[miningmx.com] — SOUTH Africa’s resourced-based development plans
were bound for failure if the country did not improve its levels of technical training
and technology development, said the ANC’s discussion paper on mining.
The document said a sufficient skills pool and technology development were required
for taking advantage of opportunities.
“The case studies show that countries that successfully utilised their natural
endowment for developmental purposes were successful at technical training and
technology development,’ read the report. “These countries included Sweden,
Finland, China, Malaysia, Australia and, more recently, Chile and Brazil, though the
last two are still well behind the Nordics.
“In this area we are failing, especially with regard to the production of matriculants
who are proficient in maths and science, which then constrains our production of the
necessary engineers and technicians, estimated at less than half our current
requirements.’
The paper said South Africa’s capacity for the development of mining and mineral-
processing technology has been shrinking, due to the demise of Comro/Miningtek and
the exit of major mining houses that now do their technology development offshore.
“Virtually all the countries that have successfully used their resources to
industrialise, invested heavily in technical training and development. Failure to attend
to this will severely compromise and constrain all our other resource-based
development plans and interventions.’
The paper said South Africa’s education and training challenges comprise both
quantitative and qualitative dimensions.
“At the schooling level, significant progress has been made in terms of enrolment at
primary and secondary levels. However, the quantitative challenges in education are
at extreme ends of the system: in pre-primary and early childhood education, and in
the post-schooling sector – specifically in vocational and technical education.
“Going beyond these enrolment deficiencies, South Africa’s biggest systemic
challenges in education and training relate to efficiency and quality,’ read the
document.
“The former refers to the fact that outputs are not in line with the massive financial
investments made in education and training, and are reflected in high repetition and
drop-out rates. The latter relates to the poor performance of a large number of
students in key subject areas such as reading, mathematics, and science.
“There is little doubt that improving quality of education provision at all levels
represents one of the greatest challenges to policy makers and implementers in
South Africa.
“South Africa fares extremely poorly in both international and regional assessments
of school performance in reading and mathematics.’
