Attract youth to academia says Zuma

President Jacob Zuma has urged more young people to consider a career in academia as South Africa is seriously short of experienced academics who remain a reservoir of knowledge for the country. Image: NNDB

One fifth of academics - many of whom are professors - will retire within a decade and this implies that most experienced academics will be leaving higher education.

"The country needs to produce more researchers and more younger lecturers. The focus of government, through the Department of Higher Education, is to grow the number of graduates from black communities and attract them into academic careers," said Zuma.

"We need to make academia exciting for our youth," he added as this will help to produce more intellectuals who will contribute to making the country more prosperous.

He believed that the two new universities, Sol Plaatje University in the Northern Cape and the University of Mpumalanga with a campus opened in Nelspruit, will contribute to producing more academics for the country.

The President was speaking at the 1st anniversary of the Progressive Professionals Forum in Midrand.

Academics are a reservoir of knowledge for society

Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande says that academic institutions are still battling with transformation and draft regulations are in place to improve transformation at universities. Image: GCIS

Zuma said professionals and the intelligentsia were a critical reservoir of knowledge in any society and acted as a barometer of the progress the country is making.

It is for this reason that government has set high targets for socio-economic advancement, especially education in the country.

He said the targets include producing more than 50,000 engineers, more than 50,000 animal and human health graduates and more than 40,000 teachers by 2014.

However, Zuma said these targets were not sufficient to meet the future demand for teachers, particularly at the foundation level.

"Without good teachers, our targets of boosting the level of education and skills development in the country will fall flat," he said, calling on professionals to partner with government in promoting teacher development.

Education is a tool for emancipation

Zuma emphasised that education was the most effective instrument to address poverty and inequality.

"Higher education on its own is a powerful tool of emancipation for our people. It is also a powerful tool that will enable us to produce progressive intellectuals to participate in the battle of ideas and the ideological struggles that will move our country forward," he said.

"Students must emerge from universities as patriotic citizens willing to participate both in the conceptualisation and implementation of our progressive programme to transform society," he claimed.

Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande acknowledged that they were still battling with transformation.

"We still have universities where residences are reserved for whites," he said.

He said his department had recently introduced a draft policy on social inclusion in the post-school education and training system, which will ensure that educational institutions recognise and promote integration.