If we eliminate failing matric due to Afrikaans, what will the percentage then be?
Wait I have those figures. 40% of matric failures are due to a 2nd or 3rd language failure.
And if we look at the figures shockingly, many actually scores A's in other subjects but fail mainly because of well Afrikaans.
Only about 8 countries in the world require you to pass another language other than your home language to get a diploma.
Imagine we can scrap Afrikaans and instead require a subject like Engineering, Robotics etc. How much better our pupils will become.
Yip Mechanical, Electrical or Civil Engineering at school.
How many of those countries have 11 official languages? Last time I checked, Afrikaans wasn’t a prerequisite for matric, but a 2nd language was. There are other choices.
But also, considering Afrikaans is the second or third most spoken language in South Africa, and still widely used as the lingua Franca in many regions of the country, it doesn’t kinda make sense to learn to speak it at second language (or what they now call first additional language) level. Do you have any idea how easy second language is to pass if you even remotely apply yourself.
Also, most South Africans already speak at least two languages, which is amazing, and should be celebrated more. Learning languages is incredible for brain development and you learn lots of other skills along the way without even realising it.
My opinion, two languages should forever remain compulsary, and maths lit should be dropped. There are a lot more useful things kids can do with the time they waste not learning maths in the maths lit class. That is a total waste of time subject.
You’re confusing education with schooling.
Nobody is saying reading, writing, maths, communication or problem solving are useless. The point is that those skills come from learning and practice and not magically from sitting in a classroom for 6-7 hours a day.
If school reliably taught critical thinking, financial literacy, contracts, taxes, communication and independent learning we wouldn’t have so many adults leaving school unable to do those things properly.
Traditional schooling is not the only way to learn, and it is often an inefficient way. For example a child doing focused learning at home for 2 hours plus reading, projects, real life responsibiliteis, sport, play and proper social interaction, can absolutely learn those same skills.. often better.
Homeschooling is superior to bad schooling, but it will never, ever be better than a good, traditional education.
If I need a subject matter expert to solve a very specific problem, I don’t care much about his all around character or social demeanour, as long as he is the best at his job, all good. I once had the displeasure of working with a drone pilot who was homeschooled. He was brilliant at his job, but he was a liability if you didn’t keep him locked up in his trailer with his VR headset on. If he came anywhere near a client you were certain to be in for a seriously awkward conversation - because this kid simply had no sense of social etiquette or how the world functioned in general.
So, if I need a leader, someone who can solve complex issues amongst diverse groups of people, think on their feet, and generally go above and beyond, I’m picking the guy who attended a big school, and stood out above the crowd - head boy, team captains those sorts, but from a good schools that had a balance between education, culture, sport and just enough silliness and tomfoolery. Those guys will blow you away every time.
That's a gross generalisation if there ever was one. I know a few dropouts who are probably more successful than you, owning multiple businesses, raking in millions a year.
Those are still the outliers. For every Steve Jobs or Elon musk or Richard Branson, there’s 10s of thousands of dropouts who couldn’t get anywhere in life.
