Ido lekota

Ido lekota

President Kgalema Motlanthe has added his voice to calls for the improvement of quality education in the country if South Africa is to meet the demands of being part of the global village.

"I would argue that there is at present a mismatch between the needs of our economy and the content of our education," Motlanthe said.

He was delivering the fifth ZK Matthews Memorial Lecture at Fort Hare University in Alice, Eastern Cape, yesterday

Motlanthe said the government had in the recent past engaged higher education stakeholders on key issues relating to the role of higher education in South Africa's development.

"One crucial issue we have had to confront was whether our university system is geared to producing the ideas and technical skills needed by a globalised economy," he said.

Motlanthe said the country's higher education system - as an agent for change - could not divorce itself from the critical issues of democracy and good governance.

He said the country's education system must be driven by the spirit of Professor ZK Matthews, who believed that education was "the instrument through which the community achieves its survival in the environment in which it lives its life".

Matthews, Motlanthe said, believed that an effective educational system should give learners a thorough understanding of society and the wider world.

Education was meant to put people in touch with the whole field of human experience and equip them with skills to contribute to social development.