SONA: Not enough said on education

While President Cyril Ramaphosa touched on a few aspects in his State of the Nation Address on Thursday, an expert says he left the nation feeling that not enough was being done on education.

In his speech, Ramaphosa indicated that government aims to introduce a graduate recruitment scheme to attract the best and brightest into the public service.

Through this scheme, many graduates will get access to work experience prior to fully entering the workspace, thus making them more employable.

As per SONA education expectations, Ramaphosa touched on the National Senior Certificate and highlighted that the class of 2024 achieved the highest pass rate in the country’s history.

A total of 87% of learners who sat for their matric exams passed, and almost half of these achieved a bachelor’s pass.

This, however, has created issues at universities in recent weeks, including some students who had been provisionally accepted being turned back due to capacity issues and overcrowding in residences.

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Address the issues at Universities

Professor Kobus Maree from the University of Pretoria told The Citizen there is the address should have included the current capacity issues within universities.

“Government need to ensure that universities have the capacity to accommodate an ever-increasing number of students,” he added.

Ramaphosa noted that over 900,000 students from poor and working-class backgrounds received funding to further their studies at universities and colleges.

With the stigma attached to Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, along with their poor infrastructure and underpaid staff, students are often discouraged from heading in this direction.

“Let me be blunt and clear, we do not value as a society the contributions of those institutions strongly enough,” Prof Maree said.

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The president emphasised that to ensure that the economy has the skills it needs, it will increase the production of artisans through TVET colleges.

This is said to be part of the shift towards education and skills development that combines formal learning with job training, as highlighted in the Sona.

The implementation of Phase 1 of the comprehensive student funding model for higher education, which is set to address the needs of the “missing middle,” comes at a well-needed time. The model is expected to support approximately 10,000 students in the first year.

“They need to expand this kind of moral substantially because we need to support many, many more students,” Prof. Maree said.

Early childhood development

Expanding access to early childhood development (ECD) is said to be a main focus of the current administration. This will ensure that every child can read for meaning in the foundation phase, setting them up for success in years to come.

Expanding access to ECD will be possible by registering and formalising current ECD centres and ensuring that the facilities, training, and material they require to provide early learning are made available.

Furthermore, mother-tongue-based bilingual education will be implemented to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes, rolling out lesson plans, reading books, and other proven-to-work interventions.

“More than 10.5 million learners go to public schools where they do not have to pay fees,” said Ramaphosa on Thursday.

Be that as it may, overcrowding is still an issue in the same public schools.

In his address, the president spoke about the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act signed last year, which is crucial for ensuring that education is accessible and inclusive for all South Africans.

He added that the Minister of Basic Education will support the implementation of the Act by introducing national policy, norms, standards, and regulations to empower partners in basic education.

Hope for quality education, not just access to education, remains.

Addressing the issues mentioned in the Sona will be key to this hope.

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