This all sounds great but I'm immediately skeptical...
How would they determine who belongs in which stream? I'm sure this can be done properly but will it based on the sheer number of pupils out there and the sheer incompetence sometimes displayed in some areas.
I'm sure the government is very capable of messing this up the same way they messed up the current system. But at least in principle, this is a BIG step forward from the current system where they absolutely insist that everyone must go to university.
I can indeed think of many pitfalls here, to add to the ones you mention. For one thing, technical and vocational schools will need suitably qualified teachers, which we are going to get where? Such schools also need specialized equipment and workshops, which we do not have. If we cannot properly administer even a single-stream system, how the hell are we going to handle three?
Still,
something has to be done or we are heading for total disaster, and this is at least a beginning.
At what point does this become a cop-out for a lazy teacher who doesn't want to teach so they just funnel as many pupils as possible into the lowest-denominator stream?
My personal experience as teacher taught me that, rather tragically, the vast bulk of South African kids NEED to be put in the lowest-denominator stream, because they will never master anything else. And just for the record, I was a pretty dedicated teacher...
And another danger is that they determine racial quotas telling schools how many pupils HAVE to be put into this or that stream, to ensure that at least some white kids also end up as cashiers. :-)
A friend of mine who travels a lot tells me this is pretty much the system they have in Germany, and kids are put into their streams very early on (like grade 3 or something). It inevitably leads to some unfairness, and some potential late bloomers not blooming at all, etc., but apparently it works very well for Germany's needs.
I feel "back then" white pupils were given the great advantage of being pushed to be their best. I fear our current system does not afford black students that same "privilege".
Well, back then, I seem to remember that different streams existed inside schools - they were known as the A, B, C etc. classes, and it worked very well. Nowadays that has become politically incorrect, to the detriment of the kids and society as a whole.
In summary, the government will probably freck it up, but for once at least the idea itself is sound.
