Certificate backlog: SITA, DHET, Umalusi; with Deputy Minister

Meeting report

The Chairperson noted that the Committee had visited the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) two weeks previously to get a sense of the certification backlog. The Committee and SITA agreed that answers would be provided today, particularly when Day Zero will come for the printing of certificates. The newly appointed SITA Administrator is also present and that is appreciated. SITA had been placed under administration since the start of the year.

Certificate Status: TVET, CET, Private Colleges: DHET briefing
Ms Violet Tshetlo, DHET Chief Director: National Examinations and Assessment (TVET, CET and Private Colleges), explained that certification backlog is defined as all eligible candidates who met the certification requirements but were not yet issued with certificates within three months from results approved by Umalusi. Thus anything after March constitutes a backlog for exams written in November/December. The Department runs 12 examinations cycles in an academic year. November and December are peak months for the certification process. She reported to the Committee on:
• Progress and status of the certification backlog statistics
• Key obstacles to eliminating the certification backlogs
• Certification backlog Roll out Plan aimed at addressing the obstacles
• Update on progress of the new Integrated Exams IT System (IEITS)
• Challenges experienced in the development and deployment of the IEITS.

The statistics fluctuate due to the following reasons:
- SITA is busy refining the scripts and system certification backlog.
- Instability of the examination information system to process the eligible candidates for certification.
- 2019 August exam cycle outstanding certificates have been included in the backlog totals as they now meet the certification backlog's criteria
- Candidates who had outstanding raw marks in the previous report to Committee which have since been summated by TVET colleges who are now eligible for certification are included in the totals
- Candidates who had irregularities in the previous report and have since been cleared by the irregularity committee and now eligible for certification are included in the totals

DHET spoke about the new exam system, the Integrated Examinations Information Technology System (IEITS) that it has been working on with a private service provider. Currently, system requirements and specifications for NC(V) L2 and NATED N4-N6 examination process have been documented and tested with the user community and Umalusi. The focus is now on finalisation of the interfaces with key stakeholders such as Umalusi, SAQA, SITA, Print Bureau, Department of Home Affairs, Department of Labour and other departments. The deployment of the new solution is planned to be implemented in a staggered approach per qualification over four months to ensure business continuity. It is envisaged that deployment will now commence in August 2020. It has been moved from June to August due to comprehensive quality gates for Functional Acceptance Testing (FAT).

SITA commitment to Backlog Day Zero and its role in the New Exam System
Mr Vernon John, Head of Department: Administration – Acting at SITA, reported that the pace of reduction will be ramped up in the next few weeks. It will look much better due to the revised approach that has been adopted. SITA’s approach included a multi-face approach with phase one looking at data analysis alignment. The phase 2 focus will be more on deep data analysis and cleansing, using a more modern technology. This is the work that will be done outside the historical system.

Besides the technology, SITA will appoint a dedicated programme manager with focused programme resources that will be crossed utilised and rolled over to work on activities where quicker reduction benefits can be achieved.

He noted that not everything will be resolved by the system and records that cannot be resolved by the system must be resolved through business solutions. The first prize will be Backlog Day Zero is achieved before the new system is implemented. There are dedicated DHET and SITA officials that will be allocated to the Backlog Day Zero programme. There will also be swift dataset turnaround time by all stakeholders and for resolving candidate records that have not been approved by Umalusi.

[See slide 7 for a target timeline diagram on Backlog Day Zero]

SITA projected that there will be about 80% reduction of the backlog by 30 June 2020. Looking at Phase One, this is going to be achieved but it will certainly be complex. SITA requires steady collaboration between DHET and Umalusi to make this possible and each stakeholder has been assigned its role on the business model (see slide 12 for DHET, SITA and Umalusi responsibilities).

The role of SITA in the new system includes:
- Providing advice and information on the current exam system to DHET service provider
- Extracting data from current exam system and make it available to DHET service provider to port it to the new exam system
- Hosting new exam system on the SITA cloud infrastructure, and
- Change management and training services.

SITA will not be rendering services such as system maintenance and enhancement services and functional application support services. However, SITA will ensure that there is proper governance at the ground level. SITA will report on a monthly basis to provide updates on the reduction of the backlog certification as Day Zero is looming.

In conclusion, Mr John said that SITA executives are committed to reducing the backlog in collaboration with DHET and Umalusi.

The Chairperson appreciated that they were now getting a sense of the commitments and Day Zero has now been announced and the Committee will be monitoring the status.

My Luvuyo Keyise, SITA Executive Caretaker and Accountability Authority, added that there are now 33 dedicated technical resources to get the job done. There is a new software solution which is basically an easier database to get the work done for DHET to stop talking about the legacy system. The data from the legacy system will now be migrated to the new database to clear the backlog. The commitment is that at least minimum two weeks before going live with each module, the backlog should have been cleared. This is because going live on the new system with a backlog will mess it up. The commitment is minimum two weeks but it could be a month or two months earlier. That is the monthly reporting that will be provided through the Department. The additional technical resources and the new database will make a big difference.

Umalusi on certification
Prof John Volmink, Umalusi Council Chairperson, noted that there had been some improvements in the past year, particularly in the quality of the question papers as well as the improved preparedness of the markers. This led to a better engagement during the marking guideline discussion.

On the certification mandate, Umalusi issues certificates to all deserving candidates. To this end each certificate must be issued with correct information. The grace period is allowed after the results have been released and during that period a candidate can enquire on their marks and re-checking of the scripts can take place and consolidation done to ensure that the correct marks are captured. It is after this process that certification process takes place.

In conclusion, Umalusi has entered into a new service agreement with the Government Printing Works to provide Umalusi with certificate background paper for the period up to 2021. So far, Umalusi has received 500 000 certificate background papers for and it is expecting another 500 000 at the end of February. The order for 2021 has already been submitted.

There are some challenges with some private colleges that have not been able to pay Umalusi for the certificates. These private colleges are not part of the backlog statistics. Individual candidates have an opportunity to pay Umalusi directly to receive their certificate. To resolve this problem, the college registration fees should include the certification fee to ensure students are not disadvantaged by the college being in arrears.

On the certificate backlog, Dr Eva Sujee, Umalusi Senior Manager: Qualifications, Certification and Curriculum, reported that Umalusi processes datasets when they are received and so there is usually no backlog on datasets received.

Dr Sujee stated that Umalusi must protect and ensure the integrity of the qualifications on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). Stringent quality assurance measures are in place to ensure the quality of data. Umalusi will continue to process and quality assure all requests for certification with due diligence. Umalusi is committed to support DHET and SITA in solving the problems preventing the certification of candidates.

The Chairperson noted that the situation is now much better than when the Committee visited the SITA offices two weeks ago. He felt that the Committee was now getting clear answers on when Day Zero will come to fruition and how that process will be achieved. He thanked the SITA Administrator for the work that has been done so far.

He would like DHET to give assurance that come March and August 2021 the system will be deployed. He was worried that the system has been under development for a long time. It cannot take five years to develop a system that is bespoke for the certification backlog. He did not understand why it was delayed so much.

The Committee had scrutinised the Legacy Report of the previous Portfolio Committee. That committee was also concerned about this matter. He sought a firm commitment from the Department and advised that the service provider should be made aware of this so that there are no delays from the service providers’ side.

Discussion
Ms J Mananiso (ANC) asked how long DHET has been using the 12 examination cycles and if it was possible for this to be reviewed. It has been identified as leading to the backlog. On slide 6, SITA has assisted in addressing the backlog challenges but there is misalignment in the presentation about who exactly is responsible for what. On slide 7, it seems DHET is good at identifying problems but it moves at a very slow pace to resolve the problems. On slide 8, memos have been issued to colleges but it is unclear how the backlog will be dealt with at college level. There is a lack of outreach programmes and marketing to spread the word that certificates are available when dealing with the backlog. She asked if DHET had approached the CSIR when procuring the IT system. She asked if there are any partnerships with CSIR insofar as innovation. To Umalusi, she was concerned about the turnaround time for the consolidation of marks and asked about the turnaround time.

Mr P Keetse (EFF) said a disruption is when a learner or student fails to get their certificate for 25 years. There are new interventions that have been commanded but what often happens is that the officials coming to Parliament are not the same officials that are on the ground. Members should not be undermined in terms of knowing what actually happens on the ground. He questioned the capacity and its effectiveness to reduce the backlog. Based on the statistics, it seems that it has increased instead of decreasing. This is clear from the statistics provided.

Members were informed that has the capacity to print one million certificates in a day provided that DHET has provided the data. If that was the case, he did not believe that the backlog would have been a problem if the officials were being honest.

He asked which colleges were not providing the data required by DHET so certificates can be printed. On the legacy system, he asked if the problems with the system were systemic and how it is affecting the backlog.

Umalusi has come to the Committee before and submitted there was leaking of exam papers in TVET colleges. Mr Keetse believed this problem is still on-going. He asked to what extent paper leakages have been resolved, if it has been resolved?

Lastly, there should be a thorough diagnosis of where the problem really is. From the presentations, there is no accountability and clarity on from where exactly the problem comes. Officials were being ‘wishy-washy’ about the truth.

Mr B Nodada (DA) suggested that the Committee should invite Resolve IT to ascertain the delays in the implementation of the system. There are TVET colleges that have complained at ground level about the IT systems that they use to capture data. We speak of the Fourth Industrial Revolution but yet government departments cannot get the basics right such as system migration of data from one stakeholder to the other. Entities should not give the picture they think the Committee wants to see. The Committee needs to be told what the real problems are so that the next time the entities come, the Committee is able to scrutinise them based on the real problems previously presented and if solutions have resolve those identified problems.

He asked about who is responsible for the examinations IT system. Does DHET have the internal capacity to deal with the certifications that come from CET and TVET colleges for processing before going to SITA and Umalusi? He asked Umalusi what the backlog is to consolidate the certification based on the records that it keeps since 1992. The same question applied to SITA.

He wanted to know why SITA was under administration and if there is capacity in ICT processing, primarily human capacity, to handle the four examinations cycle within the three months that had been indicated.

Lastly, what consequence management from all the stakeholders (DHET, Umalusi and SITA) has been implemented as far as where we are with the backlog?

DHET Response
Ms Aruna Singh, DHET Acting Deputy Director-General: Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), said that the cycle has been in operation for a long time, as long as the qualification has been around. The only new cycle or qualification is the National Certificate Vocational. DHET has managed this over a long period of time.

On the communication and notification about certificates becoming available, this information is publicised where the interventions affect particular stakeholders. For example, DHET would publicise that students should go to the examination centres to get their certificates as opposed to the college head office, because the process requires you to go to the exam centre. The reason being is that doing this through colleges has borne a big gap, in some instances. Due to the lack of communication by colleges, DHET has been informed that some certificates have been at the exam centres for up to six months. Therefore, it is critical that the communication channels amongst the stakeholders are strengthened because it ends up affecting the students.

On the IT system procurement, even if the CSIR wanted to come on board it would have to do so through the bidding process due to the magnitude of the project and its cost. It went out on an open tender process and the CSIR was also eligible to bid.

In the November 2019 examination, there were no exam paper leakages and this was publicised.

As for sharing the blame, it is important to note that this process does require everybody to work together. However, between DHET and SITA, we can accept portions of the blame. Even if one segment of the process works perfectly, you would not get a certificate until the entire value chain had no loopholes.

Ms Tshetlo replied that DHET does have human capacity and has a dedicated team that will run with the qualification and they deal with the regions. That capacity is adequate for the current examinations and the current qualifications. However, that may not be the case in the future if more qualifications and examinations are added without adjusting the available capacity to cater for that.

As for CETs, the General Education and Training Certificate (GETC) qualification is run on an agency basis at the provinces and there is support from SITA. It is a collaborative effort between DHET and the SITA.

The ICT system for DHET was supported by SITA and it was based on the SITA main frame. It is run from SITA.

On the DHET procurement of the IT system, it was done through an open tender assisted by SITA. The service provider that was sourced came through that process.

SITA Response
Mr Keyise explained the increased certification backlog statistics on slide 6 of the DHET presentation, particularly on the National Accredited Technical Education Diploma (NATED): Engineering Studies. There was a 1 858 increase in the backlog. However, the statistics do not show within the four month difference when the date was extracted, how many of the new data was received and how many was reduced. The reduction, however, was not shown.

As for partnering with CSIR, both SITA and CSIR will soon come to the Committee and brief it on some of the innovative initiatives that the two are planning to partner in. CSIR has research capacity and SITA will report to the Committee on the research work planned ahead.

It is indeed true that the systems in DHET, TVET colleges, SITA and Umalusi do not really talk to each other. There is no simpler integration of the government systems. The business rules have not been cleaned yet in terms of making that possible; it is a legacy problem of government. Old systems are used but the business rules have not been changed to make life easier and we are now reactive in solving the challenge. It is not being solved holistically to ensure that once it is fixed from a departmental level, it trickles down to the TVET college level.

We are now going to move data from a legacy system into a new system that fits with the technology advances of today. This means that you can process the analysis of that data quicker and it can be done with minimal resources.

Broadly the partnership with CSIR speaks to applied research on 4IR in simple terms. We want to partner and see how we can develop a localised ICT research. SITA will also be working with CSIR to build a cyber security academy and ensuring that there are internal skills based in government to refrain from going to the private sector all the time.

On Resolve IT, SITA will also be analyzing why it took so long for the service provider to develop the system. SITA is not responsible and it is not playing any role in the implementation of that system. The system implementation is between DHET and Resolve IT. SITA’s job is to ensure that the data is cleaned and managed and moved into that system. SITA will avail itself in assisting to monitor the new system implementation in addition to the 33 technical staff that SITA will be utilising. There is no contractual relationship at this point.

On SITA’s capacity to print a million documents a day, the challenge is not on the printing side but receiving the data or results from the TVET colleges. SITA has given Umalusi a five-working-days turnaround time so that it can move ahead with the process.

Mr Keyise replied that he was not the right person to respond to why SITA was placed under administration. He was appointed after the fact but he would inform the Minister that the Committee had asked why the Agency was placed under administration.

On consequence management at SITA, this will be looked into but not for the implementation of the new system because SITA is not responsible for that.

Umalusi Response
Dr Mafu Rakometsi, Umalusi Chief Executive Officer, said that advocacy is something that is continuous at the organisation. He assured Members that he runs road shows throughout the country as well as career exhibitions. The Council receives a report on this matter of how Umalusi executes its advocacy campaign or mandate.

On the reduction of the turnaround times, the challenge is always about errors contained in the data submitted to Umalusi. If the data could be correct, the turnaround times would be significantly reduced. When it is not correct, Umalusi sends it back with reasons why the certification could not proceed.

The leakage of question papers is mainly an issue that ought to be dealt with by DHET not Umalusi. Umalusi is not the custodian of the question papers and it provides only quality assurance. Also Umalusi cannot verify a student unless the correct data has been submitted. Umalusi verifies the integrity of the data submitted for certification and it is at the end of the value chain of the certification process.

Umalusi relies on the quality of data that is submitted by the DHET and SITA. The organisation does not participate in the Department’s operations or implementation of the system. Its responsibility is to certify the data submitted by DHET; therefore, it cannot make confessions about matters it is not responsible for.

Deputy Minister Response
Mr Buti Manamela, Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training, said that addressing the certificate backlog is at the top of the agenda. DHET is always inundated about the delays in issuing the certificates. Secondly, DHET handles a number of examinations per year, as opposed to the Department of Basic Education which handles only one examination. So the point around Day Zero means that we can only address the backlog we have since the 1990s. However, there are challenges were people think they qualified and demand to be certificated. This is encompassed by all the other challenges.

Continual reports will be furnished to the Committee based on the set targets as we approach Day Zero.

The Chairperson said that he was happy with the Day Zero commitments. The Committee will hold DHET accountable for these commitments. He would have liked to see DHET making similar commitments as SITA had.

The TVET and Community Education and Training (CET) colleges are the most neglected in the Post-School Education and Training (PSET) sector. The universities seem to be the top priority.

He agreed with Mr Nodada that Resolved IT should be invited to come and account to Parliament on why it took it five years to develop the system. The question is why there was such a long delay to come up with a workable solution.

One of the concerns CSIR raised during the Committee visit to their offices is that they are asked to compete with the private sector. CSIR is not within private sector, it is a government entity, and in the areas CSIR specialises, it should be utilised. CSIR does have capacity but some areas cannot be compared to the private sector.

The meeting was adjourned.