Lesufi concerned that Gauteng learners are ‘no longer willing to do accounting’

Gauteng MEC for education Panyaza Lesufi has expressed concern over the lack of interest learners in his province have in taking Accounting as a school subject.

According to him, the number of learners doing the subject has dropped from 35,139 in 2008 to 14,768 in 2019, meaning “almost half our learners are no longer willing to do accounting”.

“We’ve got a serious problem here,” he added.

Lesufi based his tweet on a Gauteng government slide, titled ‘Comparison of critical subjects enrollments over years’.

The slide shows Economics suffering a similar albeit lesser decline to Accounting as a subject, with 31,856 learners enrolling in 2008 vs 23,856 in 2019.

The MEC appears to be concerned that the drop in interest in Accounting (and perhaps the drop in interest in Economics too) indicates that this generation is not sufficiently interested in entrepreneurship.

When a Twitter user responding to the tweet asked if Lesufi and his department were on “a mission of killing entrepreneurship”, he responded: “Surely not, that’s why we are worried.”

In Gauteng , Accounting as a subject may come to an end. In 2008 we had 35 139 learners taking accounting but in 2019 this number dropped badly to 14 768 learners, so almost half of our learners are no longer willing to do accounting. We’ve a serious problem here. #MatricFigures pic.twitter.com/UgEMflXEip

— Panyaza Lesufi (@Lesufi) January 7, 2020

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)

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