Issued by Ismail Joosub on behalf of the FW de Klerk Foundation:
Last week, the Class of 2024 celebrated a milestone—87,3% of matriculants passed their National Senior Certificate (“NSC”), a record high for South Africa. On the surface, this seems like a victory. However, a deeper dive into the challenges facing the South African youth reveals a stark reality: While the country’s education system has made some strides, the future remains precarious. Three interconnected issues need urgent attention: The crisis of insufficient university spaces, the dysfunction within the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (“NSFAS’) and the questions surrounding the “real” matric pass rate.
The University Space Crisis: A Bottleneck in Higher Education
The success of the Class of 2024 in passing matric represents hope and promise for a new generation. However, it also exposes the severe limitations of our higher education system. While over 337 000 matriculants have qualified for university admission, only 202 000 first-year places are available across South Africa’s 26 public universities. The University of Johannesburg, for example, received over 118 000 applications for just 772 spots in the Bachelor of Education programme. Similar stories unfold at other institutions, particularly in competitive fields such as medicine. Wits University, for instance, had 16 214 applicants for only 257 spots in its medical school.
This crisis is rooted in years of underinvestment in the higher education sector. The Constitution, in its Bill of Rights, guarantees the right to basic education (section 29). While it does so in terms of access to education up until the completion of Grade 9, section 29 also lays the foundation for a progressively realised right to further education, which the state must make available and accessible to all (section 29(1)(b)). Yet, this promise seems increasingly out of reach for many. As universities….continue reading this article HERE.
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