Bad schools breed poor students

2003-09-19 21:15

Alet Rademeyer

Johannesburg - Students at higher education facilities are not necessarily dropping out because of financial reasons, but rather because they are not up to scratch.

Academics are blaming the school system as only a measly 15% of students are graduating each year. About 120 000 students fail annually. This in turn costs the government an enormous R1.3m a year.

Minister of Education Kader Asmal said last year that too few students are getting through the system and the pass rate needs to be increased to 30%.

Dr Theuns Eloff, Potchefstroom University's rector, said he was not convinced that most students dropped out for financial reasons, as there was money available in the state aid scheme for students in need.

Asmal said earlier this year that funds available totalled to about R850m.

Eloff, however, is concerned that the school system is producing poor students who are unable to cope with academic pressure. "Good students are rare," he said.

According to him, financial help is available to any student who is accepted at a university.

Professor Niek Grove, registrar at the University of Pretoria, agrees that schools are delivering a poor product for higher education facilities.

Eloff said higher education institutes are going out of their way to support students by offering them bridging courses. "But sometimes even these students drop out," he said.

Grove said the University of Pretoria goes to the trouble of making students aware of help available and of informing them of aid schemes.

Professor Jonathan Jansen, dean of education at the University of Pretoria, said universities are being forced to accept weak students because of equality and to boost figures.

The reality of it is that an institution cannot get a student, with 12 years of poor schooling, up to standard within a year. The only solution is for the standard of schooling to improve.

Salim Vally, senior researcher for the Education Policy Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand, felt the reasons for poor performance was complex. Money might be available for poor students, but the question is how easily accessible this money is.

"The cost of studying is a struggle for many," he said.

Vally said the poor standard of students that end up at university could be a result of socio-economic situations faced by scores of school pupils.

The lack of books, learning material, laboratories and poorly qualified teachers at schools all play a role in how students turn out, he said.

- Beeld