With 337,158 matrics qualifying for university admission but only 202,000 places, South Africa’s tertiary education system needs an urgent overhaul driven by pragmatism — not ideology or populism — and by an assessment of the skills the country needs.
South Africa’s higher education system is over-dependent on a few universities. They do not have enough capacity to impart the knowledge that is mission-critical for growth, industrialisation and personal self-sufficiency.
Educational reform must start with abolishing the 30% subject pass rate, which undermines the country’s long-term economic, industrial and individual competitiveness.
South Africa needs an education system that includes universities, vocational or technical colleges and an artisan system. The school system must focus on mathematics, science and technology, and must inculcate practical life skills and entrepreneurship skills at all levels. Specialised sports, culture and music schools should also be part of the education system.
The post-war economic miracles in Japan, Singapore and Taiwan were made possible by technology- and science-based universities, combined with technical colleges, technical high schools and artisan systems. These countries also invested in sports, culture and music education.
The German, Scandinavian and Dutch post-war economic achievements were based on similar education and training systems.
The ANC’s major post-apartheid education reforms closed many vocational colleges and technical high schools and ended the artisan system, all of which have been growth accelerators for emerging market peers. The closure of the vocational and technical colleges, including agricultural colleges, collapsed many rural regional economies, as these institutions were also economic feeders.
South Africa does not have enough universities, particularly of the type needed to develop the kind of national and individual capacity that would accelerate economic growth. It needs institutions that will give people the appropriate skills to prosper without state welfare.
The new universities that were built don’t cater for the country’s industrial, development and skills needs, and don’t help students to become financially self-sufficient
The ANC government has not built enough new universities. And the new universities that were built don’t cater for the country’s industrial, development and skills needs, and don’t help students to become financially self-sufficient.
An emerging market such as South Africa needs technology, engineering, science and finance capacity, therefore all new universities must exclusively focus on these subjects.
South Africa’s historically disadvantaged — or black — universities in the rural areas should shift their focus to become technology, engineering, science and finance institutions. New universities must be located in places where they can promote regional growth.
The system of sector education & training authorities (Setas) are mostly sites of state capture and cadre incompetence and fail to offer relevant skills.
Vocational and technical colleges should be re-established in partnership with the private sector to ensure they are industry-relevant, not conceived by bureaucrats and politicians far removed from the real needs of society and the economy. Technical high schools should be reinstated. Specialised sports, culture and music academies also have a critical place.
The apprenticeship system, so critical to fast-growing emerging markets and so fundamental to the economic success of the East Asian development states, should be reintroduced.
The private sector should build industry-relevant universities, vocational schools, technical high schools and apprenticeship programmes — in the same way the private sector in economies such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan build these institutions in return for state support such as tax breaks, policy loans and export support.
Fostering a growth social pact between the state, private sector, civil society and professional institutions to strengthen the country’s education is more relevant than all of the meaningless social pact talkshops we have seen up to now.
The discredited policy of BEE, which gives political capitalists shares in mainstream companies, should be dumped along with the corporate social responsibility and ESG programmes that are often nothing more than PR exercises. Instead, companies should launch and support industry-relevant universities, vocational colleges, technical schools and apprenticeship schemes. This would be a major boost to growth and social stability.
South Africa could enter partnerships with trade partners to send local students to study science, technology, engineering and finance at the world-class institutions in these countries. Such arrangements would be way better than traditional development aid.
• Gumede is associate professor, School of Governance, Wits University and author of Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times (Tafelberg)
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.