TVET Colleges Certification challenges: SITA briefing, with Deputy Minister

Telecommunications and Postal Services

30 May 2017
Chairperson: Ms D Tsotetsi (ANC) (Acting)
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Meeting Summary

The Committee was briefed by the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) on challenges around Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College Certification. SITA said it had been working on the matter for over six months and had appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training in December 2016. SITA had had to reorganise the way it was working to clear legacy backlogs in the organisation which dated back over ten years. Systems were now in place which would prevent SITA landing in the same position again and it was working towards total eradication of backlogs. There were issues around ownership of matters by the various stakeholders. The Director General (DG) had instituted a weekly meeting where these matters were resolved. As these operational matters were resolved, systemic and structural changes were also being addressed, hence the presentation not covering structural changes.

In summary, 570 463 N3 and 1 429 340 NC(V) records was certified by UMALUSI for exam dates from November 2007 to November 2016. Currently the backlog was 680 most of which related to private colleges. The last step was to undertake a completeness test where all candidates who sat for a test had to have a result. Key challenges were ‘address on record basis’, and ‘centre in arrears’. These challenges resulted in delays in processing. The November 2016 exams had an unusually low mark capture rate. Some outstanding marks were changed to absent which created challenges. Standardisation had been approved twice for some subjects, however these subjects were incorrectly adjusted a second time. The implication was that some outstanding candidate records were still to be certified. Such issues could be solved through better coordination and controls at the colleges and early in the process cycle. Based on UMALUSI rejection files, it certified 80 000 records in total while 5 304 were still outstanding - this would be cleared by the end of June. Resulting for the March 2017 Supplementary Exam was completed in May 2017. Re-marks were in progress and certification was planned for completion by end July 2017. Key challenges were:

  • Moderation records had to be created on selected centre subjects for the main exam due to a low capture rate applied thereafter to supplementary exams
  • There were some candidates that had centre changes between main and supplementary exams
  • The system allowed candidates to be enrolled for supplementary exams even though they did not meet the subminimum pass mark on the main exam
  • Fewer challenges were experienced on the resulting of supplementary than on the main exam

In terms of the National Accredited Technical Diploma (NATED), the backlog for the period from 2015 was 4 168 and that would be completed by end June. Challenges were similar to that of NC(V). The key challenge experienced was subminimum indicators incorrectly set. Standard operating procedures were improved especially when changes to controls were made.  SITA was doing a lot of operational work which the colleges and Department should be doing. SITA was developing more web based methods and putting in more dashboards which allowed for more robust management reports.

Members commended SITA for decreasing the backlog. Members asked on what basis supplementary examination was allowed when candidates had not met subminimum requirements. Was the system manipulated? What impact did standardisation, which had been done twice, have on the subsequent certification? Members asked what capacitation measures were being taken in SITA, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and the colleges so that information could be supplied timeously.  What training interventions were being done? Members said the matter reflected a lack of coordination between government departments and asked if the computer systems of the colleges and SITA were now compatible.  Was compatibility the only problem? Members asked if SITA would be monitoring project completion on an ongoing basis. Did SITA have funding to write its own software programs? How much time would be needed for SITA to write new programs if colleges moved to a new curriculum? How would a student’s move from one centre to another be resolved? Members asked how it could be that a student wrote at one centre but his figures were submitted from another centre. Could SITA’s IT systems cope? What was needed to ensure SITA’s IT systems did not collapse? Who was responsible for data capture - people seconded from SITA or college personnel?

Members asked how far SITA was in achieving the targeted three-month turnaround time. Given the challenges regarding Human Resources, how was this affecting SITA’s ability to issue certification on time? Members asked if anything had been done regarding the development of a training plan, as it impacted on certification. Members asked if suitably qualified people, people with legitimate qualifications and who were competent, were employed. Members said they would take up the issue of the regulation of private colleges with the DHET.  

Meeting report

SITA Status Report: NC (V) and NATED
Ms Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, Deputy Minister of the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services, said State Information Technology Agency (SITA) was the delivery arm of the Department and was committed to delivering efficient government services.

Mr Zukile Nomvete, Chairperson, SITA, said the Agency had been working on the matter for over six months and had appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training in December 2016. SITA had had to reorganise the way it had been working to clear the legacy backlogs in the organisation. Legacy problems dated back over ten years. Systems were now in place which would prevent SITA landing in the same position again and it was working towards total eradication of the backlogs.

Dr Seitumo Mohapi, Chief Executive Officer, SITA, said there had been issues around ownership of matters. The DG instituted a weekly meeting where these matters were resolved. As these operational matters were resolved, systemic and structural changes were also being addressed. Hence the presentation would not cover structural changes.

National Certificate Vocation NC(V)
Mr Mohapi, in summary, said 570 463 N3 and 1 429 340 NC(V) records have been certified by UMALUSI for exam dates from November 2007 to November 2016. The backlog at August 2015 stood at 236 000 but more cases had been uncovered. Currently the backlog was 680 and most related to private colleges. The last step was to conduct a completeness test where all candidates who sat for a test had to have a result. Key challenges were address on record basis, and centre in arrears. These challenges resulted in delays in processing.

The November 2016 exams had an unusually low mark capture rate. Some outstanding marks were changed to absent which created challenges. Standardisation had been approved twice for some subjects, however these subjects were incorrectly adjusted a second time. The implication of this was that some outstanding candidate records must still be certified. Issues such as these could be solved through better coordination and controls at the colleges and early on in the process cycle. Based on UMALUSI rejection files, they certified 80 000 records in total and 5 304 were still outstanding which they would clear by end June.

Resulting for the March 2017 Supplementary Exam was completed in May 2017. Re-marks were in progress and certification was planned for completion by end July 2017. Key challenges were:
-Moderation records had to be created on selected centre subjects for the main exam due to a low capture rate and applied to supplementary exams thereafter
-There were some candidates that had centre changes between main and supplementary exams
-The system allowed candidates to be enrolled for a supplementary exam even though they did not meet the subminimum pass mark on the main exam
-Fewer challenges were experienced on the resulting of the supplementary exam than on the main exam

National Accredited Technical Diploma (NATED)
Mr Mohapi outlined that the initial outstanding figure for records from 1991 was 46 511. The DG had said SITA should focus on records from November 2015 onwards. Anything prior to that date would be done on a case by case basis. 54 698 records had been certified and 17 169 subject certificates had been issued. The backlog for the period from 2015 was 4 168 which would be completed by end June. The key challenge experienced was that subminimum indicators were incorrectly set.

On service improvement, standard operating procedures were improved especially when changes to controls were made and SITA was getting closer to the right way of working. Processes needed to be documented. SITA was doing a lot of operational work which the colleges and Department should be doing. SITA was developing more web based methods and putting in more dashboards which allowed for more robust management reports.

Discussion
Mr K Siwela (ANC) commended SITA for decreasing the backlog. He asked on what basis the supplementary examination was allowed when candidates had not met subminimum requirements. Was the system manipulated? What impact did the fact that standardisation was done twice have on subsequent certification?

Ms M Shinn (DA) asked what capacitation measures were being taken in SITA, Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and the colleges so that information could be supplied timeously and what training interventions were being done.

Ms J Kilian (ANC) said the matter reflected a lack of coordination between government departments - it was appalling that the matter had been dragging on since 2007. She asked if the computer systems of the colleges and SITA were now compatible and whether compatibility was the only problem. Once the project was completed, would SITA be monitoring it on an ongoing basis? She asked if SITA had funding to write its own software programs. If colleges moved to a new curriculum and SITA had to write new programs, what planning period would be required? How would a student’s move from one centre to another be resolved?

Mr N Koornhof (ANC) asked how it could be that a student wrote at one centre but his figures were submitted from another centre. Could SITA’s IT systems cope and what was needed to ensure that SITA’s IT systems did not collapse? Who was responsible for data capture - people seconded from SITA or college personnel?

Ms N Ndongeni (ANC) asked how far SITA was in achieving the targeted three-month turnaround time. Given the challenges regarding Human Resources, how was this affecting SITA’s ability to issue certification on time? She asked if anything had been done regarding the development of a training plan, as it impacted on certification.

The Acting Chairperson asked if suitably qualified people, people with legitimate qualifications and who were competent, were employed.

Mr Mohapi, on the question of supplementary exam enrolments, said the system dealing with registration and prevention of students writing exams they did not qualify for, was not the system under discussion.
What was under discussion was the system that dealt with taking marks and processing them. This system could note that someone did not meet subminimum requirements. It would be better for colleges to be assisted to have systems to process candidates as they came for exams so that people did not sit if they did not qualify – this would prevent the IT system from getting bad data and becoming overloaded. SITA developed tools to assist the colleges at various parts of the cycle. SITA had however not implemented them at colleges because it had been caught up in cleaning the bad data. In addition, colleges had their own different IT systems. The DHET could insist that the colleges had safeguards built into their system or to use the program SITA provided.  

On the question of who was responsible for capturing the data, SITA was not responsible for this – this was the responsibility of the colleges. The impact was that if the marks were not processed, other colleges were affected because results and certificates were not issued – this also affected students. The DHET had put in place new controls.

Mr Mohapi said SITA had voluntarily developed IT systems for the Department so that there could be controls at entry points - rolling this out to the colleges was not an easy feat. Training could be done by SITA but it required colleges to accept they were doing wrong things. The training would be a two-year process. He did not anticipate capacity problems from the side of SITA. He accepted that lessons had been learnt. SITA had always been blamed for discrepancies in moderation records between results and certification. It was found that standardisation had been called for twice but no one had called for adjustment to be done twice. The adjustment process was a human decision not an IT one.

Other decisions made were, for example, when marks were outstanding – a subsequent decision was made to change those outstanding marks to absent so that the certification process could be completed. Now a student would get a result that he/she was absent when he/she was in fact present at the exam. Many times, these decisions were made at a low level. These decisions must be made at a higher level in the DHET. SITA was trying to simplify its dashboards

On the students writing supplementary exams at different centres, Mr Mohapi said UMALUSI might have a problem with why supplementary exams were written at a different exam centre to that where the main exam was written – he was unsure about what the concern was. The current rule was that the exams could be written at the same centre. The IT system could accommodate exams written at different centres. Where students write was the responsibility of the DHET with UMALUSI having a say.

With the recent case of British Airways and the loss of IT systems as a result of outsourcing, this was a lesson. The lesson was that when a problem existed, one must exhaust all internal solutions and not just say the problem was a weak SITA. Structural problems should be identified and the right solutions should be applied. SITA’s systems were originally from a private contractor and then inherited by SITA. There was currently a new attempt at acquiring a new system. It was supporting the DHET in trying to get this system as it agreed the IT system had to be modernised.

On the three-month turnaround time, an operational method of handling matters had to be implemented because there was nothing stopping the meeting of this target. Problems had to be identified and dealt with faster than before. The marks were due in December so more interventions should have been done in January already. More training, from SITA, would have assisted.

In terms of HR issues, progressively fewer complaints were heard from department officials that SITA did not have capacity. Turnaround times for call centre responses could be improved. On HR matters within the DHET, conversations between the DG and Mr Mohapi had improved since last year on HR matters. There were now only one or two areas where there were HR issues.

The mark capture rates were not a surprise to SITA because it knew in December already that the mark capture rate was low. SITA would start training at colleges on the system it had developed from now until August. SITA was expressing smaller and smaller problems within the certification cycles.

Ms Kilian said it appeared that private colleges were still an issue as only 50% of outstanding certificates had been sorted. This was an issue she and Mr Siwela would take up with the Department - stricter control of private colleges was needed and, if necessary, that additional regulations be instituted.

Mr C Mackenzie (DA) said one tended to forget there were people who could not move on with their lives as they awaited certificates. He asked what the case load per person was on outstanding certificates.

Mr Andre Taylor, Senior Manager, SITA, replied that six people were working on the backlog of cases and the average was five to six new queries per week.

The Acting Chairperson acknowledged improved progress on Operation Clean Up and emphasised the need to ensure that students received their certificates on time. She applauded UMALUSI for putting their foot down on the issue of certification.

The meeting was adjourned.




 

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