Durban - Some South African universities - including some in KwaZulu-Natal - were guilty of dishing out a “version of Bantu education” to their students, rather than “challenging the socks off” them, Professor Jonathan Jansen said on Wednesday.
The University of the Free State vice-chancellor would not name the universities he referred to, but said the country’s universities were not all offering a consistently high quality of education which “stretched” students academically.
Jansen said evidence of poor quality was when the Council on Higher Education had certain degree programmes at a university discontinued.
He made the remarks in Durban on Wednesday, as the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Central Applications Office at Coastlands Hotel in Durban. The office is responsible for processing student applications to KwaZulu-Natal’s universities.
“Any academic worth their salt knows what a good quality university education entails, and that it must be offered in an environment in which the library is well stocked, and where more and more people are earning PhDs.”
Jansen said the standard of education was compromised where class sizes were too large, teaching was inconsistent, and students learnt from notes rather than having to read entire books.
Transformation would not be accomplished in higher education until students at all South African universities achieved the same standard of education, he said.
“Access is one thing, success is another.”
Jansen argued that the diverse range of standards for admission at different universities sustained a two-tiered (even three-tiered) system of higher education.
At one of the country’s universities the admission points score for teacher education was in the low 20s, while at other universities it was in the 30s, he said.
“Are those students really getting the same quality of education? Are we really distributing the same opportunities?”
Jansen said he supervised Master’s students - among them people from top universities - who could not write at the level expected of them.
Six years ago the undergraduate pass rate at his own university was among the lowest in the country, and rather than lower standards, his response had been to raise the bar for admissions for students, and for academics wanting to be promoted to professorship.
The pass rate climbed to nearly 90%.
Jansen said he refused to be told that raising the bar was to the detriment of black students, and that black students could not outperform their white peers.
He also drew a distinction between training students, and educating them.
“Training gives you skills. Education tempers your passions.”
Here are some of Jansen thoughts on education, race and role models:
* Introducing Mandarin at schools as an optional subject was political toadying. Instead, South Africa needed to get the teaching of English and the African languages right.
* Adding an extra year to all undergraduate degrees was a good idea, as long as those students who could graduate in a shorter period were allowed to do so.
* Introducing a Grade 9 school-leaving certificate was condemning children to work at menial jobs.
* The primary problem in South Africa was not spending, it was translating resources into results.
* Getting an education was not simply meeting the minimum requirements of a degree.
* South Africans had the wrong role models. Young people ought to look up to Steve Biko and Robert Sobukwe.
* How children behaved was a consequence of adult behaviour. Teachers who showed up on time, were prepared, and respected their pupils would see children respond accordingly.
* Make sure the people you have around the braai at your home do not look or pray in the same way that you do. ‘You don’t inculcate values, you live them.’
The Mercury