Douglas Schorr

By ignoring cognitive science in education planning, South Africa selects suicide.

Over 100 years ago, France revolutionized education by introducing a national system that had to serve every child. Their challenge was enormous: create an efficient, effective system while maximizing return on investment. Their solution was brilliantly simple: IQ testing to stream children according to learning capacity.

The streaming system (A, B, C, and S classes) wasn’t about favoritism; it was about optimal learning environments. A-stream students needed challenging pace and conceptual thinking to prevent frustration. C-stream students could achieve mastery but through repetitive learning methods and required more time and structured approaches. S for Special needed just that. Each stream received appropriate teaching methods for maximum development.

The military validation of IQ testing came through America’s World War I experience. Entering the war later, they saw the casualties of class-based officer selection in European armies in time to adopt aptitude testing for officer selection. By World War II, IQ-based, along with practical assessment selection, had become standard military practice globally.

This wasn’t revolutionary—China had used cognitive testing for millennia through their civil service examinations. Anyone could attempt these tests, but only the most capable were selected to serve. This system continues today: President Xi’s rise through party ranks required proving capability at every level, assessed by peers and superiors. Southern Rhodesia, the tiny central African nation that was settled, not colonised, adopted the same approach for its civil service. 

The goal was never simple sorting. It was about optimizing human potential at every level—ensuring the best candidates advanced while developing others to their full capacity. This aligns with the classical economic principle that societies must continuously develop human capital to flourish.

South Africa’s current crisis stems from ignoring these principles. Zimbabwe’s educational system demonstrates the dangers—producing thousands of high-achieving students every year in soft subjects while critically lacking STEM graduates. The harsh reality is that STEM careers require IQ levels around 110, while softer subjects can accommodate 90.

In South Africa’s advanced technical economy, individuals with 110+ IQ are invaluable, yet they likely constitute less than 2% of the population. This reality demands action:

1. Abandon expensive programs and expansive self-depreciating propaganda exercises aimed at proving non-existent exceptional matric results

2. Implement French-style streaming based on cognitive capacity

3. Launch SANNA immediately as a private sector initiative to transform the so-called ‘useless class’ into a proud, contributing workforce. Its success will depend on all 90+ IQ individuals serving as trainers, group leaders, officers and officials, and planners—the backbone of this community development revolution.

The stakes are clear: continuing to ignore cognitive realities while attempting to run a modern economy by widening the tax base and soliciting overseas loans is unsustainable. SANNA must be implemented by the private sector; having it run by those who cannot grasp its complexity would only compound the disaster.