The transition from secondary to tertiary education represents a critical period for South African students. However, according to Fundi Executive Head Benedict Johnson, it is marked by a high dropout rate of 60%. This is a silent crisis in South Africa’s higher education system that has far-reaching consequences for individuals and the broader society. This can be seen in the high youth unemployment rate of 62.4% from 2025’s first quarter. This sizable challenge in South Africa’s higher education system includes you, so let us start a conversation about it to unlock the youth’s potential and build a more prosperous South Africa.
A significant contributing factor to this crisis is the misalignment between secondary and tertiary education. A 2025 study published in the Journal of Education and Learning Technology (JELT) identified significant misalignment between what students are taught in high school and the prerequisites for tertiary education, which particularly affect students from underserved communities.
A likely contributor to this divide is the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS). According to Katlego Mabulana, a lecturer at the University of Limpopo, research has shown that students possess diverse interests and cognitive abilities, which requires a curriculum that accommodates individual differences to enhance academic performance. However, CAPS often takes a “one size fits all” approach that fails to address these differences, which results in academic unpreparedness for tertiary education, as mentioned in Mabulana’s article.
Do you believe that there is a gap that fails in preparing students for the leap from high school to university? How would you bridge this gap? One way could be through systemic reforms, such as improving career guidance systems and aligning secondary education content with tertiary education requirements, especially in underserved schools with insufficient resources and outdated curricula.
The misalignment between South Africa’s high school curricula and tertiary education’s demands is a complex challenge. It may highlight immense failure in the higher education system, but it also illuminates opportunities for national growth and collective action. It is two sides of the same coin.
The future of South Africa’s youth is not predetermined by current statistics, but rather by the coordinated actions of stakeholders which includes you, the student.
