Black students in the 80s ‘were not better’ than those now, Blade Nzimande says
Statistician-general Pali Lehohla’s submission that black Africans had less chance now of succeeding at university compared to the 1980s, has got Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande hot under the collar. Lehohla told the fees commission this week that between 2011 and 2016, the number of Indian and white students who completed their degrees had increased while the figure for blacks and coloureds had declined. He said that for every one black person who succeeded at university, there were six white people who did so. Lehohla said: "Blacks do not succeed at university. Though they were succeeding in the 1980s‚ now they are not succeeding." But Nzimande strongly disagreed‚ cautioning government officials not to make political statements they could not take responsibility for. "Normally it is not usual for one part of government to differ with the other, but I disagree strongly with [Lehohla] when he says students in the 1980s were much better than students now‚" he sa...
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