By Levy Masiteng
Build One South Africa (BOSA) has challenged the government to change the narrative around post-school education, saying that university isn’t the only path to success.
The party said tens of thousands of young people will this week face the harsh reality that a matric Bachelor’s pass does not guarantee access to university, exposing a system that is increasingly unable to absorb the growing number of school leavers.
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“University cannot, and should not, be treated as the only legitimate route to success,” said BOSA spokesperson Roger Solomons in a media statement.
“The enormous mismatch between matric passes and spaces at universities highlights a post-school system that is failing young South Africans.”
According to Solomons, each year more learners exit the schooling system with Bachelor-level passes — a trend partly driven by declining matric standards, he said — while the number of available undergraduate spaces at public universities remains limited.
The result, the party warns, is a swelling pool of qualified but excluded young people left without clear or credible alternatives.
BOSA said that the crisis exposes a broader failure to properly develop Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges as a viable and respected alternative to university education.
“A modern economy requires artisans, technicians, technologists, digital skills and mid-level professionals,” Solomons said.
Despite this reality, BOSA said, TVET colleges are underfunded, undervalued, and poorly aligned with labour market needs, leaving many qualified students without a clear post-school pathway.
Solomons said he had submitted a series of Parliamentary questions to the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Buti Manamela, about the issues.
In his statement, Solomons said the party is seeking clarity on whether government accepts that TVET colleges must be strengthened to absorb the growing number of students who cannot access university, and what concrete plans exist to make this happen.
“This includes funding, infrastructure, lecturer capacity, curriculum relevance and public confidence in TVET qualifications,” he said.
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Solomons said BOSA also wanted Manamela to disclose the annual throughput and dropout rates at TVET colleges, nationally and per institution, the full transparency on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), including its budget over the past five years, how many students have been funded, how funds were distributed, and the extent of outstanding student loan debt.
Additionally, BOSA asked whether government plans to expand post-school capacity through new universities or colleges and if not, why such expansion is not being pursued despite rising demand.
Last week, during a briefing on the state of readiness for the 2026 academic year, Manamela himself said that an entrenched “university-only” mindset was deepening frustration and distorting public debate about tertiary education access.
“The narrative that the only option after matric is university is creating a sense of crisis,” Manamela said.
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