“Johannesburg – Former president FW de Klerkhas labelled the education sector as “one of the biggest failures of the new South Africa”, according to an article on the HeraldOnline on Wednesday.

Speaking at an SA Teachers’ Union symposium in Port Elizabeth on Monday, De Klerk said the country was not ready for Outcomes-Based Education and would not be for at least 20 years.

The symposium at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University was attended by 800 school principals from across the country.

De Klerk said education was in a bad state and that “it hurts me to say it”.

“What has happened in the field of education is maybe one of the biggest failures in the new South Africa,” he said.

De Klerk cited a recent survey by Newsweek which listed the world’s best countries and ranked the South African education system 97th out of 100.

“Many of the poor states in Africa have better education than we have in South Africa,” he said. However, he gave credit to the new administration for acknowledging that education was in a bad state and changing some of the errors made in the past 16 years, including Outcomes-Based Education.”

- SAPA

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