How high are standards in local institutions?
Thursday, April 26, 2007
About 15, 000 students were to be sponsored in local institutions approved by the Tertiary Education Council (TEC). The announcement by MoE elicited excitement in the tertiary education system in the country. It was expected the development would boost the local economy and help the private tertiary education sector grow and create space for Form Five leavers.
Several international institutions surfaced while existing ones made themselves visible to and applied to TEC for accreditation. The media bought into the idea, especially as it was realised that government was wasting money on foundation courses in South Africa when students can be taught here.
It is not uncommon in this part of the world for parents to actually punish their children when they show signs of depression associating it with issues of indiscipline, and as a result, the poor child will be lashed or given some kind of punishment. We have had many suicide cases in the country and sadly some of the cases included children and young adults. We need to start looking into issues of mental health with the seriousness it...