FOCUS ON EDUCATION

How ironic then the "brain drain" that we are currently experiancing! We have a huge number of vacancies that cannot be filled because a) there is no one in the country qualified to do the job, b) the people qualified to do the job are retired c) the people qualified to do the job are the wrong colour or not "previously disadvantaged - so we import the skills from outside of the country.

Go figure!

Regards
Nikki

One million job vacancies and four million unemployed people - that, says Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, is one of the key challenges South Africa is facing 12 years into democracy.
Speaking to the Pretoria News after his presentation of the Medium Term Budget policy statement to parliament on Wednesday, Manuel said while he was not holding out a "right-to-work banner", it was clear there was a skills mismatch that had to be dealt with. "If we do not fix this, we'll all sink together," he warned. Manuel said he was not criticising the education department or Naledi Pandor, its minister, who he said was doing a "good job", but the education system as it stood was not producing the right results.

To encourage a better match between education outcomes and what was required by universities and employers, Manuel said more money would be poured into ensuring that competent people were brought into the education system and that the teaching of science and mathematics was upgraded. But, he said, there was a need to monitor that this money was well spent and the desired outcomes achieved.

"We must put pressure on underperforming schools," he said. This was the only way to ensure a "cadre of people entered the labour market better able to compete". The dire state of education was highlighted last week in the Treasury's provincial budgets and expenditure review for the period 2002 to 2009. According to these reports, only 17 percent of matric candidates achieved the right to go to university. The Eastern Cape was the lowest with 8.8 percent; the Western Cape led the pack with just over one in four candidates doing well enough to study at university. Maths and science matric hopefuls fared even worse. Only 8.7 percent - one in 12 - of the 26 383 students who wrote mathematics on higher grade and one in six, or 16.5 percent, of the 29 965 who wrote physical science on higher grade, passed. These passes are essential for university entrance for many professions South Africa needs badly - such as engineering.

This article was originally published on page 1 of Pretoria News on October 26, 2006