Department of Higher Education and Training on its Annual Performance Plan, with Minister in attendance

Meeting report

Minister’s Opening Remarks

Dr Blade Nzimandi, Minister of Higher Education, said the Department had gone a long way in addressing the certification backlog issue. Analysis of the Department’s vote should be considered in terms of how it had increased enrolment in, amongst others, the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges. The revised strategic plan was meant to take the Department to the next level. The highlighted priorities included funding for TVET, and the development and publication of regulations in order to implement the Higher Education Amendment Act, with specific focus on the three types of institutions that were used -- the traditional universities, university colleges and higher education colleges. The DHET planned to develop colleges for agriculture and nursing, and to incorporate them into the post-school and education systems.

The DHET would revise its budgeting, enrolment and strategic planning process in colleges and develop common standards for good governance in order to provide the Department with a tool for monitoring good governance in colleges. There was a need to secure sites, physical infrastructure and resources for the establishment of pilot community education and training (CET) colleges and ensure their functionality. The National Student Financial Aid Scheme’s (NSFAS’s) priority was still to finance the marginalised and poor students. This year was identified as important, because the DHET would like to reach finality on the manner in which students were to be financed.

Department of Higher Education: Presentation

Mr Gwebinkundla Qonde, Director General: Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) started the presentation by giving a background which described the new plan adopted in 2014. The plan was anchored in the White Paper, millennium development goals (MDGs) and the medium term strategic framework (MTSF). The idea behind those documents had been to make sure the DHET responded adequately to the nation’s needs. The 2016/16 financial year marked two years since the tabling of the new plan in Parliament. The Department had made significant progress in areas such as funding for the marginalised, and ensuring accessibility to higher education for all, including for the disabled. The DHET had also facilitated the establishment of community colleges.

It was noted that TVET colleges were no longer in the jurisdiction of provincial governments, but fell under the national government’s jurisdiction. The national policy framework for those living with disabilities was reported to be at an advanced stage. In addition, the National Qualifications Framework Act had been revised significantly. As a result, the recognition of prior learning had been further enhanced. It was noted that graduates in scarce skills areas had increased and the department had passed the targets set for engineering by 1 958. The target for natural and physical science graduates target had also been surpassed by 659. Furthermore, the target for new teachers had been surpassed by 1 224.

The challenges that the Department still had to deal with were the student protests on funding, student accommodation, and transformation of the education sector. January 2017 had seen protests by students at TVET colleges arise because of demands such as the backlog in the issue of certificates, incomplete results, a lack of infrastructure and non-expansion of enrolment. The Department had been able to attend to the demand for certificates and results. It had also been reported that the Department had been able to attend to sources of additional funds as well. The Presidential Commission which had investigated free education for all had reportedly taken a positive step in addressing student funding. It also was reported that there was a commitment to fund the poor and the middle class society with incomes of up to R600 000 per year.

The university sector had not grown for two academic years. The cause of this had been identified as resulting from the University of South Africa (Unisa) reviewing its selection processes, because it had had to start scrutinized the manner in which students benefited from enrolment with the institution. Enrolment in TVET colleges in the 2016 year had fallen below target as well. This was because of poor funding and bad infrastructure at the colleges.

The DHET conceded that there were human deficiencies for such a poor performance within the Department, which it had been attending to. 233 000 of the 236 000 outstanding certificates had been issued. The department had also reduced the number of students to be enrolled in TVET colleges. As a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), spending on higher education was at 1.45% for 2017/2018, and would be 1.53% for 2018/2019 and 1.51% for 2019/2020.

A total of R68.949 billion had been was allocated to the DHET this fiscal year. R8.425 billion was to be spent on employees; R16.641 billion would be paid as skills levies to sector education and training authorities (SETAs) and the National Skills Fund (NSF); universities would receive R31.6 billion; the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) would get R10.1 billion; public entities, TVET colleges and CET colleges would receive just under R1.7 billion; and a balance of R366 million would be left over for the DHET’s operational costs. From 2016/17 to 2019/20, there was an annual budget increase of 9.4% in the Department’s budget. This was dominated by university education, which represented 80.2% of the 2017/18 budget, bolstered by payments made to NSFAS for subsidy payments for university education.

Compensation for the 8% fee increase for universities and TVET colleges stood at R2.618 billion, and R168 million respectively. The DHET took an average of 221 days to fill advertised positions, and sought to reduce this to 180 days. It also sought to resolve all disciplinary cases within 90 days of inception and to pay all invoices within 90 days. The human resource (HR) plan ought to be finalised by 30 June 2017

The DHET planned on developing a policy for an effective and efficient university education system and to provide financial support for universities. In line with this, it was envisioned to provide student support services for higher education systems. It was also envisioned to provide management information and statistics on the performance of higher education institutions. The Department had set out to achieve an undergraduate success rate at universities, for both distance and contact learners, of 68% and 83% respectively for the 2017/18 academic year. It was also envisioned that at least 45% of academic staff in universities should have PhDs in the same year.

For TVET colleges, a total 710 535 students had to be enrolled for the 2017/18 academic year. 429 638 were to be funded by the state, and 235 110 by the colleges themselves. The Department targeted to have a certificates issued within three months of graduation, as opposed to nine months in 2016.

The new Community Education and Training (CET) colleges had enrolled a total of 310 000 students for 2017/18 and proposed to issue certificates to at least 38% of those registered students.

Discussion

Mr C Kekana (ANC) said that students across the country were eager to learn, but at the same time there were complaints of a lack of equipment and staff. This had adverse effects on efficiency. The fight against unemployment and for economic transformation was inhibited if these issues were not addressed. He mentioned that there was a traditional tree that had anti-ageing qualities, with vitamin A, B and C, which ran the risk of being destroyed because of a lack of knowledge. The nation needed to get information out to the communities as soon as possible through education in order to preserve this heritage. It was very important to make sure that all available funds were spent efficiently.

Mr E Siwela (ANC) said that it was unfortunate that the DHET suffered from a lack of funding. However, it was also worrying that the Department did not meet its own targets. Special reference was made to the targeted enrolment of students. This target was not affected by a lack of finances. He wanted to know why was this target had not been met The Department needed to impress upon the universities that even though they were making changes to their enrolment policies, they still needed to meet the enrolment targets. He said that the University of Limpopo had a new Faculty of Medicine, but there was nothing in the presentation that addressed how this faculty was to be funded. He also mentioned that the former Minister of Finance had said there would be a ministerial task force which would coordinate the setting up of a research hospital for the new faculty. He wanted to know what was the outcome of that was.

He said that the 180-day target for the appointment of new officials had not been met. He wanted to know whether a service provider had been integrated into the Department to assist with the recruitment processes.

Mr A van der Westhuizen (DA, North-West) said that 20 years ago, there had been a dream for this country to be a learning country. The intention had been to make it possible for every South African to participate in the institutions of learning. It seemed the DHET had given up on that dream. This was demonstrated by the modest and embarrassingly low targets that the Department had set for itself. It pained him to hear employers expressing a preference for employing foreigners as opposed to South Africans, because foreigners were better educated. He also pointed out that some 30 years ago, the number of students in apprenticeships was approximately 35 000 per year. That target number was much smaller than it used to be, and yet the population had increased. There were no signs of the Department moving on to an efficient system. He was worried that the cost of training had been increased exponentially by the Department as a result of the unnecessary jobs within the Department. He asked what its plans were for increasing education for the rural and the poor, and added that it needed to encourage employers to train students.

Dr B Bozzoli (DA) said the percentage target for PhDs for academic staff remained in the 40’s, and said that this was poor. The target ought to be around 70%, with the rest of the staff having been registered to study for a PhD. She noted that some figures for 2020 in earlier targets had set 1.7 million students for universities and 1.2 million for colleges, but these had been revised down by a million fewer students. She asked whether Treasury, the Cabinet and the President were aware of these new figures, and whether they were as shocked by them as the Committee was. The country made education an apex priority, but these figures had been reduced. It was also concerning that only 40% of artisans were employed. Was this a reflection of the quality of training they were receiving? It was also questioned why the DHET had taken on CET colleges, which she claimed should be a function of Basic Education, because most of the students in those colleges would not have not graduated from school with a matric.

Mr M Khawula (IFP, KwaZulu-Natal) asked whether the Department had considered the upgrading of the post-graduate certificate in education (PGCE), and whether the quality of these teachers had been upgraded as well. The last time he had asked about this upgrading, he had been assured that the issue would be investigated. He said that the fact that TVET colleges were not adequately funded resulted in most learners attempting to go to universities first, and only after failing to get admitted there did they go to TVET colleges. That was problematic. The Department had stated that there was only one university that was funding training for TVET college lecturers, and that this had had a negative impact on quality of such teachers, because there were a lot of under-qualified teachers in TVET colleges. There was a need to establish who was responsible for under-funding TVET colleges -- was it the DHET, or was it National Treasury? He had noted with dismay that the budget for universities was quoted in billions of rands, yet TVET colleges were only funded in the millions. All tertiary institutions had complained to Parliament that research was generally under-funded, and the Department needed to look into this issue and address it. He asked why the target for good governance was only 60%, and not at 100%. He wondered whether this meant that the other organisations were allowed to exercise bad governance and get away with it. This was unacceptable.

Ms L Dlamini (ANC, Mpumalanga) said that the TVET colleges in the Eastern Cape were doing exceptionally well, given the limited resources they had. She was concerned that she had met some lecturers who could not express themselves in English, and said that that was a bad reflection on the quality of lecturers. Parliament had heard that there was a need to make sure that scarce skills had to be addressed, but she did not know what the problem was that needed to be addressed. She asked whether these scarce skills addressed the fourth industrial revolution or not. Women also needed to be taught how to use basic kitchen tools such as stoves and microwaves. Mpumalanga province needed an academic hospital, and she asked what the Department’s position on that was. She also asked why the Department was preparing for a shortfall in nursing students for the year 2020, and said that was unacceptable. She added that the curriculum in TVET colleges was reported to be outdated and that employers were not interested in the knowledge that was being imparted at these colleges.

Ms P Samka-Mququ (ANC, Limpopo) said the introduction of the new CET colleges was a commendable step. However, Parliament needed to know what a fully fledged CET institution was supposed to look like, as that would enable other provinces to emulate this standard. These colleges should not just be for the young, but for the old as well. The DHET had stated that by 2019, ten universities should be training TVET college teachers. She insisted that this target be reached this year. Why had the target been revised down to one university? She noted that the Department had experienced delays in the construction of TVET colleges, and asked for an explanation of the procurement processes that had been employed.

Ms T Mampuru (ANC, Limpopo) congratulated the Department on eradicating the backlog for certificates. She wanted to know how the various targets had been set. She asked whether the department first found the funds, or whether it had first come up with the targets and then sought out the funds. She noted that students had been protesting about accommodation and asked how the Department sought to handle the protests.

Ms L Zwane (ANC, KwaZulu-Natal) asked whether there had been consultations with industry on what the requirements for employable graduates were. She had met civil engineers who could not find employment. Did the universities of technology address the technological demands of South Africa? The university in Mpumalanga wanted to add agriculture to its offerings -- would the Department be able to facilitate this expansion? She was concerned that the targets for meeting the certification backlog were very low. Why had the Department planned to have 6 000 students who registered as artisans, fail? She also wanted to know what the difference between TVET and CET colleges was, and wondered whether it was sufficient to have only one CET college per province, as was targeted. What was the DHET’s footprint in the districts?

Ms C September (ANC) said that the Committee had put some proposals to the previous Minister of Finance, who had said he would discuss them with the DHET. She asked whether those discussions had taken place. The proposals were to be found in the Minister’s speech. She also asked whether there was a programme for accreditation of the TVET colleges with universities. Community colleges were part of higher education, and were supposed to provide a much more personal learning experience. Parliament should make sure that TVET colleges had buildings to conduct classes in. She recommended that a partnership with the private sector may assist with this. The policy of having a three-month backlog of certificates needed to be revised in order to make this period shorter. The outstanding legislation needed to be expedited. She asked why government was not participating in paying the skills levy.

Department’s response

Dr Nzimande responded that there was a lot that had happened in the past 23 years in making South Africa a learning nation. The education sector had expanded opportunities for black people. One could not compare artisan development during the apartheid era to its development now. The apartheid government had taken apprenticeships away from state-owned companies in a deliberate attempt to prevent Africans from attending. The DHET had done a lot to bring that back in the present day. The artisans one talked about back then were all white, and today they were 90% black.

He agreed that the DHET needed to increase the targets for PhD students. DHET had set aside about R1 billion to send black students all over the world to get their PhD’s, but unfortunately that money had been spent subsidising a no fee increase for 2016. Besides that, the country did not have the supervisory capacity increase the PhD intake. Cabinet and the President were aware of all these shortcomings. South African employers in the public sector had no history in artisan training. It was a big issue that the DHET was trying to rectify. The DHET was trying to find out how to incentivise the private sector to participate.

The country needed to embrace the idea of a post-school education and training system, and CET colleges should not be looked at as a burden. They were a part of higher education. Research was indeed under-funded, and the Department of Science and Technology should fund all the necessary research. He said the largest employer of PhD’s was Sasol, which had operations in the United States, and was funding research there and in Europe.

The National Skills Fund had R1.2 billion with which to support scarce skills. Everyone who wanted to study a scarce skill would get funding.

A project to revitalise township and village economies had been shut down clandestinely by the State Information Technology Agency (SITA). The DHET had wanted to provide containers for small and emerging entrepreneurs in the townships to do tasks such as fixing cell phones and kettles. SITA was opposed to this, because big retail players such as Pick n Pay and Checkers had carved out South Africa in the same manner Africa had been carved out in 1838. They had identified where to build new malls and new centres in South Africa. They were behind blocking what the DHET was trying to do in a very serious manner.

The problem with backlogs was not just with SITA, but also with the DHET’s exam department. The DHET was hopelessly understaffed and the exam system needed to be adjusted. He said that TVET colleges had the same number of candidates as Matric candidates.

The reason the DHET was not paying levies was that Treasury viewed paying levies as a form of double taxation, though he did not agree with that assessment.

Mr Qonde added that the Department’s vote had resulted in the allocation of R43.9 billion to universities, R9.4 billion to TVET colleges, and R1,9 billion to CET. The DHET had started by establishing an institution to act as a model with regard to CET. Standards such as funding, staffing and curricula had to be made first. It would take a bit of time to get the standards together. The Department’s major issue with these institutions was funding. The nation needed to avoid criticising them at this moment, and try get them out of the incubation period. These colleges were set up for skills training, and this required a different type of infrastructure as opposed to institutions that focussed on literacy and numeracy. R6.964 billion had been dedicated to university infrastructure, and that was insufficient. As for TVET colleges, no money had been allocated for infrastructure development. A task team to handle infrastructure issues had been set up. That was the best the Department could do at this point. It would use the task team to raise funds.

The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) had conducted a study that showed that around 55% of artisans were employed immediately after graduation. A different survey had shown that around 70% of the same artisans got employed after studies. This information was contradictory, but the DHET did submit that the figures were very low. The DHET paid R175 million and R173 million for artisan training at Transnet and Eskom respectively. There were several other private initiatives that proved to be helpful for the funding of these artisans. It should, however, be noted that the R5.2 billion that ended up funding the issues that the ‘fees must fall’ protest had raised, had come from funds that had been allocated for artisan development training. It was unfortunate that this had happened.

The Department had rolled out a career development section which was to focus on informing the citizens of the importance of doing mathematics and science from a very young age, and not to start doing that at the university and TVET level. It was also publishing a list of skills that were in high demand every year. As a result, the Department had met all its targets for the scarce skills.

Dr Engela van Staden, Chief Director: Academic Planning and Management, said that there was an ongoing programme for establishing an academic hospital for the medical school at the University of Limpopo. National Treasury was in support of expanding and developing this medical school. The need for the expansion of medical studies was very important. Three universities had approached the DHET with proposals to start medical schools. These were the University of Johannesburg, North West University and Nelson Mandela University. The last university’s medical school should be in operation in 2020. The DHET had established networks with the Department of Health in order to set up these medical schools. An academic hospital was necessary in order to start medical universities. The DHET was expecting 1 000 students who were studying medicine to come back from Cuba, and the nation needed to prepare for their arrival.

There was a formal memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Department of Science and Technology so that they could enhance funding for studies. There was a funding grant that was dedicated to develop the university curriculum. Expanding universities was not just limited to expanding the lecture halls and laboratories, but also the student residences. No funds had been made available for development of the TVET curriculum. Funds were made available only for universities.

Mr Qonde added that the lack of equipment in TVET colleges was linked to under-funding. The DHET was not in a position to supply the necessary equipment and protective clothing. It was, however, trying to rectify this situation. The process of reviewing the curriculum involved extensive studies, and it had teamed up with organisations from Switzerland and Germany in order to do this. The Committee should rest assured that work was being done.

Mr Firoz Patel, Deputy Director General: TVET colleges, said that NSFAS funds for TVET colleges had not been reduced. The DHET had originally proposed to fund 200 000 beneficiaries in TVET colleges every year, but at present they had been funding 235 988 students. There were more students being funded with the same amount of money as was being spent earlier on because TVET colleges had managed to distribute that money to more students. He said that the Department planned on making sure that at least ten universities offered training to TVET college lecturers. This number would be increased from the current one university that provided such training. The Department planned to conclude the planning and procurement of TVET college campuses by 31 March 2018.

The DHET started off by coming up with targets, and then tried to find the funds to meet the desired targets.

There was a difference between the certification rate and the certification process. The rates were the number of students that passed and were granted a certificate. The DHET targeted giving all students their certificates in three months.

Mr Qonde said that the process of having an outside organisation assisting the Department with the recruiting process had been a once-off arrangement. The Department did not want to delegate its duties to an outside organization. It was in the process of developing an e-recruitment facility.

One could distinguish between TVET from CET by realising that CET colleges were there to reach out to the mature population that still required some form of basic education. This was not found in TVET colleges. CET colleges were there to focus on skills such as plumbing and carpentry with the uneducated sector of the population. There were some skills that a community would require for its own peculiar needs that did not necessarily need to be awarded certificate status. The CET colleges would focus on those skills. There was a Community Learning Centre in the Gauteng area called the Don Bosco education project. This should serve as a model for what the DHET was trying to achieve across the nation.

The Department would be back during the course of the year to give Parliament an update on the work that it was doing and also to foster updates on a number of Acts of Parliament, such as the NSFAS Act. It would also consider the comments made by the Committee, and make sure that they were addressed accordingly.

The meeting was adjourned.