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"This implies that over 40 percent of our youth are not productively engaged. This is a huge wastage of human potential and a squandered opportunity for social and economic development," Nzimande told parliament.
After recent elections the ruling ANC split the education ministry into two departments seperately to address the challenges in basic education and higher education.
The country's education system is still hampered by problems of quality and accessibility 15 years after the end of apartheid, where education policies restricted opportunities for black students, leaving a massive unskilled population.
Nzimande said only 18 percent of students left school with university exemption, and suggested the system be revised to allow more students access to university.
"The universities themselves must come down a little bit from their ivory tower. We are not suggesting they lower their standards but also they should be asking themselves what role should they play to ensure that capable students can access higher education," he said.
Several changes to the curriculum over the past years in an attempt to address problems led to what Inkatha Freedom Party lawmaker Alfred Mpontshane called a skorokoro (broken car) type of system.
"Repair, start, push, start and push. The system is characterized by very serious policy weaknesses," he said.
Despite receiving the largest slice of the government's annual budget, pass rates among school leavers have dropped from a high of 70 percent in 2004 to 62.7 percent in 2008.
South Africa also faces a shortage of skilled teachers, with the attrition of some 12,000 annually.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said teachers were faced with high levels of poverty, youth criminality, hunger, malnutrition, drugs, violence and teenage pregnancy while poor schools remained massively under-resourced.
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After recent elections the ruling ANC split the education ministry into two departments seperately to address the challenges in basic education and higher education.
The country's education system is still hampered by problems of quality and accessibility 15 years after the end of apartheid, where education policies restricted opportunities for black students, leaving a massive unskilled population.
Nzimande said only 18 percent of students left school with university exemption, and suggested the system be revised to allow more students access to university.
"The universities themselves must come down a little bit from their ivory tower. We are not suggesting they lower their standards but also they should be asking themselves what role should they play to ensure that capable students can access higher education," he said.
Several changes to the curriculum over the past years in an attempt to address problems led to what Inkatha Freedom Party lawmaker Alfred Mpontshane called a skorokoro (broken car) type of system.
"Repair, start, push, start and push. The system is characterized by very serious policy weaknesses," he said.
Despite receiving the largest slice of the government's annual budget, pass rates among school leavers have dropped from a high of 70 percent in 2004 to 62.7 percent in 2008.
South Africa also faces a shortage of skilled teachers, with the attrition of some 12,000 annually.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said teachers were faced with high levels of poverty, youth criminality, hunger, malnutrition, drugs, violence and teenage pregnancy while poor schools remained massively under-resourced.
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