One of the main reasons behind the country’s acute skills shortage is its fixation with requiring high school students to pass matric exams at all costs. This institutionally condemns those who do not qualify as failures.
This observation is made by Dr Kevin Kemm, a nuclear physicist and CEO of Nuclear Africa in his article. He argues: “Matric is not the only route to a successful career. The education system must take this into account.
“We need to generate a psychology that it is perfectly acceptable to leave school before matric on condition that the person continues to learn in some direction.”
Kemm believes that matric drop outs could be trained in all sets of industry, where there are skills that are not formally recorded.
“It is really important for the education system to recognise this. We must not just look at school as education in the formal sense. It is important that there is a formalised training of skilled people,” he says.
He recommends that focus should be on providing the band of semi-skilled people involved in panel beating, plumbers’ assistants and diesel mechanics.
