University Dropouts: An Education System’s Ceremonial Turmoil

Going to University is seen as a distinguished achievement, especially for students who are usually the first within their family to have been blessed with such an opportunity. With the limelight comes a bit of pressure stemming from every sphere of the student’s life, such as parents, religious/cultural leaders, friends, extended family, the neighborhood, and self. You’re not just carrying the title of being a university student per se, but rather, you take with you an extended legacy that your forefathers might have been deprived of during history and this, my friend, is the sort of pressure that many have yet to conquer.

This is not to say that the above narrative is why South Africa has one of the highest university dropout rates thus far. Still, it’s to illustrate that these certain complexities do exist, and therefore, dropout rates are not just a symbolism of lazy or aimless students as we would often falsely portray the youth at times. Statistics aren’t just empty numerals but rather each number represents a name or the life of a young being whose potential may never be discovered or it could be that they were failed by an education system that has yet to mold them for who they are meant to be in a productive society.

Which brings me to this question, what does it mean to be educated? Could it be that South Africa is still hanging on to an outdated ideology of what the average “educated” man or woman is supposed to seem like? If so, could this be the missing link to improving the way our youth views education as an entirety, a deadly oath rather than an endless opportunity?

According to the data provided by The South African Institute for Advancement (2021), South African universities are only able to accommodate 18% of matriculated students of which out of the 18%, a staggering 47% will drop out and if distance learning is considered, this figure would rise to 68%. While these figures pose a concern, unfortunately, the pandemic has exacerbated the reality to make it far worse as we see it to be.??

Jackie Carrol, CEO of Media Works (2018), stated that the reason why the dropouts could be so high amongst school learners and perhaps university students is because:

1. Leaving school to enter the job market to take care of their impoverished families
2. Child-headed households must leave school or learning institutions to take care of siblings.
3. Drugs, alcohol, teenage pregnancies, addictions.
4. Learners struggling to see the value of education, and as I quote Jackie Carrol herself, “This is especially true of children who don’t meet the requirements of their grades and who are progressed or pushed through the educational system by their schools.”

Source: Media Works 2018

As much as Jackie predominately focuses on the dropout rates applying to school children and not necessarily those from higher learning institutions, it is essential to note that the above reasons are just as relevant to a university student if we rely on circumstantial evidence solely.

In fact, according to a local platform SA Varsity Student, factors that contribute to university dropouts also include affordability, the teaching environment, academic pressure, and being forced by parents to do a course that doesn’t interest the student’s ambitions.

Recently, I took an interest in looking at a published review released by the South African Government, which illustrates the successes and failures of various sectors in the last 27 years of Democracy. However, the document demonstrated an increase under tertiary education with 58,560 students graduating in 1994 compared to 210,931 students in 2017.

While the improvement is commendable, only 22% of students completed their three-year degree within the three years time-frame. By comparison, only 39% had finished by the fourth year. Lastly, only 56% of students who registered in 2010 completed their three-year degree six years later.

The review had also illustrated racial measurements illuminating Africans, Whites, Indians, Coloureds, and others that have dropped out according to designated areas of study, course, etc.

This could slightly illustrate that most high school students are not as prepared for tertiary education as we presumed. The government’s intervention of lowering pass marks or eliminating crucial subjects as a way to cater for a transition of a student getting ‘’easy’’ marks could be more damaging than we realize, therefore leaving the student feeling unprepared by the time they enter their first year of study which again contributes to the university dropout rate.

There is so much improvement that we can make towards our education system regardless of racial, gendered, or cultural differences. For starters, we need to encourage the youth to be solely reliant on self-exploration and innovation. As much as the dropout rates in both school and university students is a cause for a myriad of concerns due to the contributions this has on unemployment rates, we would need to implement a strategy that caters towards a shifting society where books and pens are no longer a success guarantee, but rather technology, innovation, skillsets, and entrepreneurship are the new captains of an expanding futuristic ship. I’m sure successful, wealthy college dropouts who are today’s business gurus would agree with me, undeniably so.

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