Food for thought

In 1994 when South Africans voted in Nelson Mandela's government in the country's first democratic election, education was the way to raise the level of the black population. Now, as South Africa grapples with poverty, economic inequality, crime, and soaring youth unemployment (welcome to the capitalist norm), the education system, which is training for a job, hasn't done anything to change South Africa. Of the 1.1 million born since 1994, less than half have taken the Graduation Exam and the ones who take it and pass (75%) are receiving something less than valid as pass marks hover around the 30-40% range, something that probably wouldn't get them a job if any were available. This is a failure of capitalist education that is job oriented and not to develop one's knowledge and person to the fullest. John Ayers