The Articulation Of The Secondary Education System To Tertiary Institutions In South Africa; A Deliberate Mismatch.

Authors

  • Zamokuhle Mbandlwa

Abstract

t South African education system during the apartheid government was a racially
separated system. Act 47 of 1953 gave power to the apartheid government to construct
racially separated educational facilities. The education system was designed to strengthen
the apartheid laws and black people had their schools of inferior quality while white
people have good educational facilities and a good education system. Universities were
also designed to racially separate people, there were universities for black people and
universities for white people. The apartheid government system was cruel and declared a
crime against humanity by the World Health Organization and the separation of the
education system based on race was uncalled for. Nevertheless, the pass mark either for
the whites or black’s education system was the same. The system had higher grades,
standard grades, and lower grades which gave learners options to choose from, and based
on those options, the quality of a learner was produced. Most matriculants with standard
and lower grade symbols were not accepted in many universities but legible for
employment opportunities. The current education structure of allowing learners to at
least have 50% in four subjects, at least 40% in Home Language, At least 30% in the
Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT) At least 30% for one other subject is failing
the secondary education system in South Africa. This article, therefore, presents an
argument and report that the current basic education system and the grading standard
produce poor quality of learners who mostly do not qualify to study at a university level.
Furthermore, the bachelor pass, diploma pass and certificate pass at a matric level create
false hope for learners. The government reduced the pass mark to obtain the higher pass
rate and use that as a campaigning strategy to obtain more votes at the expense of young
people. The findings of this study include the report on the arrogance of the key role
players in decision making on the basic education system. This study applied desktop
research methodology and the findings are based on existing literature, empirical and
theoretical studies.

Published

2020-12-01

Issue

Section

Articles