Question NW2586 to the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation

Reply:

Response A: Provision of certificates to TVET students on time – DHET

1. The Department of Higher education and Training (DHET) is mandated to issue certificates within three months (90 working days) after students after the release of results to “eligible students’, meaning those students who have satisfied the requirements for respective qualifications. The DHET draws its mandate from the CET Act of 2006 which empowers the Department with the authority to conduct, administer and manage the GETC, NATED Report 190/1 and NC (V) examinations and assessment processes. The Certification backlog was addressed by 31 March 2022 and a report presented to PCHEST by my office. It is therefore imperative to clarify to members of this house the issues that in the public space may still be construed as certification backlog whereas the real issue is the matter of historical records.

2. However, there are various reasons why some students are not receiving their certificates. It is therefore imperative to provide the definition of what is termed Certification as well as the criteria thereof.

3. Working Definition:

- “Certification” is defined as “all eligible students who met the minimum certification requirements for various qualifications who were issued with certificates within three months (business days) after results have been approved by the quality assurers”. The bulk of the students who fall within this category are those who satisfied the certification requirements in one examination sitting and were issued with certificates within three months.

- “Certification backlog” is defined as “all eligible students who met the minimum certification requirements for various qualifications who were not issued with certificates within three months after results have been approved by the quality assurers

4. Certification criteria are described as follows:

• NC(V) qualification: candidates have to pass all seven subjects as required in the policy.
• NATED qualification: candidates have to pass a minimum of 4 subjects in the correct subject combinations.
• GETC: ABET candidates have to pass a minimum of 5 subjects (with a total of 120 credits).

There are also key obstacles that are contributing to the non-issuance of certificates to TVET students. Among others are:

• Part submission of both Internal and External marks by colleges before resulting for Nated R190/1; NC(V) and GETC qualifications
• System functionality and alignment across the full system – non automatic combination of results after the student has accumulated the results over multiple examinations session
• Understanding of Business Rules for certification by students at all points of data processing

5. Observation

In the main students who struggle to receive their certification within the stipulated timeframe are those who sits for multiple examinations sessions in order for them to satisfy the qualification/s requirements and thereafter apply for combinations. There are students who also involved in examinations irregularities that need further investigation for results to be finalised before certifications can be processed and released.

The DHET has a clear system in place where after certificates for eligible students are printed, the TVET section through the Chief Directorate National Examinations and Assessment, package the documents according to colleges where students sat for their examinations, generates waybills for dispatch to the respective destinations through courier services.

Under normal circumstances, where students met the requirements to be certified and the security paper printed by Government Printing Works is available, the DHET is not found non-compliant in this regard. The dilemma is only when student do not even collect the certificates from their respective colleges and chooses to seek the certificates using social media and other platforms without checking with their colleges.

The DHET works collaboratively with Quality councils, namely QCTO and Umalusi in matters relating to certification of students as well as SAQA for the verification of qualifications for those qualifications offered by the Department.

B: What sustainable plans have been put in place to eliminate the problem due to its socio-economic impact?

The DHET has also embarked on expanding the already available eServices on government portal which deals with Examination results, namely the DHET EXAMS Equeries Solution for TVET college System. I have launched this system in 2015 but planning to re – launch the same but updated system again before the end of 2023. My team in attempting to avert the recurrence of this anomaly have enhanced the system by developing another service, namely eTranscript/s, an automated system where students can access their academic records as well as receiving the status of their eCertificate report whilst waiting for a printed hardcopy from their colleges.