{"id":13937,"date":"2012-08-27T15:18:25","date_gmt":"2012-08-27T13:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/08\/student-drop-outs-spell-doom\/"},"modified":"2012-08-27T15:18:25","modified_gmt":"2012-08-27T13:18:25","slug":"student-drop-outs-spell-doom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/student-drop-outs-spell-doom\/","title":{"rendered":"Student drop-outs &#8216;spell doom&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        \t                                <!-- Main Editorial Image --><br \/>\n                    \t\t\t      \t\t\t                                                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/6d50b_1528633342.jpg\" alt=\"Copy of ct Minister Deputy 0124b (2)\" class=\"pics\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"captions_credit_article\">\n<p class=\"captions\">Deputy Minister of Higher Education Mduduzi Manana<\/p>\n<p class=\"captions\">\n<p class=\"related_articles\">Related Stories<\/p>\n<ul class=\"menu_tab_lists_related\">\n<li><a class=\"related_articles\" href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za:80\/mercury\/sa-s-public-schooling-gets-an-f-1.1370452\">SA&#8217;s public schooling gets an F<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--PSTYLE=WT Web Text--><\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Education stakeholders have warned that the student drop-out rate from universities is a \u201cwaste\u201d of resources and threatens to doom an entire generation to \u201cunemployment, despondency and social ills\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Concern over the low number of students who make it to graduation has been raised by the government and the private sector on separate occasions recently. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">At a scholarship award ceremony at the University of KwaZulu-Natal last week, Deputy Minister of Higher Education Mduduzi Manana said the government had broadened access to universities, but students needed to put in hard work to \u201cobtain knowledge\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Manana said the pass rates at universities remained low. \u201cOnly a third of students enrolled at university completed their studies within record  [stipulated] time, and only one in three graduates within four years. Many simply give up and drop out before completing their studies,\u201d he said.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">This was a waste of \u201chuman capacity\u201d, and of private and public resources. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Many who arrived at university were either academically \u201cunder-prepared\u201d for tertiary education or played harder than they worked.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The government has earmarked R5.1 billion in loans and scholarships for the current financial year via the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. A report by the International Education Association of SA noted that in 2009, 48 percent of students who borrowed from the scheme never completed their studies. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The scheme\u2019s 2011 annual report stated that of R3.7 billion in loans and bursaries, the amount paid back that same year was R638 million.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cEvery year a student spends in addition to the regulation time of study, means that another deserving student must be denied access,\u201d Manana said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Cape Town-based educationist Godfrey Madanhire pegged the university drop-out rate at nearly 50 percent. He said the problem lay with high schools. \u201cHigh school pupils are pushed to pass, they\u2019re not prepared for tertiary education \u2013 or for life. They experience a culture shock when admitted to university, and can\u2019t adjust.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">He said life orientation was important for helping pupils of different abilities choose the right subjects for their future careers. \u201cI visit many schools, and during that class pupils play around, do their maths homework or don\u2019t attend at all,\u201d Madanhire said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deputy Minister of Higher Education Mduduzi Manana Related Stories SA&#8217;s public schooling gets an F Education stakeholders have warned that the student drop-out rate from universities is a \u201cwaste\u201d of resources and threatens to doom an entire generation to \u201cunemployment, despondency and social ills\u201d. Concern over the low number of students who make it to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-13937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}