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Gap Year Yay or Nay?
Tag My School//the timeline//1st issue
July - September 2017
By Ndweni-Dumezwen
Taking a gap year is becoming a common practice after Matric for most learners, taking a gap year seem to be an in-thing these days let’s find out more about it.
Taking a gap year means that you are continuing with your studies after Matric for a year. Normally people do this to take a break from studying, do something else for a year to help you figure out what is it that want to do. Others take a gap year so they can work for a year.
Taking a gap year has its benefits as it presents an opportunity to figure out strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the career path you choose. However, for some learners the gap year is not by choice, there are learners who do not proceed with their education because they have to get a job to help out at home.
Education affordability becomes an issue hence campaigns such as #feesmustfall are critical. Remember that when going to varsity you have to have accommodation also on top of the registration fees; therefore it becomes a daunting task for most learners who come from rural schools.
Well some take a gap year because they want to celebrate life a little; normally these are the ones that never find their way back into books again because of the misguided gap year they take. But not taking a gap year can present whole lot of challenges like registering for a particular course only to lose interest half way through it, now you have to change and do something else.
Most students at this point drop out of varsity and some become the so called ‘professional students’. So taking a gap year can help figure out what career path will you choose, at this time you will have enough time to research and acquire more information about that career path.
However deciding on a career should not have to wait until you complete Matric and hope to have “I will cross that bridge when I get there,” attitude. You have enough time at school and after school to research about your career path. During school holidays you can go and volunteer at a company operating in the industry in line with your career path, and so avoiding taking an unnecessary gap year.
To get more perspective on a gap year, we spoke to some young people to find out if they are for or against the gap year:
Paballo Majela who holds a Diploma in Business Management from Sedibeng College. And we also talked to Sifiso Sambo, who studies at the University of
Johannesburg.
Q: Gap year, is it good or bad?
Sfiso Sambo: Yes it is a good idea since you get a chance to sit down and do your research on your career options and learn more about yourself also.
Paballo Majela: No it is a bad idea t is a waste of time a year gets wasted
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