What it is that constitutes success in the 21st century has to be defined.

Similarly, the criteria used to determine success in the industrial age as compared to success in today's knowledge age.

Relevance is, therefore, the operative word.

Active teachers in South African schools today are mostly between the ages of 40 and 55, suggesting that much of the content taught and methodologies suggested could be obsolete, less relevant or irrelevant.

The need for the retraining and reskilling of teachers therefore becomes inevitable, even when fair numbers of teachers continue to improve and upgrade their qualifications, skills and knowledge base.

It is my guess that student numbers will stabilise in schools where relevance substitutes convention in course material and subject content. We today live in an almost borderless economy; social networking is instant, and books can be accessed online. In South Africa, the effect of these changes is, to an extent, reflected in the approximately 600000 graduates reportedly not able to find employment commensurate with their qualifications.

Furthermore, an untested view attributes the drop-out rate in South African schools partially to the phenomenon of a non-demanding, conventional education order, primarily focused on academic knowhow with little or no opportunity for expression of natural, individual talent, skill or creativity. How do we provide pupils with the space and opportunity for self-expression of ability, skill or talent, academically or otherwise, in schools?

For starters, this cannot be achieved by schools alone. Collaborative partnerships between but not restricted to schools, sport bodies, business, industry, commerce, the arts, the Setas, FET colleges, civic organisations, NGOs and so on could possibly provide the contextual milieu within which a transformed national educational arrangement can occur.

The idea is to initially have two categories of formal school-based education: academic and vocational.

A student aptitude assessment, done at the beginning of the senior phase, Grade 7, is envisaged. The results will be used to determine the type of educational training the student is predisposed to and with which he or she has a greater chance at being successful in carving a career path aligned to his/her natural ability. Grade 9, as is presently the case, is regarded as an "exit" point from the generic school programme. From here on, both the vocational and academic training programmes are to co-exist as options within the school's FET programme, that is, Grade 10 up to and including Grade 12. Guided and informed by the results of the aptitude assessment done at the beginning of Grade 7 and subsequent performance, a student would then register with either the academic or vocational unit in the school. Language competency teaching and basic life-orientation is taught in both the training options. The idea is for the state and its partner organisations to be joint custodians of all students in the dual training programme, at schools up to and including Grade 12. The vocational programme is to function alongside and not separate from the academic option.

Political will is regarded as the primary resource.

Existing schools' infrastructure could be utilised through the selecting, expanding or reassigning of identified centres for this purpose. The stability in and quality of university education however, is not to be understated, nor is its role in producing world-class competencies through its graduates and diplomats.