The significance of technical education in basic education : a case of high schools in Umlazi, Durban

Abstract

Education is a fundamental building block of economic growth. The quality of education in South Africa remains extremely poor, mostly in the historically-deprived areas; the schools do not even meet the basic learning infrastructure requirements, such as access to laboratories, libraries, and internet connections; and schools have fewer qualified educators than qualified ones. As a result, learners experience learning deprivation, higher-grade repetition, and dropout rates (Statistics South Africa, 2015 and 2016). The inadequate quality of primary education accounts for many secondary dropouts. Primary education in townships and remote areas fails to prepare children for secondary and tertiary education. For instance, primary education has not fully transformed from educating Black children to being “hewers of wood and drawers of water,” as said by Hendrik Verwoerd. The demand for skills necessary for employment and socio-economic development created the demand for some form of technical education and training in South Africa. The technical education and training system in South Africa is influenced by the history of the apartheid government. There is a lack of information and research on the contents of the technical education curriculum in secondary schools. It is evident that there is a huge gap between technical and secondary schools in Durban in terms of learner service delivery, such as performance, skill, and matric pass rates. The concentration should not be in urban areas only; learners in rural areas should be exposed to such education as well. To assess the nature of technical education in secondary schools in the Umlazi district, this study examined the significance of technical education in lower-level grade curriculums. Data was collected through a qualitative method with participants drawn from the community and schools in the area.