Cape Town - President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged that efforts are redoubled to curb “the extremely serious problem of learner drop-out” by providing pupils with more choices in the education system.
“The improved matric results must encourage us as stakeholders in basic education to redouble our efforts to address the extremely serious problem of learner drop-out. Every year thousands of high school learners leave before sitting their matric exams. In many respects, the problem of learner drop-out makes the theme of this year’s Lekgotla even more relevant.
If we can provide learners with more choices and better guidance, we should be able to reduce the proportion of learners that drop out,” he said.
The department of basic education reported that about 400 000 pupils were lost in the school system due to Covid-19.
Ramaphosa was delivering a keynote address at the 8th annual Basic Education Lekgotla in Sandton Convention Centre on Thursday.
The three-day event held under the theme: “Equipping Learners with Knowledge and Skills for a Changing World Post the Covid-19 Pandemic” is expected to end on Saturday.
Ramaphosa said the three-stream model was critical if the country was to adapt and thrive in the new world of work. “The skills that our country needs, the jobs that can grow our economy, and importantly, the avenues for entrepreneurship that are so sorely needed, can best be achieved by increasing learner access to technical and vocational subjects.
I understand that various Technical Vocational specialisations have already been introduced in more than 550 schools, and a growing number of schools are piloting the subjects in the Technical Occupational stream.
“These subjects include Agriculture, Maritime and Nautical Science, Electrical, Civil and Mechanical Technologies, amongst others. These are all vocations our economy sorely needs.
They are the kind of vocations that we need to promote and develop if we are to tackle unemployment. The high number of unemployed young people is something no country can afford, but it is even worse if they are also not in education or training,” said Ramaphosa.
He said there was a need to pay attention to the negative impact of the pandemic on early learning because of the serious consequences for pupils later.
“We have to keep looking at concrete mechanisms to strengthen the use of technology to support curriculum delivery, particularly to learners from disadvantaged communities.
Care and support for teaching and learning must be institutionalised as a tool to improve learner outcomes and retention rates. It must mitigate against learner drop-outs and contribute to the nation’s overall well-being by investing in young people’s emotional stability,” said Ramaphosa.
Association for the Development of Education in Africa executive secretary, Albert Nsengiyumva talked about the importance of building a resilient education system to sustain the development of skills for Africa.
He said TVET enrolments must be a choice, and not an option.
“There is a need to remodel technical and vocational skills development (TVSD). TVSD programs must meet the demands of the labour market, ways to do this include integrating technology into TVSD programmes.”
There is also a need to rethink TVSD considering digitization and the fourth industrial revolution.”
Cape Times