It is common knowledge that South African schools are in a generally deteriorating state of repair. This is a substantial problem with its consequences manifested in numerous domains of South African society. One area in which the detrimental consequences of our under-achieving schools is felt is within the tertiary education sector.
My limited experience has brought two concerns for our tertiary education institutions to my awareness. Firstly our tertiary education institutions are faced with a general decrease in the quality of under-graduate applicants. This trend is not felt as heavily in the Science and Engineering faculties. Rather it is the Hummanities faculty that is feeling the brunt of this trend.
One of the principle causes for this has been the introduction of Mathematical Literacy into schools to replace what was Mathematics Standard Grade. The failing of Mathematical Literacy seems to consist in its inadequacy for teaching abstract reasoning skills. Mathematics as a subject is excellent for cultivating the capacity to teach abstract thought, which is a crucial skill in the academic domain. Academic thought is generally abstract. Academics function in most instances from idealizations and for this reason consider problems in the abstract where theoretical principles can be purified. In everyday life abstract thinking skills are useful as they allow the capacity to engage in problem solving from a detached vantage point where the problem itself can be appreciated in its entirety.
The second element of the problem faced by our tertiary institutions is a pressure to produce results. This problem is felt throughout universities. I am particularly aware of it within the Hummanities faculty of the University of the Witwatersrand where Wits has placed a mandate to achieve an 80 percent pass rate. This pressure from above within the university results in a decrease in the standard of the education received by under-graduates. The primary mandate of the university then is to focus on results rather than concentrate on providing quality education. This combined with the deteriorating quality of new applicants has resulted in practices such as pushing students through and lowering the difficulty of the content covered in the courses offered.
Both problems have the same cause. The cause is the results focused strategy adopted towards the problem of education within South Africa. Schools will often push students towards easier subjects, particularly Mathematical Literacy, in order to preserve pass rates. We see both in Universities and in schools then the tendency to sacrifice quality of education for higher pass rates as a consequence of this results focused strategy. This is a concerning trend.
Whilst this strategy may have the “benefit” of making things look a bit better in the short term, the long term consequences will be anything but 
beneficial. We should remind ourselves of what role education should ideally play in our society. Ideally education should play the role of producing and cultivating human excellence. If it is human excellence that is the mandate of education, and not impressive pass rates, then we have to accept that the South African Strategy for education is chronically misguided. But what are we to do?
What is clear is that education requires a new approach and I think it is past time that we start having some constructive discussions regarding this issue. Happily I think there are approaches out there. The solution to our failing strategy is to cultivate educators who have the capacity to unlock the potential of our youth. For an exploration into what this would involve please read: Etsko Schuitema: Coaching and Mentoring and the Issue of Intent, Part 1.
For some independent discussion of the South African education strategy see: Minister wrong to say “better results” show SA education is improving