One of the things that drives me crazy about Mtuseni is when he doesn’t apply himself. Because he truly is a bright kid. We’ve had phone conversations about issues where I think, “Damn, we should be having this discussion over a couple of pints in wood-paneled bar.” He’s always thinking big thoughts, has big (sometimes half-baked) opinions, and can be so precise with word choice it puts me to shame. So when he sends me writing assignments with almost no punctuation (which has been all-too-common), I lose my mind. Because he knows how to use it. We’re working on these “little” things now as he begins to grasp the importance of not doing things halfway.
His latest post came across the transom this morning — filled with opinions and most of the required punctuation. I only had to do a little cleanup. Check it out and click through to his blog for the rest…
Tertiary Education Entry Barriers in South Africa
March 2, 2013 by mtuseni
In South Africa it’s hard to go to a tertiary institution of your choice, especially if you’re from an unknown school or perhaps a farm school. There is always an excuse of some sort to keep you from entering tertiary if you are from an unknown school, simply because they don’t believe that small schools do educate.
People struggle to get into Wits University, because they look for ‘good marks’. But what happens if you have the good marks? I’ll tell you what happened to my friend. He had great marks but apparently he made a mistake in his application letter, and they didn’t take him just for that. So I don’t think our tertiary education system is fair or is run accordingly. Furthermore, they still take poor children’s money for application fees instead of refunding them if they aren’t accepted.
Can you just imagine how much many of these tertiary institutions make from applications every year? I wouldn’t think anything less than a million rand. Plus, you are still required to pay their tuition, which is more than R60 000. Depending on your choice of career it could be more.
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