The Struggle continues....

First year students are being exposed to a debate that has been raging for some time now; that of the present day student when compared to the student of yester year. The students of today are not failures when compared to the students of yester years. From the continuous strikes and riots that took place almost for the whole year at the NWU, Mafikeng Campus to the students who are linked to racist acts such as those from the NWU, Potchefstroom Campus and UFS, you can see that the struggle for a good education has been ragging on. Students are faced with more challenges, who are they expected to learn when tertiary institutions are closed months on end. Those like Rhodes and UP are seen as some of top Tertiary institutions in the country, the students that go to the other institutions are in many cases unable to afford to go to them or view them as too up market. The country tried to make the level of education the same in the country and you can see from Universities like the former Medunsa that used to produce the countries top black doctors, has gone down and become some thing you would rather not speak about ever since it became a part of the University of Limpopo. How do they expect an institution in a different province, Limpopo, to run an institution in another province, Gauteng, efficiently- doesn’t the Gauteng province have enough well run institutions that could have been joined with Medunsa?
The education system is constantly being revised and re-revised by the different ministers of education; students are forced to study in systems based on those from UK and America whereas the are in a country that is far from those and none of the ministers stop to think about coming up wit a system that can compete on an international arena but still use the countries strengths to educate its students. Students are spoon fed all through high school and when they arrive at University they are expected to excel, a house cannot be expected to stand on faulty foundation. What was wrong with the pervious “bantu education” matric? The minister wanted more students at the level of foreign student, but don’t we have enough examples like Tokyo Sexwale and the likes that still got to the top with out constantly disrupted systems. What Naledi Pandor’s new system does is to give students more work; this does not solve the problem of having spoon fed matrics. The education system has failed the present generation of students. More and more students are said to be coming out of school unable to read, the teachers are tired of constantly being abused by students. The keep teaching children about all the rights they have and the responsibly towards them lay forgotten as the children stab the teachers. The education system today is a mess and students cannot be expected to flourish under such conditions. On the other hand they do add to the problem, by their extreme drinking habits and so on, but if it does not conflict with their school performance it should not be seen as an issue. Students to day are punted as having a world of opportunities open to them, but they can not utilise many of these because they are misinformed and the opportunities themselves usually apply to a select few. The struggle continues and the students of today will fight on.