Increase matric pass rate to 50% to solve funding

IN RESPONSE to the article penned by Nyaniso Qwesha (14 April) and your main article next to your editorial SOS to the private sector).

I have a better solution/suggestion. Why does the government not increase the matric pass rate to 50% as it should been done long ago as a priority and so we won’t have an incompetent lot of university students entering, wasting billions?

In the first year, you have anything between 50% and 65% of them drop out, as they realise that they cannot cope. In the mean time, a huge amount of money has gone down the black hole instead of helping support and educate one who has the potential to finish their studies.

At the same time, it will alleviate the pressure on a stressed to breaking point fiscus that forced (Tito Mboweni) to rob Peter to pay Paul. We saw this in his latest Budget that cut money from worthwhile causes to try and plug the universities bottomless black hole that every year increases in size.

It will not be easy to fix over night but it will be simple and achievable in a surprisingly brief period of time. But you’ve got to want it to work and have the guts to do it.