Skills Development Strategy Ministry Media Briefing

Q Was an Afrikaans version of the School Pledge available?

A The Minister responded that an Afrikaans translation would soon be available.

Q Would not the School Pledge turn into a nationalist pledge. What if parents did not like it?

A The Minister replied that the Pledge was based on the South African Constitution and she could not imagine anyone who would want to opt out of it. There was no nationalist agenda in the Pledge and it was based on international democratic values and was for all South Africans to embrace.

Q A journalist referred to the NSDS and the drive to enhance skills, and asked if there was beginning to be an obsession with numbers rather than quality? Was there any balancing out to ensure that the SETAs provide the necessary quality in the training they provide.

A The Acting Director General replied that there was no obsession with numbers. There is an equal emphasis on monitoring, tracking and evaluation of the training to ensure the optimum quality standards in addition to the increase of the FET system. A further indication of the quality of the training was that 70% of the individuals who completed learnerships and most of the artisans who had completed their training, have been placed.

Q A journalist asked about the government’s current support for no-fee schools. In 2004 the Minister said that they would reduce university tuition fees, yet four years later nothing appeared to have been done.

A The Minister responded that the No-fee Schools had been facing financial difficulties without student fees. There was certainly a need to find ways for these schools to run independently and efficiently without the usual finance from school fees and that their provinces provide them with some funding. With regards university tuition fees, 2004 saw a decline in subsidy levels that forced institutions to rely more on tuition fees. The new system will improve the situation, and have institutions relying less on tuition fees for finance. One also needed to address the vandalism and criminal behaviour that had been recently experienced at some institutions. Such behaviour would not be tolerated.

Q When would the schools pledge be implemented?

A The schools pledge would be implemented around March after receiving comments and a positive debate from the public.

Q Was there any possibility of reintroducing Teacher Training Colleges to address the staff shortages currently being faced by the country’s school system?

 A The Minister replied that going back to the Teacher Training Colleges would be difficult and inconceivable, although there was still a need to expand and attract more teachers.

Q A journalist commented that attempts at implementing compulsory Maths Literacy had been disastrous. Was she not concerned that the introduction as a compulsory subject would bring down the Matric pass rate?

A The Minister replied that schools and FET colleges were going to be given immense support that included the “Study buddies”. The Matric pass rates would improve if enough focus on the exams was given as early as Grade 8.

Q Were there any initiatives to begin teaching IT skills at primary school level that might possibly lead to the alleviation of the scarce skills shortage in the field as interest in the field would be fostered at any early age?

A The Minister replied that there were always incentives to attract students into the scare skill fields of study. Primary Schools were always encouraged to have resource centres that provide the students with IT skills and they also aim to provide teachers with laptops.

The meeting was adjourned.

Parliamentary Media Briefing on Human Resource Development

Key issues arising from the Programme of Action
Tuesday, 12 February 2008

NHRD Co-ordination and resolving organisational issues regarding skills development

Under the auspices of the Economic Cluster, work has been commissioned on re-focusing the National Human Resource Development Strategy, which the Cluster will table before Cabinet in July this year.

In regard to the resolution of organisational issues regarding quality assurance and qualifications, the NQF Review completed in 2007, and a Joint Policy Statement was issued by Ministers of Labour and Education.

Draft legislation is to be published by both Departments shortly, for tabling in Parliament later this year. A National Qualifications Framework Bill, together with consequential amendments to the Higher Education and General and Further Education Acts, will be gazetted this week by the Department of Education for comment. The Skills Development Amendment Bill 2008 is well advanced and will shortly be tabled by the Department of Labour for engagement with the social partners at NEDLAC.

The National Qualifications Framework will now consist of three distinct but closely inter-related qualification sub-frameworks, under SAQA as an apex organisation. These are the Higher Education Qualification Framework, the General and Further Education Qualifications Framework and the Trades and Occupations Qualifications Framework. This underscores the belief that we learn throughout our life, and that this needs a structured framework to support and assist learners wherever they are.

Schools

2008 completes the cycle of curriculum change that was initiated in 1998. This year students will sit for a new matric exam, with a reduced number of subject offerings, but with substantial cognitive demands. Maths (or Maths Literacy) is now a compulsory subject, as is Life Orientation. All exams will now be set at a national level, and the results will give us a good measure of the effectiveness of the new curriculum.

The “Second Chance” programme for students who failed matric in 2007 has had a promising start, with over 100 000 students registering for the supplementary exam in May and June this year. Provincial departments are responsible for ensuring that these students are being provided with extra-tuition at various venues, which the national department will support through the electronic and print media.

The number of Dinaledi schools has been increased to over 500, and these schools have all been targeted for extra support. 800 additional Maths teachers were recruited and have been appointed to these schools, and additional textbooks and other resources have been provided. The private sector has been hugely supportive of these schools, and numerous donations and incentives have been provided. The expectation is that these schools will be key in achieving the target of 50 000 Maths passes at the end of year.

Textbooks have been a perennial problem, and the national Department of Education is taking a more interventionist role to ensure every learner has at least the minimum material to study. Building on the success of the Recovery Plan in 2007, the media based “Study Buddies” will be continued, and a new partnership with Independent Newspapers will see the production of low cost workbooks for learners in Grades 11 and 12. These will be supported by the electronic media (Mindset and the Learning Channel) as well as by web-based IT support and DVD materials.

FET Colleges and skills development

In 2007 we had 25 425 students enrolled in the new National Certificate (Vocational) programmes, and the Department of Education set an enrolment target of 40 000 students for 2008. We are pleased to record that over 52 000 students have registered for the 3 year programme. It is evident that the quality of the programmes and the outreach to schools has sent very strong signals into the system, the provision of bursaries for about 20 000 students has assisted them in this.

The Department of Education has identified 18 FET Colleges (2 per province) which will be dedicated to training students in ICT skills.

Higher Education

Increasing the Number of Engineering Graduates.

Currently, the higher education institutions graduate annually around 1 500 BEng and BSc (Engineering) students. Both these degrees are four-year qualifications.

In response to the need to increase graduate output, the Minister allocated proportionally R48 million to four leading universities, UCT, WITS, UKZN and UP based on their graduation and success rates, especially of Black students. These funds have been used by these institutions to enhance students support and teaching facilities.

During the planning process for 2010, a number of institutions indicated that they might be able to further increase their enrolments and graduates in targeted areas, such as engineering. I have been able to plan for an additional allocation of R3 578 million for the MTEF period.

A significant amount of this has been allocated to institutions to increase enrolment and graduate outputs in engineering. The table below indicates how these funds have been allocated.

The National Skills Development Strategy

The second phase of the National Skills Development Strategy 2005 – 2010 will be completing its third year on 31^st March 2008. Good results continue to be achieved in numbers of learners being registered in a variety of learning programmes linked to the national scarce skills list that has been aligned to ASGI-SA and in particular to JIPSA.

Since April 2005 when the second phase of the strategy was launched until the end of the 3^rd quarter of this financial year, namely December 2007, a total of 194 913 employed learners and a total of 117 729 unemployed learners in scarce and critical skills have been registered on accredited occupational based learning programmes by SETAs. This is against a target of 125 000 learners for both employed and unemployed learners, showing that the demand for training continues to increase beyond targets set only three years ago.

A gratifying element of this continued acceleration in learner registration is the increase in numbers of artisans being registered by SETAs. Since April 2005, over 13 000 artisan were registered for training, but in the last nine months alone almost 9 000 of these artisan were registered by SETAs with another 9 000 in the process of being registered in this first quarter of 2008.  The first quarter of each year has traditionally always been the time for large learner enrollments.  SETAs are also predicting registering another 20 000 artisan learners during the 2008 – 2009 financial year.

We made an announcement last year that R 300 million would be set aside for artisan development under the National Skills Fund. The applications for this money have been finalized and funding for another 7 350 will be channeled to those SETAs that have shown a genuine commitment to artisan development. The Minister of Labour has requested me to register his disappointment in this regard as not all SETA responded with the enthusiasm or were committed enough to reprioritize some of their committed funding towards artisan training. We are exploring the possibility of extending this facility to other companies who can demonstrate their financial commitment to artisan training, so that we can match their contribution from the remaining funds. The total uptake on this allocation only amounted to about R 185 million.

These high levels of artisan enrolments by SETAs resulting from the call for reprioritizing of funds from JIPSA last year, indicates that by 2010 the 50 000 qualified artisan needed by the country as predicated by JIPSA last year is now becoming a reality. The challenge will be to make sure that the quality of artisans that are coming out of the pipeline is the best we can develop.

This will be complemented by the large number of young people that commenced on the National Certificate Vocational from DoE, The thousands who completed the various learnerships as we are making it possible for them to also acquire artisan status if they have the necessary learning and could meet trade test outcomes.


The review of the SETA system has received considerable comment from a variety of role players and especially the media. SETAs news always seems to be good for newspaper sales, although more recently the Eskom load shedding seems to have taken the limelight. We initiated a review long before a plethora of papers from a whole lot of researchers telling me what to do with SETAs. This process is also at an advanced stage within NEDLAC and we will be making an announcement once we have agreed on some of the most fundamental aspects that need to be adjusted within the SETA system.

Social development initiatives that relate to skills development also continues to be addressed through the National Skills Fund in collaboration with the Provincial structures of the Department of Labour. Since April 2005 an average of over 9 000 unemployed persons per month have enjoyed skills training in projects across the country, including EPWP project funded by the National Skills Fund. On average 66% of those that received training were placed in full time or temporary employment.