3 years ago
1
ARTICLE AD BOX
Are we cursed as the black nation? Every January we deal with cases of huge number of poor black kids who fight for university entrance. Some are turned away due to a limited space.
For 12 years we attend school just so we can get a piece of paper called a matric certificate, while we get no experience. And if we fail to get it, we are considered useless by the society we live in. Some of us then resort to committing suicide; others become drug addicts, while another percentage enter the field of prostitution.
A life of a black child in SA is measured by a piece of paper. Julius Malema recently prevented a certain Sepetlele Raseruthe from becoming a Joburg member of the mayoral committee due to lack of matric qualification.
DA leader John Henry Steenhuisen is subjected to ridicule in parliament by his political rivals for his alleged lack of matric qualification. Former SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng was a subject of scorn and has been accused of running the corporation down financially because he didn’t have matric.
Apartheid has destroyed our minds with an imposed education to an extent that we disregard someone with potential to execute a duty as a nonentity as long as he doesn’t have a matric. The late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi once said that an imposed education is another form of dictatorship. Soon after uttering those words the colonies killed him.
Not to say I did not pass, but I will never celebrate passing matric as an achievement. Recent stats point to the fact that an overwhelming number of black matriculants from last year applied for R350 SRD grants. The future looks bleak for them. I see 12 years that got wasted on theories and compulsory useless subjects.
While a Chinese at the age of 15 is taught how to make a cellphone, a Zimbabwean charges you R1,500 for making you a sliding gate. An Indian at that age knows how to run a shop. Our education system makes us dependent and perpetual job seekers.
Samuel Radebe, Heilbron, Free Sate
English (US)