Rustenburg – South Africa has a vast shortage of artisans, the Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD) said on Tuesday.
"We do not really need more lawyers. Let us also include in our independent community curriculum basics of trades – plumbing, bricklaying and so on – so learners can see for themselves that these can be attractive jobs," said Mbahare Kekana, the national convenor of the new North West-based political grouping.
Kekana, a PhD student in political studies at North West University, said allegations of marks adjustments surrounding the 2016 matric results were disheartening to the F4SD and called for an urgent basic education imbizo.
"F4SD agrees that free schools have a whole lot of problems: teachers not qualified in their subject, big classes, poor facilities. Even those that do perform well do not prepare students well for university because you cannot teach critical thinking in a class of 50," he said.
He said what was lacking was the will to do better. "We have waited more than 23 years for government and we will wait another 23 years with the same result if we do not change."
Kekana added: "The first thing to understand is that education does not come from outside, it is about changing yourself. The Black Consciousness movement had it right in the 1970s with their focus on psychological liberation."
He said the country needed an independent education system.
African News Agency (ANA)