2003: S.Africa: 75% of matriculants won’t get jobs

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Original Post Date: 2003-12-24 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org

I firmly believe that in years to come, people will realise that under Apartheid, blacks actually got better value out of their education than anything under the ANC. Maybe more get education (I’m not really sure), but the quality has definitely gone backwards. Education under the ANC is totally politicised and is a farce beyond belief. Teachers have lost their jobs by the thousands, schools have closed down, etc.

And if that’s not enough, at times one should see what the blacks do to the schools that were built for them by the new government. Many schools are vandalised. Equipment is stolen, windows broken, ceilings ripped out, etc. One can’t help wondering what goes on in their minds. They did this under white rule – and one could assume it was done out of spite – but they do it even under black rule!!

A close friend of mine was involved in a business where he wanted to put PC’s into black schools across the country. I was skeptical… but he and his partners had a big scheme worked out whereby they believed they could help educate millions of blacks… and they had buy-in from some influential blacks. As with so many things in this country… a good idea turned into a disaster and they lost stacks of money. My own feeling was that a PC is too a vulnerable piece of equipment to leave in these black schools… judging by the way they damage things… Anyway, my friend and his partners were thoroughly burned by this process, and their great ideas which could have helped millions of black children fell on the rubbish heap.

And that is the story of Africa. It is NOT that ideas are not tried, or that we don’t have brains or initiative… NO! Great, great, brilliant ideas have been tried, and MOST TIMES, WHITE PEOPLE were behind these plans… which could have helped millions. But in Africa, most things fail… because that’s the way blacks over here are.

I had my own bitter experiences with Zimbabweans in South Africa this year, and it just reaffirmed to me why black people in Africa keep on failing. I have since completely washed my hands of black Zimbabweans, who in the end turned out to be crooks and confidence tricksters. But… here’s the irony of it all… they will never make friends again who will help them as they were helped by white people. These people have a way, in their desperation, of burning their own bridges.

Africa under black rule… has an extremely bleak future. For those of us who see things close up, and get a chance to assess things… I can tell you the worst is yet to come.

Returning to this story… why aren’t their jobs? Ask the ANC. They destroyed all the chances of us getting massive foreign investment – just like Mugabe did in the early 1980’s. Wonderful, wonderful, GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES WERE FRITTERED AWAY… opportunities which may never return.

This article below lauds OBE which is being forced on the country. John Loefler of SteelonSteel.com and I discussed OBE many times. OBE is just going to dumb people down even more. As it is, we have badly qualified teachers and too many pupils per teacher… with OBE we’ll just churn out new generations of idiots. People with money put their children in private schools. I even know of one lady whose child studies at a school in Johannesburg where they get O and A levels which are marked in the UK. At least that child will get a decent education… but that is by far the exception.

In my daily job, I am a consultant in IT (computers). I analyse and design computer systems and also do programming. I am fascinated at how computer languages have become much more COMPLEX over the years. The latest languages are all OOP (Object Orientated). The languages have become very “conceptual”. If you don’t understand how they work, then you won’t be able to use them at all. And looking at these languages, and comparing it with the capabilities I’ve seen in local blacks – I can tell you an extremely teeny weeny number among them will ever be able to use this stuff.

I work in a department in a major bank, where we have 50 programmers. Among us we have 3 blacks – and none of them can actually do any programming worth speaking of. They get the very simplest tasks – and often can’t even do them. All the work – especially all the complex work – is done by us whites. We have some black managers controlling projects – but we have to spoon-feed them everything and tell them everything because you can see they haven’t got the faintest clue how the bank or the systems in it works. I’ve sat in on meetings, with extremely senior blacks – and all the thinking, planning and discussion is done by us whites. In an hour of discussion, the black guy will not talk once. The blacks merely sit back and say “yes”, when we’ve finished deciding on how best things are to be done. I wrote a Specification for a new system recently. One of the signees was a very senior black manager. You could see, he didn’t have the faintest clue what was in my document. A white guy who worked for him, checked out my document and told him it was ok to sign it now. This goes on across South Africa in probably virtually every business. Whites probably have 90-95% of the skills in this country – and in technical areas like engineering, computers, etc – whites probably run 99% of this country. Jan]

More than 75 percent of this year’s matriculants will not get jobs or a tertiary education despite having a matric certificate, says the National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa).

Matric results are also likely to reflect a lack of motivation among pupils that was a response to the country’s employment problem, Naptosa president Dave Balt said.

“Matrics are aware that whether or not they are successful, it is unlikely they will be employed. It is highly demotivating and does not encourage them to do well in their examinations,” Balt said.

“Based on the previous year’s profile, about three quarters of matrics will not be absorbed into the formal work sector or higher learning institutions.

“There is an enormous level of unemployment in the country and successful matriculants will become part and parcel of the queue seeking employment.

“At the same time, the curriculum in South African schools is under dramatic reform, with introductions such as Outcomes Based Education to improve the skills output and meet the demands of society. But it will take a few years before we can enjoy the fruits of the new curriculum.”

Balt said the subjects pupils chose and their reluctance to study those such as mathematics and science also affected their chances of being accepted by tertiary education institutions.

“Learners need to think about their subject choices and find a strong combination of matric subjects to ensure their acceptance into tertiary institutions.

“The majority of learners often tend to choose subjects based on the subject teacher or the way the subject is taught, which means the way in which subjects like mathematics are taught needs to be addressed.”

Balt said the dearth of finance and student loans would also affect the number of matriculants who received tertiary education. “Some bursaries come with conditions where finances are provided without accommodation, which could be a disadvantage for those who cannot afford tertiary education.”

Provincial education department deputy director-general Brian Schreuder said pupils needed to be helped with subject choices that would improve their chances of employment.

“Niche sectors, where there is a demand for workers, need to be identified. There needs to be a joining of hands by the community, parents and businesses to help learners meet the employment demands.”

This article was originally published on page 4 of The Cape Times on December 24, 2003

Source: IOL
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=13&ar
Source: https://archive.africancrisis.info/?p=102085

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