Below is my response to the Green Paper for Post-School Education and Training, which was made public on January 13, just days after a stampede for registration killed one woman and injured several bystanders outside the University of Johannesburg. The Department of Higher Education and Training has called for public participation, and submissions can be emailed to hlongwane.z@dhet.gov.za.
South Africa's Department of Higher Education and Training could not have timed the unveiling of its Green Paper for Post-School Education and Training any better. If the debate surrounding the 2011 matric results had not been enough to bring public awareness to the critical state of our education system, January's literal stampede for tertiary education punctuated the matter with tragic eloquence.
Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, has taken on the vast and vital task before him with admirable insight and zeal. The Green Paper focuses on making post-school education more accessible, relevant and equitable while unifying stakeholders in their vision and streamlining excessive bureaucracy. As an integral factor in South Africa's progress, education impacts not only on the nation's economy, but also on social and national stability and much more. National debate on the Green Paper is as timely as it is crucial. However, if the goal of education and training is truly understood, there are good reasons to dig deeper.
With a constitution that is often described as the most democratic in the world, South Africa has long left the comfort of charted territory. The experiences of the developed and emerging nations may serve as guide, but cannot be directly applied to a nation that is so exceptional. With its inspired transition to democracy, South Africa leapfrogged abundant historical traps. If we are to do the same in our education system, our rethinking needs to be radical. Below are a few of the fundamental issues that call for more than mere educational reform.
Education Does Not Equal Employment
For obvious reasons the most-cited aim for higher education and training is employment. While employment is a key goal of the Green Paper, and much is made of ensuring a diverse workforce through various education and training institutes, it includes a table of chilling unemployment statistics for young adults at all levels of education. Despite skills shortages in certain areas (stressed by the Solidarity Union following the recent matric results), most young adults enter a hostile employment market – without the advantage of experience. Without job opportunities, job hunters are stuck, regardless of their qualifications.
If employment truly is the goal of our education system, our priority should be to train all learners to create their own opportunities. When we reach the point where every graduate can create a job rather than simply take one, the employment goal of higher education and training can be attained. By incorporating effective training for self-employment and entrepreneurship in every post-school training institution (and earlier), education can finally become an avenue for employment.
Standards, Relevance and the Holy Academic Cow
Raucous rejoicing in the ostensibly improved 2011 matric results could not drown out stern warnings that the higher pass rate was due to lowered standards. This means that while a higher percentage of school leavers now boast a matric certificate, that certificate, its owner and our nation are deemed less valuable.
Armed with these certificates, matriculants literally stampeded higher education institutions in January 2012, heading most visibly for the universities. While the role of universities in preparing certain kinds of professionals for a career is invaluable, the relevance of university education to the shifting demands of the South African workplace is worth considering. The unemployment statistics quoted in the Green Paper itself make it clear that university qualifications hardly guarantee employment. (Notably, these figures do not even include the staggering number of South African graduates who are working abroad due to limited local opportunities). Moreover, as much as a society needs doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants and teachers, it also needs plumbers, electricians, drivers, cooks and innumerable other occupations that call for different kinds of training. (If you disagree, you clearly haven't had a blocked drain recently.) Not everyone needs a university education. And if everyone had one, it would no longer be much of an advantage, would it?
Although the value of a university education can undoubtedly be tremendous, the stampedes of the past week make one wonder what motivated the aspiring students. Most likely it would be the dream of a better life, status and the prospect of a lucrative career. At this stage, though, it is worth remembering that universities were not established to provide any of these things. Universities originated to lead students to develop their thinking. It seems unlikely that the opportunity to develop thinking skills would cause a stampede, and one has to wonder whether a person who joins a stampede is in fact ready for university in the first place.
It is heartbreakingly ironic to see the youth of our fledgling nation embrace the hallowed halls of academia with such unbridled but misguided enthusiasm. In rapidly changing times it is vital that young people are made aware of other, more relevant education and training alternatives that address real needs in our economy. The Green Paper rightly emphasises the development of other education and training alternatives to prepare successful, ambitious young people for the many other essential occupations our society needs. The next challenge will be to promote these alternatives and dispel the bourgeois myth of university as a status symbol.
Self-Directed Learning for Education, Employment and Economic Empowerment
The influence (not to mention fame and fortune) of degree-free thought leaders from Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs proves that university is not a prerequisite for success. Learning and tenacity, however, are. If learning, as preparation for a lifetime of contribution in the workforce and society, is the objective of education, it is worth looking beyond the confines of formal education. Formal education, after all, is a relative innovation, though apprenticeships, practical learning and motivated self-study are as old as humanity itself.
Informal learning, specifically when it is strategic and self-directed, can provide a continuous process of personalised learning far beyond the scope of any curriculum. What is more, it can open avenues to new opportunities for careers of the future that do not yet exist. Of all the answers to South Africa's education/employment crisis (no hyperbole there: it is undeniably a crisis), self-directed learning may offer the most profound potential. What is more, it does not require state intervention as much as grassroots motivation.
A self-directed learner, if equipped with sound strategies, vision and motivation, can learn from the smorgasbord of human knowledge, rather than the constraints of a curricular specialisation. This learning can naturally be based on interest, but also directed by market needs. Such an approach allows self-directed learners to develop continually, embracing opportunities with bold initiative and the potential to keep learning more. Self-directed learning is dynamic, allowing lifelong learners to shift their focus to meet demand, rather than be trapped in one occupation that may become stifling, if not redundant.
Self-directed learning has become more feasible and rich than ever thanks to technology. One sterling self-directed learning opportunity is the OpenCourseWare (OCW) Initiave (http://www.ocwconsortium.org/). OpenCourseWare is a repository of free multimedia learning materials from universities around the world, including giants like MIT, Carnegie Mellon and Yale. While there is no certification, learning from this stupendous collection is free to anyone who can access a computer and internet connection. And there's the rub. Though the Green Paper explicitly targets discrimination on the base of the usual suspects (race, religion, ability, HIV status and the rest of them), it makes no mention of bridging the so-called digital divide, which cuts off disadvantaged learners from harnessing technology due to material constraints.
Admittedly, self-directed learning requires literacy, rigorous study skills and motivation. In addition, despite the potential for outstanding learning, the self-directed learner has no qualification to prove his or her capabilities. If self-directed learning is to empower South Africans, three key measures will be required. First, self-directed learning skills would need to be incorporated in education from the very earliest stages. Second, universal access to resources (print and multimedia publications, but especially computers and internet access) would be essential. Finally, opportunities for the fair accreditation of self-directed learners would ensure their accountability and credibility.
Self-directed learning is a radical notion, and clearly it will take a concerted effort to make it a nation-wide reality. Yet it is not that much more ambitious than the demanding brief of the Department of Higher Education. In fact, it may well be less costly, more cost-effective and far more powerful. It is not an impossibility. Let us not forget that there was a time when a democratic South Africa was a radical notion, yet this nation transformed beyond the wildest expectations of even the optimists. This country has accomplished the impossible once. If there is one area where it is worth doing again, it is in the field of education and its twin concern, employment. A culture of grassroots-driven, self-directed learning may well accomplish more than any government initiative could aspire to.
Conclusion
With the Green Paper on Post-School Education and Training, the Department of Higher Education has opened the floor for national debate and the opportunity to leverage learning for a truly better future touching every South African. However, like the struggle for democracy this battle cannot be left to the government, the experts or the youth in education. This is your struggle and mine. To win this one, we do need to get down to brass tacks, beginning with the three issues raised in this article: creating employment rather than employees, optimising alternative education and training opportunities and, perhaps most importantly, establishing a culture of self-directed, lifelong learning.
