High drop-out rate may doom pupils

High student drop-out rates waste resources and threatens to doom entire generations to social ills. Picture: Jack Lestrade.

Durban - Education stakeholders have warned that the student drop-out rate from universities is a “waste” of resources and threatens to doom an entire generation to “unemployment, despondency and social ills”.

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.

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 “obtain knowledge”.

Manana said the pass rates at universities remained low. “Only 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,” he said.

This was a waste of “human capacity”, and of private and public resources.

Many who arrived at university were either academically “under-prepared” for tertiary education or played harder than they worked.

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.

The scheme’s 2011 annual report stated that of R3.7 billion in loans and bursaries, the amount paid back that same year was R638 million.

“Every year a student spends in addition to the regulation time of study, means that another deserving student must be denied access,” Manana said.

Cape Town-based educationist Godfrey Madanhire pegged the university drop-out rate at nearly 50 percent. He said the problem lay with high schools. “High school pupils are pushed to pass, they’re not prepared for tertiary education – or for life. They experience a culture shock when admitted to university, and can’t adjust.”

He said life orientation was important for helping pupils of different abilities choose the right subjects for their future careers. “I visit many schools, and during that class pupils play around, do their maths homework or don’t attend at all,” Madanhire said. - The Mercury