A draft policy document on post-school education envisions 1.5 million students being enrolled in university by 2030, up from 899,120 last year, and a further 4 million attending other tertiary-education institutions, a sixfold increase.

“Approximately 3 million young people between the ages of 18 and 24 are not accommodated in either the education and training system or the labor market,” Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande told reporters today at the release of the policy paper in Pretoria, the capital. “This is an appalling waste of human potential and a potential source of serious social instability.”

President Jacob Zuma’s administration has made improving the education system a priority as it seeks to drive the unemployment rate down to 14 percent by 2020, from 25 percent currently. Companies such as Sasol Ltd. (SOL), the world’s largest producer of motor fuel from coal, and packaging producer Nampak Ltd. ( NPK) have complained of a shortage of skilled workers.