International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)
Volume 10, Issue 04, April 2019, pp. 212-218, Article ID: IJMET_10_04_023
Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijmet/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=10&IType=4
ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359
© IAEME Publication
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RECONTEXTUALISING ENGINEERING
EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA
Dr Kehdinga George Fomunyam
Mangosuthu University of Technology, Umlazi, Durban, 4031, South Africa
ABSTRACT
The state of engineering education in South Africa is a complex one with the
nation producing fewer and fewer engineers in relation to the number of engineers
needed with the nation. While the reasons for this are varied, there is a need to
reconceptualise engineering education to meet key priority needs. The engineering
curriculum must be reviewed and lecturer’s skills must be improved upon to ensure
that the process of training these engineers is responsive. The paper concludes that
educational reforms are unavoidable especially in engineering education to ensure the
field gets enough resources, lecturers are appropriately trained and students are
supported to complete their degree programs. Also, students should be encouraged to
engage in postgraduate programs so as to tackle in increasing need for engineers who
can reshape the future of the nation through creativity and entrepreneurship as
opposed to those would be seeking for jobs upon graduation.
Key words: Engineering Education, Transformation, South Africa, Higher Education,
Students.
Cite this Article: Dr Kehdinga George Fomunyam, Recontextualising Engineering
Education In South Africa, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and
Technology 10(4), 2019, pp. 212-218.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=10&IType=4
1. INTRODUCTION
Education is the most important factor for human development and civilization. “The
education system is seen as involved principally in the production of „human capital‟, of the
appropriately trained „manpower‟ upon whom economic development is crucially
dependent.”1 Therefore, the standard of education in a country is a testament to the quality of
graduates it produces. The apartheid system had a great effect on education; we cannot talk
about education in South Africa without talking about how it was influenced by apartheid.
The system was an oppressive one, a system dominated by racial discrimination where
individuals were treated based on the colour of their skin. While this discrimination affected
the blacks mostly, it also affected Indians and coloured who were treated as minority groups.
Apartheid denied these groups access to the same educational resources and opportunities that
the white people enjoyed and created a “policy for separate schooling and curriculum on the
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Dr Kehdinga George Fomunyam
basis of race.”2 Initially, most African schools were run by missionaries with some aid from
the state until autonomy was taken from them and became the responsibility of the
government which from that moment became conditioned on a discriminated curriculum with
African schools being neglected. This served the interest of the white government and also
helped reiterate the segregated system that existed at the time. During the apartheid era,
schools were not cantering for learning but for the indoctrination of the acceptance of a
racially discriminatory curriculum. Black people were also taught things the government
believed were appropriate and their history was presented in a crude form. Dr Verwoerd
describes the rationale behind segregated education by saying “until now he has been
subjected to a school system which drew him away from his community and misled him by
showing him the green pastures of European society in which he was not allowed to graze.”3
The aim of this paper is to bridge the gaps that exist in the education system by addressing the
challenges in engineering education and exploring ways to transform it.
2. EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA
After the dismantling of the apartheid system and the election of the first black president of
South Africa in 1994, a new era began in the education system. This new government sought
to dismantle the system of racial discrimination that existed in South Africa but this transition
did not happen suddenly, it was evolutionary and incremental as “implementing a change is
never easy or smooth”4. With the evolution of the new system came the challenge of creating
an equal and inclusive environment ensuring they had access to basic amenities,
infrastructure, health care, and of course, education. The effect of the apartheid system is still
very much evident in many undereducated, uneducated and miss-educated graduates in South
Africa including engineering graduates.
The education system in South Africa before the democratic era was tailored to fit white
people and a lot was done to make sure blacks were discouraged from seeking education and
many were not allowed access to education and training. There existed an isolation of its
“universities from the mainstream of research and intellectual exchange with serious
consequence for the quality of graduates and for the education and training of black
academics and professional.”5 As a result of the abolition of the policy of segregation, the
need to integrate student of all colour became paramount to the change in the demography of
students in universities and technological institutions. However, this created a problem of
absorption, by absorption, that is the inclusion and participation of blacks into the system they
were segregated from. This resulted in practical challenges as most of the previously excluded
people lacked the capital to navigate their way in the new system they were thrown into or Dr
Verwoerd puts it “the lack of business and technical skills amongst the majority of the black
population”6 made them disadvantaged among their peers creating a lack of proper skills and
training that places them at a position of need, a need for educational transformation.
Education in South Africa is governed by two departments: the Department of Basic
Education and the Department of Higher Education and Training. Where the one is
responsible for primary and secondary schools (grade 1-9 and 10-12 respectively), the other,
is responsible for tertiary education and vocational training. The Department of Basic
Education deals with public and private schools which cater for early childhood development
and also cater for children with special needs while the Department of Higher Education and
Training deals with post- education and training.
The focus of this paper is higher education in general and engineering education in
particular. Higher education in South Africa is provided through a number of privately owned
and state managed institutions which is under the supervision of the Department of Higher
Education and Training. Higher education in South Africa involves attaining bachelor‟s, a
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Recontextualising Engineering Education In South Africa
master‟s or doctoral degree, and includes vocational courses. Bachelor degree programs are
generally three year programmes while those in a technological and education fields are
generally four years‟ degree programmes. If students wish to further their studies, they will
need to study for a period of one year specialising in a subject for the Bachelor of Arts or
Science degree which will bring them to level 8 on the National Quality Framework. This is
because a bachelor degree is not sufficient for admission into a master‟s degree program is
pitched at level 9 on the National Quality Framework while a doctoral degree program is a
level 10.
Engineering Education in South Africa, Challenges and Transformation trends
Black, coloured and Indian students were discriminated against in terms of education and this
resulted in low performance particularly in subjects like mathematics and science and “South
Africa is particularly lacking behind the rest of the world”7. This “low performance of student
indicates a deep rooted incompetence in the majority of the schools”8 and as a result,
“disappointingly, few African learners are acquiring the senior certificate pass in mathematics
and science… limiting enrolment in these degrees”8, as good maths and science result are
prerequisite of being accepted into engineering degrees thereby creating “shortage of
engineers”10 in South Africa particularly black scientist and engineers in the future. It has
been observed that teachers are not committed to the job and profession. A lot of under
qualified teachers exist in the system and are most concentrated in areas where they can least
be afforded “young people who live in neighbourhoods with bad schools and little support
struggle to access appropriate training opportunities”11.Due to the lack of commitment and
absenteeism of teachers, some teachers do not come to work, some leave the class too early
and spend only a few hour in the classroom. Strategies have to be put in place to attract,
motivate and retain teachers in South Africa, policies of compensation and the introduction of
incentives and reward can motivate teachers to not only show committment but also work
hard. “The importance of developing and protecting a South African higher education system
of quality cannot be over emphasized”12 A country such as South Africa with an expanding
industry needs to educate its best engineers especially engineering lecturers. As one of the
problems facing engineering education is a “short supply of new PhDs from which we obtain
our lecturers”13 and the “inability for the system to produce sufficient PhDs so that a new
generation of academics and scholars are available to the system.”14 Lecturers of engineering
should be at a PhD or close to achieving their PhD as it is important to have a full
understanding of the subject being taught. Since this is not the case, the size of the graduate
student body has suffered greatly. This can be corrected if the benefits of attending graduate
schools and what it entails are promoted thereby motivating and encouraging students and
lecturers alike to pursue that path. Also, the quality of lecturers has a great impact on the
quality of graduates produced. This is because, teaching and learning is a correlative or
corresponding process as much as selling and buying. One might as well say he has sold when
no one has bought, as to say that he has taught when no one has learned this means teaching
and learning go hand in hand, though they are different, in reality, they are interrelated.
Jointly, they form the necessary condition for a student to assert that he has learnt or a teacher
to assert that he has taught. Therefore, “learning is a process that can be measured and it can
be improved”15 A lot of lecturers are not aptly qualified or skill in the science of engineering
and this is because they too have been badly trained. This therefore creates a recycled system
of bad lecturers and poor student. To end this, lecturers who are underqualified or not trained
properly should be enrolled for up-skilling and re-skilling programs.
Again, it is of great importance at this point to examine what exactly consist of our
engineering curriculum. The apartheid curriculum did not prepare students to meet the
challenges of globalization and recent trends in engineering. As such, a reformed curriculum
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Dr Kehdinga George Fomunyam
that is innovative should be put in place with emphasis on mathematics and science, subject to
periodic update to keep up with changing times. In 1998 the new government introduced
Outcome Based Education OBE which was a replacement of the Content Based Education
CBE whose purpose was to improve the training of teachers and increase the learning
capacity of students and its content. Though this move didn‟t yield the desired results since
the curriculum was reviewed three years later, the government has to invest more funds or
allocate more funds to such programmes and education research to ascertain what motivates
students and how training can impact students learning. Again, the Department of Education
has a duty to hold provinces to the new target that should be met thus, encouraging a better
use of allocated revenues and resources to improve education in South Africa. Furthermore,
teacher training programs do not cater for the evolving needs of students and as such these
programmes should be upgraded and updated to meet changing needs of students9.
Another problem of engineering education is that most engineers spend the majority of
their time in management or “move to managerial roles or positions in the company they are
employed”16 and this shows the career path they have chosen. Evidently, a choice of career
path is determined by one‟s preference. For example, engineers who desire to hold a
managerial position have a desire for promotion while those who prefer the technical path
have a desire to be field workers therefore; more engineers should be encouraged to choose
the technical path. To transform engineering education, we have to take into consideration the
fact that the engineering profession has not been well promoted in South Africa “it is agreed
that efforts to create a sustainable future supply of indigenous skills must begin with a robust
campaign to promote the industry, its occupation and its career”17 Research has shown that
“fewer students find themselves attracted to engineering schools and the engineering school is
increasingly out of touch with the practice of engineering”18 To remedy this situation,
industry leaders should create opportunities for young people to take part in internships and
learner-ships to gain practical knowledge and also develop their talent, up-skilling and reskilling programs should be organised and these skills after being acquired should be
recognised by the appropriate body for example the Engineering Council of South Africa.
New emerging technologies calls for ambitious engineers willing to meet this global
context because the “problem that we have faced in our global community have evolved over
time yet, the education of engineers in some respect has not kept up pace with these trends”.19
In South African higher education institutions, especially in science and engineering
graduates are taught linear thinking approaches and are even made to study and memorise
these approaches forgetting that modern practice requires new innovation and creativity. This
shows that engineering “students were not taught to think creatively about problems”20.
Furthermore, “as a consequence of globalization, student need to be multi skilled, they need to
go beyond the normal routinized work done by content based education and apply knowledge
kills and attitude in an integrated way”21 to enable them handle the challenges that comes with
globalization. Such can only be possible if the engineering curriculum incorporates
interrelating programs that cut across all subjects to make sure engineers have knowledge
from a variety of subjects, including ethics, arts, literature, English and history. Engineers
needs not only be educated in technical science but also in soft skills as research has shown
that “graduates are not well prepared to become workforce of the industry because they lack
required level of awareness about technical skills and soft skills for contemporary job
market.”22 This trend should be adopted by South Africa in a bid to have the degree accepted
by international standard and trans-border certification of its engineers.
Those with experience in the workforce should be given opportunity to develop and learn
especially those with low skills and those who lack practical experience should be given a
programme that will bring them up to date with recent trends in the engineering profession
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and industry. “Engineering education is also affected by the accreditation requirement of
professional bodies,”23 and one good way to transform engineering education is for her
graduates to belong to a body that is known and recognized locally and abroad. The
membership of such body will give the engineer the accreditation that will enable him/her
measure up to other engineers around the world and that will assure others of his/her
professionalism in his field. The Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) is an example
of such professional body and its accreditation of engineering program is an
acknowledgement that the said programme meets the defined criterion of its regulatory body.
Below is a table of results of applications to ECSA.
Number of institution
visited
Application in
process
Refused candidate
engineer
Application
allocation to each
QEC
Not recognized,
closed file,
ECSA recognized
interviewed
Awaiting interview/
outstanding
information
Substantially
equivalent
qualifications
Washington accord
recognition
Asking for more
information
RPL
Recommended for
alternate route
Under appeal
20062007
20092010
20102011
20112012
20122013
20132014
20142015
20152016
20162017
20172018
4
6
11
16
13
11
10
7
8
12
166
77
54
47
15
2
1819
2
76
560
652
464
641
425
640
508
596
77
74
70
3
19
163
1
5
23
58
104
64
388
53
53
132
120
96
185
110
69
74
190
341
195
283
215
319
163
151
15
28
25
21
28
10
111
135
283
586
5
1
1
114
1
Emerging from the above, the accreditation statistic of applicant as seen above in the past
10 years shows significant increase of engineers being accredited with a large number of
applicant turn-up every year in a bid to be accepted into the professional body. Also, the
above shows that an engineer in South Africa knows the importance of belonging to a
professional body.
3. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
South Africa as a country need to not just produce and retain engineering graduates but to
equip them and help them become professionals with an ability to adapt to increasing global
challenge in their chosen field and career. The education and training of South Africans is a
critical factor, since “engineering and the profession contributes significantly to the prosperity
of individual nations and to the entire global community.”24 In conclusion, this paper shows
that “educational reform is unavoidable and/or necessary”25 and lecturers who are underskilled and not committed to their jobs need re-skilling and up-skilling programmes to keep
them up to date with the changing world. University curriculum needs to be updated to help
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graduates meet the need of a globalised world. More engineers should be encouraged to
choose the technical path. The engineering profession should be promoted. Therefore, “as the
world becomes more complex engineers must appreciate more than ever the human
dimensions of technology, have a grasp of the panoply of global issues, be sensitive to
cultural diversity, and know how to communicate. They must be far more versatile than the
traditional stereotype of asocial geek”26 making our aim to produce a new generation of
academics which is not only made up of black and white individuals, male and females but
the creation of graduates who possess the intellectual and academic capabilities related to
teaching, research, learning and community engagement which are necessary conditions for
transforming, reforming and developing the South Africa engineering education.
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