Green Paper on Post-School Education and Training: briefing; Committee Submission on Department of Higher Education & Training Public Entities

Meeting Summary

The Minister of Higher Education and Training profusely apologised for not leading the presentation; a national protest by the Congress of South African Trade Unions was taking place in various areas of the  country and as a senior leader of the Tripartite Alliance the Minister was taking part politically.

Green Paper on Post-School Education and Training
The Green Paper was necessitated by the new formation of the Department of Higher Education and Training as promulgated by the President in 2009. The Department was constituted of higher education, mainly universities and the Further Education and Training College sector; levy grant institutions (Sector Education and Training Authorities and National Science Foundation), and regulatory frameworks and institutions (National Qualification Framework, South African Qualifications Authority, the Council for Higher Education, Umalusi, and the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations). The Department also provided secretariat and administrative services for the Human Resource Development Council, which was chaired by the Deputy President of the Republic. There was a need to conceptualise all those components as a single,integrated, coherent and well-articulated post-school system.

According to 2007 statistics the number of people with education up to Grade 12 without university exemption or lower, not employed, not in education, and not severely disabled, was 2 500 000. Added to that, Certificate with Grade 12: 47 000 – sitting at home doing nothing. Diploma with Grade 12:  25,294; Bachelors degree: 9,352; BTech: 1,780; Postgraduate diploma: 2,498; Honours degree: 1,695; and Masters/PhD: 420. Those and other figures presented depicted that the higher the education and training qualifications a student obtained, the better the chances of employability. The critical challenge out of the total of 2 800 000 was the post-graduate diploma 2 498. The study projected that that figure would grow by about 300 000 per annum, meaning that in 2012 it was above 3 000 000. That was a classical depiction of what the Green Paper had to respond to; it had no choice, it had to. It was a ticking time bomb for the country.

The college system was very weak and often uncoordinated, which resulted in low enrolment in the colleges while there was keen interest to enrol in universities for a perceived better quality of education. In most colleges and in a number of universities the education quality was very low. Adult education had been neglected and enrolment was only about 312 000 students. Workplace-based training was inadequate and the apprenticeship system had deteriorated since the mid-1980s; the average age of engineers and artisans was currently 51, trained through State Owned Enterprises in the 1970/80s; but in the 1990s those entities were commercialised and to a very large extent privatised and the first casualty of that process was the capability of training in those institutions, because the facilities that were there were shut down. There was now a huge backlog in the training of artisans in the country. Funding models were biased towards institutions that were already strong and student funding was still insufficient. The Minister had set up a task team to review the funding formula, and come up with recommendations to level the playing fields and improve the situation overall.

Research output had increased markedly since 1994 but the number of researchers did not increase proportionately. Currently the average age of an academic was 59 years. Students, especially blacks, were pursuing their studies in post-graduate programmes. Insufficient post-graduates were being produced to replenish the researcher population. An increased production of masters and doctoral graduates was also essential to produce the next generation of academics and researchers, which was why the Department had put up dedicated funding in that regard. R50 million had been put aside for post-graduate studies this financial year, because concrete measures had to be put in place to fund the programmes and to encourage the youth to study further.

The concentration of universities and Further Education and Training Colleges was in urban centres with a huge concentration in Gauteng. Training in rural areas was still a challenge and something that the Department still had to work on.

Focused attention would be given to improving the quality of Further Education and Training Colleges through appropriate programmes, upgrading of lecturers, capacity building for management and governance, improved learner support, information technology systems, and partnerships with employers. Employers had come on board by adopting an Further Education and Training College per company, and also opening up their workplaces for exposure and training Further Education and Training College lecturers and inasmuch they should be opened for students, with a commitment to open up workplaces for graduates from Further Education and Training Colleges at 12 000 per annum, which this year increased to 14 000. The response from industry was encouraging and surpassed the target set. There was also an improvement in programmes in colleges, which was one of the reasons why the pass rate in all programmes had improved dramatically and enrolment this year had increased in all programmes.

One of the critical challenges for the Department was the regulatory role of professional bodies. They should safeguard professional standards without being gatekeepers who sought to restrict the supply of professionals. There was a need to review accreditation and registration standards to enable them to adopt a developmental approach and address the mechanisms that would enhance the developmental goals of the country. The question of support by professional bodies to student institutions and workplaces became important. There was no dynamic and structured relationship between the professional bodies and the universities, so that what was taught at university level in terms of programmes was per their agreement so that when those students came out of the system they would be prepared as per the needs determined by the professional bodies.

The question of review of teaching and learning, as well as assessment strategies as aligned in our institutions, should involve the professional bodies. The Engineering Council of South Africa, in the training of engineering graduates, was working on how to improve the throughput of engineering students,and participated actively in their programmes; also the candidates phase of workplace training should be worked out within those programmes so that when those students came out their candidacy for registration the transition would be smooth. It took eight years before a student who graduated in engineering could register as a professional engineer. There was something fundamentally wrong with the system, and it did not help the country to address the challenges confronting it. That was one of the stumbling blocks; the same problem was experienced with to medical students, engineering students, and students wanting to be actuarial scientists. The Department was engaging and had to look at the challenges and obstacles per each professional body.

One of the areas of emphasis was that the resources and expertise within the system post schools should be utilised to reinforce and strengthen the system. Private providers would be used insofar as they would assist in the training of artisans and technicians, as well as technologists,at intermediate level. The Department was uprooting short courses that were high cost-driven but did not lead to any meaningful qualification, and often did not lead to any work placement.

The Chairperson brought a serious challenge to the attention of the Department. Three weeks ago the  Health Professions Council of South Africa, which represented all health professionals, presented to the Committee. There was a queue of people wanting to be medical professionals. The queue was caused because there were not adequate resources and equipment at the institutions to be able to meet the quality assurance requirements of those bodies to enable them to take more into their programmes, and, if they did so the danger was they might lose their accreditation. That was a very key challenge, which required the Department of Higher Education and Training and the Department of Health to come together to determine how to remove that bottleneck. That body had been called because the Committee had met various institutions which were confronted by students who said they needed the universities to open up for more students in particular fields. There were scarce skills. Those were areas that needed to be emphasised to ensure there was more access.

Committee's Report on the Department of Higher Education and Training State-Owned Entities
The report was adopted with amendments and would be submitted under cover of a foreword by the Chairperson explaining that the entities were not State Owned but were Public Entities.