 varsity places up for grabs.

The skills training offered at 50 Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) colleges throughout the country should not be discounted, provided they up their game in terms of quality offerings.

Indeed, the government has pumped billions into TVET colleges to ensure that the country churns out the necessary skills to contribute to the economy and job creation.

Naidu is the impact editor of SciDev. Net and heads Higher Education Media Services – a social enterprise start-up involved in education in South Africa and the African continent.

Cape Times

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Independent Media or IOL.