Vocational education in the doldrums

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The notion that we have excellent policies, but somehow lack the capacity to implement them, has become a too-easy cliché in our democratic South Africa. 

A case in point is the basic education department’s newly introduced vocational and occupational studies. 

This heralds a curriculum shift in the schooling system, in which the present basic education sector is to be equipped to strengthen the three-stream model — academic, occupational and vocational — to meet the social, economic and human resources needs of a thriving and globally competitive society. 

Of course, there is nothing wrong with the curriculum shift in theory but, in practice, there is everything wrong with its overly optimistic assumption that public schools can easily offer engineering, electrical technology and mechanical technology studies, given that we rank far below the acceptable global standard when it comes to reading, writing and arithmetic — the three Rs — the core of schooling.

Six years after the announcement of the three-stream model, little tangible progress is visible, though important developments are in progress. That there is a problem with implementation is clear but the reason for this deserves closer examination. 

In the case of the basic education sector, the hitherto slow and uncertain pace of policy implementation points to a more fundamental problem — the cumulative deficits of years of under-investment, corruption in the tendering system, failure to commit the necessary financial resources, lack of capacity, bureaucracy and poor infrastructure development and maintenance.

Of the more than 20 000 public schools in South Africa, only 105  were approved to roll out vocationally oriented and occupational curricula. Ninety schools have been audited to determine whether they have the required resources and infrastructure for the pilot to be sustained, leading to formal implementation in 2025.

These figures clearly indicate that the implementation of the three-stream model policy is moving at a snail’s pace. As a consequence, there is slim chance that schools will be able to provide differentiated pathways in the system to offer high-quality learning opportunities for all pupils by developing curricula aligned to vocational and occupational fields of study by 2030, as envisaged by the  National Development Plan. 

The fact that nearly 70% of schools might not be able to offer these new subjects suggests that this curriculum shift will expose the widening gaps in the system and the entrenched inequalities are likely to loom large, as we witnessed during the turbulent times of Covid-19.  

Though there are notional drastic measures in place to roll out the three-stream system, the state of the education system continues to draw public scepticism on its failure to contribute to the optimal development of school-going children and the debate about whether these new offerings will yield any desirable outcome is gaining momentum.

While the introduction of the three-stream curriculum model appears to provide alternatives to meet the diverse needs of pupils, culminating in a General Education and Training Certificate at NQF level 1, narrowly focusing on giving learners technical skills that are the least desired in the workplace will not necessarily make them more attractive in the labour market.

Pragmatically, the grade nine certificate that marks the end of the general education band of formal schooling might not create pathways into the further education and training phase, or to the world of work, other than providing career options in vocational-based qualifications such as the National Certificate (Vocational) — NC(V) in TVET colleges.

I am saying this because most of these learners have battled to master the curriculum in the academic stream, which is highly numerical and theoretical in nature, resulting in high dropout rates before grade 12. 

A major contributor to this is the large proportion of teachers who are poorly equipped to deliver the curriculum at the foundation phase. This is the main reason we have many young people today who are disengaged from both work and education. 

The questions that need to be asked are: given the fact these learners have failed to master the academic curriculum, would they cope better with the ambiguous and unenviable NC(V) qualifications offered in TVET colleges? If so, how can grade  nine learners make better choices about which learning path to follow, when the TVET system is so fragmented? And what impact would these new subjects have on the college sector?  

There is, however, growing consensus that the introduction of vocational and occupational subjects in schools will reduce persistent inefficiencies evident from candidates repeating levels two and three of NC(V) programmes in colleges.

Offering vocationally oriented subjects will significantly change the sluggish enrolment rate in TVET colleges and probably improve the status of the sector, on one hand while, on the other, the throughput will regrettably remain stagnant for as long as NC(V) stream is still with the college community. 

There are a number of NC(V) programmes that are not responsive in the job market, such as tourism; office administration; education and development and safety in society, which continue to create career blockages, leading to dead ends for students after completing level four.

For example, the study units of the safety in society course ought to equip learners with police skills and competencies so they can be easily absorbed into the police force, or collaboration between colleges and the SA Police Academy could occur. However, because of the lack of capacity in the sector, and being poorly assured, these students get their certificates and join the unemployment benefits queue. 

NC(V) has crippled the college system for the past 15 years. It has deplorably failed to achieve its objectives, despite being injected with tremendous funding.

In its fact sheet  on NC(V) throughputs, the higher education department acknowledges this failure: “There are inefficiencies in education investment when throughput rates are low; low throughput rates often result in much smaller class sizes at later levels of the NC(V) programmes which, in turn, increases per capita costs, as generally the same amount of lecturing time is required even when classes become very small.”

The fact that unacceptably large numbers of NC(V) students drop out of the system each year without completing their qualifications neatly summarises the problems in the curriculum that urgently need to be addressed to build a viable and sustainable vocational education system.

Another major inefficiency is the retention of failing students in the system. A number of institutions report poor success rates by course, and low completion rates. This means NC(V) enrolment from levels two to four is inflated by repeating students who have little or no prospect of completing vocational qualifications.

In its annual performance plan, the department paints a bleaker picture of NC(V) performance. The college sector produced about 10 920 students from NC(V) level four last year. If the system had achieved reasonable throughput rates, at least 45% would have been produced by the college system in the same year. The inefficiency of the system resulted in 38% being produced last year. This suggests the system is highly unlikely to meet the target of 75% by 2030 set by the National Development Plan.

How in the world are we going to function as a society with NC(V) students performing at this appalling level? Why are we as South African citizens allowing this to continue on our watch?

As the three-stream model gains traction, a new framework of thinking in the college landscape is paramount to making learning outcomes current and relevant to workplace practices. This would build confidence in learners after grade nine and give them appropriate and socially acceptable learning pathways.

A great deal of effort is required to correct the folly of the vocational curriculum — which has a disproportionate effect on poor people — either to phase it out or to subject it to rigorous re-evaluation. 

For this to achieve positive results, we need to introduce a system that ensures better accountability for college management and promotes more effective approaches to lecturer development. We also need improved access to new vocational qualifications with significant labour market currency in order to grapple with the catastrophic youth unemployment rate and attract millions of learners, particularly those who are neither in the education system, nor in the workplace nor being trained for work. 

Stanley Ncobela is an academic and lecturer. He is a regular contributor of opinion pieces on various social, academic and economic issues in the mainstream media and deeply committed to transformation of post-school education and training.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Mail & Guardian.