According to university leaders, South Africa’s school system is failing to adequately prepare learners for tertiary studies. As such, these leaders are calling for four-year undergraduate degrees to allow an extra year to improve our young adults skills.

The Council on Higher Education has started a study on the feasibility of a four-year univeristy degree, a year longer than traditional undergraduate programs. This came after education experts started raising concerns about the state of basic education and univeristy dropout rates that are fast approaching 40%.

“The school system is not delivering the quality students we need, so we need a four-year graduate degree to plug the gaps …. We have an obligation to work with what we have.” said Albert van Jaarsveld, National Research Foundation CEO.

Adam Habib, University of Johannesburg deputy vice-chancellor, also weighed in:

Our secondary education system is not simply bad; it is also unequal. The top end of our system — our minority, not in a racial sense — are doing well … they are fairly well prepared.

It’s the bulk of our students, given the secondary education system, who are not performing and do not have the skills set.

Habib did however query how the proposed degree would be implemented and how it would affect learners who did not need the “catch-up”.

CEO of Higher Education South Africa, Jeffrey Mabelebele, said there were clear indicators that students were not coping with the cognitive demands of higher education, amongst them the high first-year dropout rate and generally low throughput rates in the tertiary sector.

Universities are finding that despite [bridging efforts] they are not succeeding in closing the gap between the initial access and eventual success of students.

Although the proposed four-year degree may prove to be a workable solution, it does little to resolve the issues plaguing the basic education system. Furthermore, if implemented, it could become a scapegoat for underperforming basic educators who may not see the need in fulfilling their role if an additional service is provided.

Let us know your thoughts on the issue in the comments.

[Source: Business Day]