The lecture room is cold, and the lecturer’s voice is almost drowned out by my heart pounding right out of my chest. I am starting my path toward earning a degree in Computer Science on this first day of classes, yet I feel as lost as a needle in a haystack. I get nervous when I hear terms like “case-sensitive,” and right now I’m not sure whether I belong here. I hope that he won’t point to me and ask me a question; where I come from, when a teacher asks you a question, a stomach-twisting stare contest ensues. High school did not prepare me for this.

The roughness of the transition from high school to tertiary is just one of the consequences of the shortcomings of the South African school system, which is supposed to not just provide basic but also quality education to its children. At this point of the journey, most learners have already fallen prey to the harsh reality of not qualifying for tertiary education; or arguably worse, qualifying and yet not being able to afford the costs of this level of education.
I felt nervous yet should’ve rather felt privileged to be in this position. Poorer neighbourhoods in South Africa are home to schools with outdated facilities and an excessive student-to-teacher ratio that has become standard in most public schools. The average class size of the public high schools in rural and suburban areas where I attended was 50. This created a setting that was hardly supportive and gave disobedient students a place to sit in the back with little supervision. Often learners must share textbooks in pairs. While the impact of this reality is somewhat underestimated, it is questionable how learners are supposed to succeed with this shortage of resources.

The 50% pass rate for most modules, which is a sharp contrast to the 30% pass rate in high school, was another surprise to me in my first year at university. Although students who score at or below 30% in most of their subjects are rarely admitted to universities to begin with, the crux of the matter is that setting the bar so low has grave consequences. The effort in academics is reduced and many learners become set on achieving the bare minimum just to get through a grade. This also leads to high schools paying more attention to matriculants and neglecting lower grades as passing a lower grade is easier; but in matric, the school has its reputation to uphold, and a stellar matric pass rate to aspire to. Supporters of this low bar claim that not all learners aspire to attain a tertiary education. While this may be true, I suggest that the system should cater to these learners in measures that do not negatively impact most learners who do.

South Africa, like many other countries, is still recovering from Covid-19, and the post-Covid economy is one characterized by high unemployment rates. Among the unemployed population are graduates who find themselves unlucky, despite numerous attempts to knock on doors that just won’t open. According to Wolfgang Fengler, World Bank Program Leader, South Africa could potentially halve its unemployment rates if it were to match the self-employment rate of its counterparts. In other upper-middle-income nations (as per their GDP per capita), such as Brazil, Turkey, or Mexico, self-employment accounts for roughly 30% of all occupations, compared to only 10% of all jobs in South Africa. It is additionally worth noting that most businessmen and businesswomen possess some sort of tertiary qualification. This may be because critical thinking and problem-solving skills are not practiced enough in basic education but more so in tertiary. Renowned businessman Theo Baloyi has also stated that education did in fact work for him, but entrepreneurship changed the course of his life.
It is for this reason I firmly believe that high schools and higher grades in primary schools should gear learners towards innovation and creative thinking as opposed to focusing on getting learners through a barely working system. It’s essential to foster a passion for studying in order to create an atmosphere where students will be motivated to work more on their academics. Teachers and parents have a duty to take care of this. ‘Le o jwa le sale metsi’, a Tswana proverb that means ‘teach a child while they are still young and easy to teach’, suggests that a child should be instilled with a love of learning at an early age and at home.

The fast-paced and autonomous learning environment of university was not something I was prepared for in high school. As I stood on the North West province’s class of 2019 top learners’ stage in January 2020 I was on top of the world; oblivious to the reality that awaited me. Due to the emphasis placed on students in matric and my hard work that year, I was able to obtain the titles of best performing learner for both physical sciences and life sciences. But as I sat in a lecture hall, feeling like a bucket with holes that could not fully contain everything that was being poured into me, I questioned the effectiveness of the South African school system. As a purported cornerstone and foundation for success, the system falls short of its expectations.