Hansard: Appropriation Bill: Debate on Vote No 16 – Higher Education and Training:
House: National Assembly
Date of Meeting: 24 Mar 2010
Summary
No summary available.
Minutes
THURSDAY, 25 MARCH 2010
PROCEEDINGS OF EXTENDED PUBLIC COMMITTEE – COMMITTEE ROOM E249
_______________________
Members of the Extended Public Committee met in E249 at 14:02.
House Chairperson Mr M B Skosana, as Chairperson, took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING
START OF DAY
APPROPRIATION BILL
Debate on Vote No 16 – Higher Education and Training:
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING: Chairperson, hon Cabinet colleagues, hon members, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, let me start by acknowledging four very special people who are present today, the four longest serving workers in our department. The first three: Shalati Ndlovu, Nomafundo Mswanganyani, Albertia Ndlovu have served 27 years, and Ledia Masala has served 23 years. [Applause.] Without the working class, there can be no higher education and training.
This Budget Vote debate of the newly created Department of Higher Education and Training takes place on the 20th anniversary of a significant but tragic event that affected thousands of families in Pietermaritzburg. The Seven-Day War, named by the late Comrade Harry Gwala, started on 25 March 1990 and ended on 31 March of the same year. It was a war waged by the apartheid regime against the ANC, hardly two months after its unbanning and the release of Nelson Mandela, to try to prevent the ANC from re-establishing its legal structures, especially in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. It was the largest mass attack ever witnessed in the history of KwaZulu-Natal and, in fact, our country as a whole. Marauding gangs of impis, in open collusion with the apartheid police, maimed, killed and burned.
I therefore wish to dedicate this speech to the hundreds of people who died during this massacre and the thousands who live with the memory of it, and hope that the new integrated system of education and training we seek to build will in one way or another benefit the children and relatives of those who fell. It is partly for this reason that I invited pupils from some of the Edendale schools, the area which was the primary target of this massacre. There is Zakithi Zulu, who is doing Grade 7, who is here from the Mthethomusha Higher Primary School, Thobile Mcwabe who is doing Grade 12 and was the top Grade 11 student at Georgetown High School, and Mr S G Hayili who was the top University of Zululand student across all faculties last year.
A new postschool system that is aimed at responding to the youth and adults to accelerate skills development is our key mandate. The new higher education and training landscape represents an important shift towards expanding postschool opportunities. Working together with stakeholders, many of whom are here today, we are determined to build a solid base for a postschool education and training system that will be the lifeblood of the social and economic development of our country for generations to come, long after we inhabited this earth, hon Mike Ellis.
I wish to acknowledge the leadership of President Zuma in creating these possibilities and the foundation laid by my predecessors. Through continuity with their innovative policies, we will strengthen the system, but some significant and decisive changes are required to build a truly integrated system of education and training with quality and high throughput rates.
The twin challenges of high unemployment and a critical skills shortage must be tackled. The work of this department is central in the achievement of decent work, as well as in the realisation of other government priorities. While there are no instant solutions, the cycle of poverty and hopelessness must be broken as soon as possible.
In every village and town, in every suburb and city centre, there are gifted people with broken dreams and no income, who do not qualify for jobs that must be filled. For this evolving system to meaningfully contribute to the lives of individuals, to the economy and to broader society, we are striving to ensure that all the work of our department is underscored by addressing five key interrelated issues: class inequalities, racial inequalities, gender inequalities and fighting the HIV/Aids scourge, as well as making sure that people with disabilities do have access to education and training.
I am proud to say that we now have a five-year strategic plan to systematically strengthen the skills and human resource base of our country. We will draw on the knowledge, ability and experience of all stakeholders in the sector. Our point of departure is simple: education and training, baba uTrollip, is a common public good which must not be sold and traded as a commodity, in terms of which only those with money and other resources are able to afford it. [Applause.] Only by providing equal opportunities for all, irrespective of social background, can we contribute towards building a nation in which everyone has a stake and a common loyalty.
Government's prioritisation of education is evident in the budget allocation of 19,9% of the total national Budget to education and training as a whole. Vote 16 has received R32 billion, of which R8,4 billion is a direct charge against the national revenue fund and goes to our Sector Education and Training Authorities, Setas, and the National Skills Fund. Universities receive R17,5 billion for the 2010-11 financial year. An amount of R3,8 billion is allocated for Further Education and Training, FET, colleges. An amount of R2 billion is allocated to our public entities, of which R1,9 billion is allocated to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS. The remainder goes to the SA Qualifications Authority, SAQA, and the Council on Higher Education. In the next financial year, NSFAS will disburse R2,7 billion in loans and bursaries.
Hon members, 98,78% of our budget is allocated for transfer to institutions, our key partners. All of our partner institutions are responsible together with us for the achievement of our transformation goals. We have with us today, as I have said, our very special partners from universities, colleges, Setas, and our other public institutions.
Chairperson, we are under no illusion about the scope of challenges confronting our education and training system. We have one education system comprising the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Higher Education and Training, not two education systems; it is one. Minister Motshekga in her Budget Vote speech on Tuesday committed herself to continuing to improve the schooling system. We will support her.
The postschool system depends on the quality of basic education and its reach to every young person in this country, just as basic education is dependent on the Department of Higher Education and Training providing, amongst other things, quality teacher education, especially the production of foundation phase educators. So, there is interdependence and a dialectic as well.
The programmes of our department must interface with the range of social and economic development strategies across all spheres of government. We are creating necessary synergies with the National Industrial Policy Framework, the Industrial Policy Action Plan, the government's antipoverty strategy, the rural development strategy, and the technology and innovation plan. The overarching framework for all our work is the Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa, the HRDSA, led by the Deputy President and managed by the Department of Higher Education and Training.
The Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa will improve alignment and ensure that all players in human resource development, from government, civil society, organised business, labour, professional bodies and research communities, reinforce and complement the work of others. The Human Resource Development Council, which will oversee and drive the strategy, will be launched next week. This is indeed a momentous development in driving skills development.
Central to the realisation of the goals of the HRDSA is the alignment of its subordinate strategies. One of these is the National Skills Development Strategy, NSDS, which directs the skills levy and the work of the Setas. I have extended the NSDS-2 for a further year and requested the Setas to closely align their programmes to the FET colleges and placement of these students through learnerships and apprenticeships. In order to make FET colleges a system of choice, we must ensure, as a country, that FET college students will prioritise these levies and that the Setas will place them and give them work opportunities. My department is submitting a draft NSDS-3 framework to the National Skills Authority, NSA, next month. This will include a skills strategy for rural development, which I am undertaking in partnership with Minister Gugile Nkwinti. The executive of the NSA is here today, and I thank them for their commitment.
The absence of adequate career guidance and information contributes to high dropout rates in postschooling career choices. I am pleased to announce that by the end of June, the SAQA will launch a comprehensive national career advice centre through the medium of a career development helpline. This model will be accessible to learners across the system and will require co-ordinated action across a range of departments.
We have to assist learners to move between learning and work. The skills levy funds will be used as incentives to firms to open up structured workplace learning for college students, as well as for university and university of technology students. The state-owned enterprises and other large employers have a special role to play in this regard.
The mandate of the three quality assurance councils that fall under our department is central to our goals. The Quality Council for Trades and Occupations, QCTO, which I launched last month, has the mandate to address the quality of the training in and for the workplace and to ensure that workplace training and knowledge is accredited and certified, including proper recognition of prior learning.
This is indeed a huge victory for the labour movement in this country which has been championing this for many years. Under the QCTO umbrella, we will establish a body called the national artisan moderating body, as part of pushing the agenda for artisan production in our country. I am pleased to report that the implementation of the new National Qualifications Framework Act is progressing well. I must compliment the SA Qualifications Authority, the Council on Higher Education, Umalusi, as well as the project team of the QCTO for the positive way in which the new Act has been embraced.
I also wish to inform the House that during this financial year, funding will be set aside to educate the public on the National Qualifications Framework, NQF, to ensure that the wider public, especially our people living in rural areas and in the poorest communities, fully understand how the NQF benefits them.
I now want to move closer to some concrete activities and outcomes that we are targeting. Having outlined what essentially amounts to a call for a new paradigm in thinking of education and training in this country, I wish to announce in this House that I will be taking a special and personal interest in driving artisan training in this financial year. [Applause.] I will work intensively with the initiatives that are under way to strengthen artisan training.
We will increase the numbers and the quality of skilled artisans, particularly in priority trades, through a synergy of strengthening FET colleges, the Setas' work and business initiatives. A key priority will be to expand access to structured workplace learning and to develop partnerships to address the scarcity of artisan skills. During this year I will also address the long-outstanding challenges of trade testing. What this means, amongst other things, is that Setas will have to work in a manner that they prioritise the strengthening of our FET college system
Hon members, the Setas are by far the most widely criticised of our delivery institutions. I can hear now that the DA is agreeing with me. [Laughter.] But you must be careful: when someone gets involved in an accident and has been hurt or cut a little bit on the neck, you must not prescribe that that person's neck be cut off completely in order to save his or her life. [Laughter.] [Applause.]
IsiZulu:
UNGQONGQOSHE WEMFUNDO EPHAKEME KANYE NOKUQEQESHA: Ningathi uma umuntu elimele akanqunywe intamo ukuze kusindiswe impilo yakhe.
English:
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING: That is what the DA is saying. However, I would like to commend 19 of the 23 Setas for getting a clean bill of health from the Auditor-General's office and for their concerted efforts which have enabled us to meet many of our NSDS-2 targets.
During 2009, the Setas registered 17 228 artisans in training, and 109 351 workers completed training in scarce and critical skills through learnerships, apprenticeships and other learning programmes. Targets set in the NSDS-2 were well exceeded, and these numbers will rise this year.
Targets of Setas for this year are 19 288 artisans in training, and 145 899 workers are completing training in scarce and critical skills through learnerships, apprenticeships and other learning programmes. Over 13 000 graduates from education and training institutions will be placed by the Setas to gain work experience. For those Setas that are not performing, decisive action will be taken to remedy the problem. A new Seta landscape, which is a critical outcome for us this year, will be adopted by the third quarter of the year after consultation with the National Skills Authority, NSA.
I believe that the National Skills Fund, NSF, is a critical vehicle to provide urgently needed skills training for the under- and unemployed and for the informal sector. I take responsibility for this fund on 1 April and will immediately institute processes to address the concerns raised repeatedly by the Auditor-General and the many frustrated beneficiaries.
For the 2009-10 budget year, a total of R1,1 billion has not yet been committed owing to a complex transition in my department. These funds must flow urgently and be utilised for the purposes for which they were intended. We will, therefore, strengthen the capacity of the National Skills Fund to monitor and evaluate the impact of the disbursements made, and we will address the problem of underexpenditure that has historically dogged the fund. We cannot have money that is left unspent when our needs are so huge. We commit that we will spend this money, not by throwing money at the problems but by systematically raising the participation, especially of our young people, in the education and training system.
We have come to understand that the university, vocational college and skills subsystems have been planned with insufficient integration of the holistic needs of the economy. What is needed is knowledge and planning instruments for the system and research-based intelligence for strategic decision-making for the postschool system.
The Department of Higher Education and Training will develop an integrated information system, including a comprehensive information database on both public and private institutions and individual learner records, and develop norms and standards for the collection and sharing of such information. This might appear unimportant, but the fact of the matter is that we have no integrated database on education and training in this country. So, one of the things we want to do this year is to begin this process and set this in motion.
Chairperson and hon members, in line with President's announcement during the state of the nation address, we are aggressively positioning the vocational college subsystem as the main platform of delivery for skills development training. We must dispel the perception of colleges as a consolation prize to university entrance and make them institutions of choice. That is why we are targeting these institutions and, by at least 2014, we must have a million FET college students.
The difficulties experienced in this sector are being honestly confronted. We will convene a round-table conference on 9 April of all stakeholders in the subsystem to address immediate challenges and assess what actions can be taken to support the colleges. A comprehensive plan will be completed by August. This will include a clear timeframe for colleges to become an exclusive national competence as soon as is possible, addressing governance weaknesses, and developing action plans to ensure a smooth start of the 2011 academic year.
We aim to ensure that the long-standing negotiations of the Education Labour Relations Council to address the conditions of service of college staff are concluded before the end of April. We are aware of the concerns and issues raised in regard to the transfer of state-paid employees to the employ of colleges. I am committed to the agreement reached between government and the public-sector unions at the recent public-sector summit on this matter. The commitment that we made was to build a strong public-sector system driven with public resources, and, in the case of colleges, including state-paid employees. It is our intention to begin consultations immediately to explore reabsorbing college staff. [Applause.]
The adult education and training sector is a key component of our postschool education and training system. One of the most important tasks for the department this year is to pursue the establishment of a senior certificate, especially geared to the needs of adults.
Chairperson and hon members, 2010, as the President says, is a year of action, so it will be a defining year for the university sector, with targeted transformational interventions planned for this year. The department is currently drafting the terms of reference for the appointment of a task team to review the funding framework of universities in South Africa, including student fees.
The review of the funding framework for universities will also focus on the special situation of – and, I've been told not to use this phrase again - "historically disadvantaged universities", because they say they are still disadvantaged, so I must call them what they are: in the special situation of "disadvantaged universities" in our country. [Laughter.]
A ministerial task team, headed by Professor Ihron Rensburg of the University of Johannesburg, will study university student housing and assess the system's need for additional accommodation, the quality of existing facilities and options for the financing of new student housing. This will go some way in improving throughput rates.
Professor Malegapuru Makgoba of the University of KwaZulu-Natal has agreed to assume the chair of a health sciences review committee, which will result in the expanded production of desperately needed health care workers. Working together with Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, we expect this committee to complete its work during 2010.
It is also our intention to ensure that no university council member, member of the student representative council or university staff member has any financial interest in any university supplier or tender process.[Applause.] I will institute a management review of tender procedures at all universities this year. This Ministry will set the fight against corruption throughout the entire system, including in Setas and colleges, as one of our key priorities. There shall be no refuge for tenderpreneurs in the Department of Higher Education and Training. [Applause.]
The Ministry has allocated a total of R3,2 billion in infrastructure funds to universities for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 financial years. These funds will help universities to increase production of graduates in the critical areas of engineering, life and physical sciences, teacher education and health sciences. A total of R686 million of these infrastructure funds will be used to expand and improve student accommodation.
The state is the major investor in knowledge production and innovation, and this capacity is located mainly in our universities. We will interrogate patterns of institutional capacity for research and scholarship. Whilst differentiation within the sector is needed, inequalities must be addressed, and this is non-negotiable.
Together with the Department of Science and Technology and the sector, we will examine our gross national investment in research and its distribution across sectors and institutions. I am particularly concerned, as I have said, that we address the challenges faced by our historically disadvantaged universities, and this will receive my dedicated attention. In discussions with the affected institutions, models will be developed to address the effectiveness of teaching and learning, the qualifications and research culture of the teaching staff, and institutional practices supporting research and scholarship.
Chairperson, I don't want to be told that by paying special attention to the disadvantaged universities I want to take money away from the universities that are doing well. There is no such intention; instead, the challenge is that those universities that are doing well be open to all, effectively. [Applause.]
For 2010-11, the amount of R431 million has been allocated for teaching development grants to universities. This is aimed at improving graduate outputs. A further R185 million is allocated for foundation provision. These programmes are critical to achieve equity, access and success.
A higher education stakeholder summit in April will provide a historic national platform for all those engaged in higher education including managers, academics, students, workers, business and nongovernmental organisations to explore together challenges of transformation.
Chairperson and hon member Radebe, work towards the establishment of universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape will continue this financial year. [Applause.] We are appointing two task teams, with representatives from these provinces, to explore appropriate university models for the needs of these provinces and come up with concrete proposals and timelines. Professor Cheryl de la Rey of the University of Pretoria and Professor Thandwa Mthembu have confirmed their availability to chair these teams and will interact on key issues.
Chairperson and hon members, you are aware that the Ministerial Review Committee Report on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme has been released. We are currently considering the recommendations and will submit proposals to Cabinet by the end of August. There will be significant changes to National Student Financial Aid Scheme and this will be one of the key priorities for my department this year.
Perhaps the most far-reaching assignment of the Department of Higher Education and Training this year is the production of a Green Paper surveying the higher education and training landscape and recommending policy and legislative changes needed to support our strategic objectives. I believe this process will lead to much-needed scrutiny and transformation of the entire sector.
This year I will also be establishing a ministerial panel to advise me on the teaching, research and development of African languages in universities, as part of the development of these languages in our own education and training system and society as a whole. [Applause.]
IsiZulu:
UNGQONGQOSHE WEMFUNDO EPHAKEME KANYE NOKUQEQESHA: Nathi izilimi zakithi kuzofanele zikhule, Sihlalo namalunga ahloniphekileyo.
English:
Let me end by taking this opportunity to thank Director-General Professor Mary Metcalfe - and I must underline that she has just been made a professor by Wits University, so she is entitled to continue being called Professor - for hitting the ground running as our new director-general. [Applause.] I also thank my advisers and staff in the Ministry, senior management and workers in the department and all other stakeholders for the sterling work and contribution they have made in the development and refining of the mandate of my department and in preparing for the achievement of the outcomes contained in this Budget Vote speech.
Let me also appreciate the unstinting support that I have received from President Zuma, my Cabinet colleagues and the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training in navigating this complicated, yet exciting, new territory. As I sit down, the problem is that my watch was not working. I did not know how to use it. It clearly means the Minister of Higher Education and Training does require some skills development ... [Laughter.] ... and we shall approach the appropriate Seta to find a special programme to make sure that the Minister is able to use these little gadgets. Thank you very much, Chairperson. [Applause.]
NPM/English and IsiZulu GG(Zul)//Mia
END OF TAKE
Mr M L FRANSMAN
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Mr M L FRANSMAN: Hon Chairperson, Comrade Minister Nzimande and Members of the House, respected guests, chief executive officers, rectors, vice chancellors and leaders of the working masses, including the trade unions, I want to take this opportunity to welcome the Budget Vote address by Comrade Minister Nzimande, including the great announcements that we have just heard today, and thank him for his visionary leadership in charting the way forward for Higher Education and Training.
I am reminded of the words of the Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara when he said, "The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall." On another occasion he said, "And what a lesson for the world is contained in this struggle! The beginnings will not be easy; they shall be extremely difficult!"
Minister, you have heard before from the opposition in society about some of those fundamental announcements that you have made. But let us assure you that, working together, we will indeed achieve those announcements.
Hon Chairperson, a few days ago we commemorated the uprising of 21 March 1960 at Langa and Sharpeville that became a watershed moment in the history of our liberation struggle. The apartheid system compelled black people to carry a dompas wherever they went, reducing them to slaves in the land of their birth.
Today, 15 years into our young democracy, the yoke of apartheid's legacy is still evident in the high levels of inequality and poverty, the growing gap between the rich and poor, the rising cost of postschool and higher education, and the endemic rural underdevelopment, including access to skills and training.
The remnants of this dompas legacy is no more evident than in the realm of higher education where, despite the enormous strides that have been made, the challenge for the poorest of the poor from places like Giyani in Limpopo – which the committee actually went to visit - Tsolo in the Eastern Cape and Garies in the Northern Cape remains the systemic issues that put higher education beyond the reach of most. And those who manage to gain access either lack the means to sustain themselves or fail to access the necessary support to succeed and graduate; yet others, through poor subject choices or other systemic issues graduate, are unemployable.
The path ahead of us is fraught with challenges and difficulties, especially as we confront the reality of a highly stratified race and class structure and enormous disparity between the rich and poor, on the one hand, and the demands of building the capacity of a modern economy that can compete globally, particularly in the knowledge economy, on the other hand.
I wish to welcome the announcement of the Minister with regards to the Green Paper in terms of its long-term vision for Higher Education and Training, because, fundamentally, we require an overhaul of the system and long-term reflection in order to address the most pressing issues confronting us, whilst simultaneously laying a solid foundation that this sector will build upon for years to come.
The initiative outlined today in the budget speech builds on the work done by government over the past 15 years. More particularly, the Polokwane resolutions of 2007 make education a top priority focus area, as reflected in the 2009 election manifesto of the ruling party and endorsed by President Jacob Zuma in his state of the nation address, declaring 2010 the "Year of Action" and education as the number one priority.
This is fundamental, Minister, because it is not a portfolio head that is saying education is the top priority; it is in fact the head of state. Therefore, we must all rally around this particular portfolio, around the Minister's focus on ensuring the realisation of this priority.
This policy position of government is reflected in the tremendous growth in investment in education in the democratic era: from R35 billion in 1994, to R53 billion in 2004, to R165 billion in 2010. The latter includes an allocation of R23,3 billion for Higher Education and Training.
The task now, of transforming the higher education landscape, is far-reaching and impacts directly on the lives of ordinary citizens. In this endeavour, Minister, you are assured of our unwavering support. I am also aware that the task of establishing a new department, whilst simultaneously hitting the ground running, is an arduous task.
Whilst we are concerned that the process of bedding down the new structure and recruiting the necessary capacity should not unduly impact on the urgency of the task at hand, we are confident that under your leadership and that of the new Director-General, Professor - in this case - Mary Metcalfe, this task is indeed possible. We wish the department well for the journey ahead.
I also want to thank the members of the portfolio committee and all the political parties in the portfolio committee, as well as the public out there, for debating and engaging on what we would want you to regard as a road map to Higher Education and Training in South Africa.
We also welcome the overall thrust and intent of the strategic plan and we would like to see it translated into programmes and actions that are measurable, realistic and make an impact on the areas targeted. We are confident that, through constructive engagement, this is indeed achievable.
Likewise, institutions of higher education and supporting institutions, such as the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, are challenged to deliver on the mandate whilst simultaneously negotiating their way through a myriad of legislative, policy and operational requirements.
To ensure effective delivery this must, of necessity, require a review of the funding model for universities and institutions of higher education. We welcome your position in this regard and want to specifically communicate the committee's strong concern for ensuring investment in teacher development. This is of particular relevance in the context that we want to position educators to be able to deal with the dynamics and the demands of a democratic dispensation.
Thanks go to the quality assurance body, the SA Council for Higher Education, CHE, for the sterling work it has done in ensuring that we in South Africa are able to compete internationally with benchmarking practices. This also includes a commitment to the transformation agenda and compliance with all legislative and regulatory requirements.
In view of the fact that government remains a significant contributor to the funding of these institutions, it is not out of the ordinary to expect a significant improvement in quality outputs in skills and training that meet the needs and demands of the economy and of our society.
Minister, we did an assessment some years ago, especially in scarce skills at the high end of education: a number of engineering students that were, in fact, able to get support through the taxpayer base, were found moving to other areas like the United Kingdom, Canada, etc.
We can't stop movement in the global environment, but we should focus on some patriotic responsibility when it comes to education. How can we ensure that people plough back into education, as 80 out of the 280 municipalities in this country lack technical skills at times?
We also welcome the expansion of the further education and training, FET, sector through increased funding with a view to facilitating the critical expansion of capacity and use of some of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme resources, as you have announced, and we fully support you on that. Along with the overhauling of the Setas, this will go a long way towards addressing the plight of the approximately 2,7 million young people between the ages of 16 and 24 that are currently unemployed or unemployable, providing them with opportunities and equipping them with skills and training.
I want to illustrate how serious this task is by sharing one example. Yesterday, my office received a fax from Nkateko Chauke, a 42-year-old student. This student had applied for a loan from NSFAS and received a tertiary loan of R10 000, 60% of this was a bursary and 40% was a loan. In other words, the student had a principle debt of R4 000.
When Nkateko finished his studies in 2000, employment wasn't easily available and he had to pay R200 a month on debt that then stood at R13 000 at that time. In 2007, Nkateko received a garnishing order for a debt of R16 000, with a repayment rate of R750 per month. This debt was serviced until the final payment of R60,58 in September 2009. In February 2010, a further deduction of R990 was made against another garnishing order from NSFAS for a further R16 000. I have instructed that this matter be investigated and have requested a satisfactory explanation from the chief executive officer of NSFAS. We, therefore, welcome that review process and we fully support the public process between now and August that you have announced. [Applause.]
Whilst the obvious ramification of this example is the total disregard for the National Credit Act that Minister Nzimande so gallantly championed, I am concerned that the problem may be systemic and endemic, and rather than facilitating access to higher education and training, may wittingly or unwittingly be causing great frustration and aggravation to learners and graduates.
We must ensure that organs of state contribute constructively to the national development agenda and optimise the development impact within their mandates. This is a non-negotiable. We cannot tolerate a situation in which Setas fail to use their collective R21 billion allocation over the next couple of years to develop emerging training enterprises or partnerships with established large industry.
So, we are supportive of not throwing the baby out with the bath water. Let's, in fact, reflect on where the gaps in the Seta landscape are; make that review; intervene where required; but indeed, let's look at the value for money, because we do believe that there is a lot to be desired in that particular space.
We also support the 19 out of 23 Setas that received a clean bill of health. However, we would want to start zooming in on performance management and not only the financial management around the quality of impact or only financial compliance in itself.
So, the announcements made today, we definitely support, especially that the Setas are positioned to intervene in the gap that exists, as I said earlier, between basic education, further education and training, and higher education, and to create, in a sense, career opportunities from a low end to a high end.
Given that approximately 40% of young people fall into the category of unemployed, we are faced with a catastrophe of mammoth proportions, unless there are intentional and significant interventions to remedy this situation.
Therefore, let's all support the announcements made today by the Minister in this regard. Let's make sure, to borrow the phrase of the late Comrade Joe Slovo, that, "these young people are breathing down our necks", and we must, therefore, be able to act as we are planning a long-term process.
Finally, I want to highlight here the story of Linda Ndabeni who is in the gallery today. She wrote to Parliament to share her story.
She suffered excessive abuse and hardship as a child and young adult. At one point in her life, life became so hopeless that she contemplated suicide, but was sustained by a childhood dream of getting an education and becoming a doctor or the next Florence Nightingale. At one point she even contemplated committing a crime so that she could get access to some education, even if it was in jail.
Fortunately, she encountered an NGO called Nido, which offered her the opportunity to gain training as a health care worker. In 2009, she received the "Student of the Year" award. In January this year, after completing her studies, she was employed as a health care worker at Netcare, realising a life-long dream of service to her fellow human beings. Let's give her a big hand please, and let's stand up. [Applause.]
Linda's story highlights the unknown faces that sit behind the hair-raising statistics that get bandied about without an appreciation for who, where and what the situation is.
Hon Minister, your announcement, therefore, of a comprehensive database and a career guidance information tool that knows who and where every learner is, what type of skills are being provided in this country, what type of training opportunities are being provided in the country, and what opportunities people can access in the ward in which they live is welcomed as a long overdue exercise.
The 2,7 million young people who are unemployed and many other citizens each have a story, and each have an identity. Linda's story, therefore, demonstrates that the challenge of higher education and training is of such a nature that it is imperative that we work collectively to achieve the goals of equal access to a quality higher education.
No sector of our society can stand by as if the process of transformation and democratisation is a project that they have nothing to do with.
There are some though who suffer from selective amnesia. To quote from Lewis Carrols' Through the Looking Glass:
One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it - it was the black kitten's fault entirely. For the white kitten had been having its face washed by the old cat for the last quarter of an hour (and bearing it pretty well, considering): so you see that it couldn't have had any hand in the mischief.
The apartheid legacy that we inherited was a product of a deliberate intervention. We have heard today a deliberate strategy to intervene. The legacy of a transformed, free, just and democratic South Africa that we shape for prosperity is our collective responsibility. Let us work together to make education the number once priority, because working together, we can do more. Thank you. [Applause]
/Mosa/
NB 8-12
END OF TAKE
Dr W G JAMES
Mr M L FRANSMAN
Mr W G JAMES: Chairperson, Minister Nzimande, hon members, as this is the very first budget of the new Department of Higher Education and Training congratulations are due to Minister Blade Nzimande and to his Director-General, the newly appointed Prof Mary Metcalfe, as well as to all civil servants on the birth of this new baby of theirs. Actually, this is not a new baby, this is a reconstituted adult, and it is a reconstituted adult with a bad leg and a good leg. Let me speak first about the bad leg so we don't end on a bad note.
There are provinces like Gauteng that cannot wait to hand over their Further Education and Training Colleges on 1 April 2010, the handover date, to the national department. Tshwane College South and North, in fact, are considered so dysfunctional that some see them as a perpetual source of civil disorder.
Not all of the 50 colleges nationwide are bad. Indeed, there are very many good ones. Most are adrift, though, in uncertainty about their academic programmes, their curriculum and particularly their finances for lack of leadership in the sector. Minister Nzimande has made some promises - and perhaps he made those in a populist moment - that he has had difficulty keeping.
There is not enough money to finance the expansion of the FET college sector from its current enrolment rate and there is some dispute over what that is. In our estimation, the current enrolment rate is: 125 000 full-time equivalent students, to reach a projected figure of one million in 2014, although that clearly is unrealistic.
I assembled a group of duly distinguished education economists to look very carefully and from every angle at the budget over the next five years. Unless I am missing something, Minister Nzimande does not have the funds to achieve the desired FET growth. The quicker, therefore, he lowers expectations, in terms of the public perception of what is clearly a desirable thing, the better.
To his great credit, he has managed to squeeze a 20% year-on-year increase and then some more, amounting to R3,891 billion for FET colleges for the financial year 2010-11. Except for the last financial year, that is the one previous to this one, his predecessor obtained similar levels of increases in the region of 20%. So, this is not unusual. The projected increases for the next five years run at 5% per annum in the budget estimates.
Now, in terms of making assumptions - some reasonable and fair assumptions - about unit costs, we developed two scenarios. The high-road scenario will cost R28 billion over a five-year period, and the low-road one will cost R14 billion to achieve the FET enrolment rate of one million. We are therefore R23,7 billion short on the generous model, which we clearly cannot afford, and we are R9,5 billion short on the miserly one, which we also cannot afford. It is therefore no wonder that there is no year-by-year practical student recruitment, placement, teaching and infrastructure plan in existence to meet this challenge.
The Minister has referred to a strategy that does exist. But what we haven't been able to see is a practical detailed plan for how you find these students and place them, put the seats together for students, staff the colleges, recruit the lecturers, and so on and so forth. That kind of detailed plan does not exist. The reason for that is that this department has not succeeded yet in building a team that can actually plan properly in detail.
I want to say, on this note, that the role of promises in human affairs is about establishing trust. If one does not keep a promise, no one will believe you when you make another. Face is lost and integrity diminished. In other words - and I don't mean to preach - do not make promises you cannot keep and only make those that you can keep.
What is the solution? The DA proposes that the Minister use the bigger portion of the National Skills Fund and most, if not all, of the R6,7 billion set aside for the Setas to finance the more limited and realistic FET college expansion. Just to be very clear on this: we are not recommending alignment between the Setas and these FET colleges, rather, we are asking for the retention of the well-functioning Setas - and there are five of them - and the closure of the others, and to use that money; put it in the hands of students.
This government is very good at taking nice and good ideas and turning them into review committees and commissions and bureaucracies. Of course we require some level of administration, but we must always make sure the money ends up in the hands of those who it was actually designed for. In this case, it is in the hands of students. [Applause.]
Turning to the good leg: our universities have reached the era of what one can call the "steady state". There are issues, for sure. Some universities, most notably multicampus ones like the Tshwane University of Technology and perhaps even the University of KwaZulu-Natal have struggled with governance issues post mergers. Academically promising ones like the Tshwane University of Technology, a very promising institution, should be helped in developing a stable governance model under very difficult circumstances, but the Department of Higher Education and Training lacks the capacity to give it the necessary attention. These institutions must be looked after.
Some of the universities of technology are universities in name only. Many of the historically disadvantaged universities - there are exceptions to this – simply cannot rise beyond the destiny their creators under apartheid intended for them. Graduation rates are poor at some institutions or, in some programmes of study, wasting the hard-earned money of parents on top of sending young people on misdirected career paths.
Universities have, though, achieved what one can call traction. There is evidence of year-by-year progress at most, if not all, of our core institutions. And that is a considerable achievement. To take universities to a higher level requires that the new Ministry, and Minister Nzimande at the centre of it, support vice chancellors in paying unrelentingly consistent attention to quality in every aspect of educational development.
Quality must be the mantra: quality in the ranks of the lecturing and professorial staff, in the ranks of the students that are admitted, quality in the programme of study, and quality in the teaching, in research and in administration. If we support universities and the FET colleges in the quality of what they do, the good students will follow in ever-increasing abundance. Quantity follows quality and not the other way round.
Given that, I want to say very directly to the Minister that he appears to be distracted by the ongoing housekeeping problems of the tripartite alliance - and I haven't completed my sentence - and by the ANC's obsession with racial bean counting that masquerades under the legitimate concern of empowerment and transformation.
I was puzzled by the fact that the budget makes no provision for the creation of universities in Mapumalanga and the Northern Cape.
Mr G S RADEBE: On a point of order: Chairperson, there is no "Mapumalanga". We have Mpumalanga. Thank you.
Mr W G JAMES: That is not a point of order. The DA supports the idea of having universities as a critical part of expanding higher education enrolment in our country, provided that this is affordable. Clearly, having knowledge and teaching centres in the two relatively poor provinces will make a huge difference to their economies and the life chances of young citizens living there. There are institutes of education on which to build.
One answer to the challenge is for government to support the creation of independent private universities, including for these two provinces. It could do so by pursuing collaborations with foreign universities - following perhaps on the conversations the Minister recently had in the United Kingdom and also with the private sector. There are many examples globally of multicampus institutions.
If I can just then conclude by making the final point that the DA supports the National Student Financial Aid Scheme's recommendation to provide a single universal bursary sum to students at all of our universities.
However, universities must be allowed to set and therefore raise their fees. The wealthier parents can then pay to cross-subsidise the poorer ones, leaving the university with the resources to excel and grow. Thank you very much. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
ARM
END OF TAKE
Ms N Y VUKUZA-LINDA
Dr W G JAMES
Ms N Y VUKUZA-LINDA: Mr Speaker, hon members and South Africans, one must admit that there can only be so many resources for so much need. There can only be so many realisable solutions within so much space and time. Therefore I will resist the temptation of coming up with a wish list of what else needs what resources, bearing in mind that the need is vast. Instead, I would urge the Minister to look more at efficient and effective utilisation of what he has in the kitty.
He is, of course, a new Minister in a newly reconfigured department where he needs to play catch-up, where he needs to fix, where he needs to rearrange, where he needs to streamline, where he needs to integrate and consolidate the landscape and offering of higher education.
That task cannot be a light one. It comes with a lot of anxiety on all sides. There is anxiety around access to higher education. There is anxiety around graduate output. There is anxiety around student residences. There is anxiety around support for learner staff and staff development, to name but a few issues.
There is also a rush to get this right, but there are tough questions we need to ask ourselves. What happens to those learners who have succeeded? Why are there so many unemployed graduates? Where is this output leading us? What is the quality of this output? What is the relevance of this output to the learner, to the family, to the economy and to society?
Siyabonga Vukuza is one of many students who graduated in 2000 with an honours degree in government studies from the University of the Western Cape. This year is his tenth year without a job. Currently, he is packing cabbages as a casual worker at Pick 'n Pay, Bellville. He was meant to be a change agent for his home. He had great expectations for himself. His home also had great expectations about their sacrifices.
Are the graduate outputs that we demand linked to anything? If an institution offers, for example, government studies, does it mean there was a conversation between government and the university to supply them with such graduates, or is it that the institutions think that government needs these kinds of studies? Where does one go with government studies except to government? In turn, government wants people with experience in government, and so the story goes on and on. This is where you find this new phenomenon in South Africa: that of graduates who become permanent job seekers.
Mr Speaker, if the demolition of houses by the Minister of Human Settlements, as a result of poor workmanship, is anything to go by, what can be said about the poor workmanship that has gone into the teaching of our children over time?
How do we demolish these houses inside our children and rebuild them in one lifetime? Many of us, of our generation, are products of Bantu Education. I can say cautiously that some of us made it despite and in spite of what Bantu Education was meant to do to us, and not for us. How then do we not get it right when it is our time to get it right?
We have a human resource development strategy for the country. Do we have enough quality academics to supply us with the quality output we desire as a country? Is there a correlation between what we have with what we want? How many academics join universities and institutions of tertiary education compared to those who leave because of lack of competitiveness in their conditions of service? Can we compete with the rest of the world in attracting and retaining these much-needed academics? It cannot be enough to have half-committed academics that are doing more consulting than teaching because they are augmenting their salaries. Something must be done so that the right people are in the right places, doing the right things - because the unintended consequences at these universities is that they end up being retirement villages for those academics that have done that, been there.
Mr Minister, Cope acknowledges the steps you have taken with regards to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme that you shared with us today. While NSFAS is purported to be part of the solution to a huge South African problem, it has now become a huge problem in the solution it seeks to be part of. It falls short of being that solution.
Yes, the need for funding is great; it has been great and will be great for some time. But we must not sacrifice quality in our quest to fix things. The NSFAS cannot be all things to all learners, only to get them nowhere.
There must be dignity, ownership, responsibility and accountability in the administration of this resource. The students who had NSFAS aid must be adequately covered. The fund must be tied to conditions of service upon completion, just as used to be the case with medical students. I don't know if that still happens. You cannot continue to give out money to students and not be part of where that money takes them. You cannot just, as you said Mr Minister, throw money at the problem and hope the problem will go away.
There must be an explicit commitment among participants, government, the NSFAS, the university and the learner. Currently, the commitment is concentrated narrowly on repayment, instead of being extended to what the student must become as result of the funding. The commitment must be better and smarter than that.
Government must commit to funding learners realistically and with dignity. The NSFAS must commit to covering fully and with dignity the needs of deserving students. The university must commit to making allocations with integrity and fair play to these students, while the students must commit to passing their exams. Of course, there must be consequences for not honouring any side of the commitment. That is why we have a number of dropouts that a lot of time is spent chasing up on, because there is no commitment, there is no explicit understanding, there is no accountability and responsibility between the recipient and the university.
In conclusion, Mr Minister, what stands between you and success will be your own leadership. [Laughter.] What will stand between you and success will be corruption, will be bureaucracy, and will be all those things. Cope does wish you well. We know that you made a lot of promises today. You raised a lot of hopes, and we hope that you can meet them. So, Mr Minister, go on and do it. Thank you. [Applause.]
Mr A M MPONTSHANE
Ms N Y VUKUZA-LINDA
Mr A M MPONTSHANE: Chairperson, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, our support for this budget is qualified by the following remarks which I want to make, the first being on entrance qualifications for universities.
In June 2009 the hon Minister called for a revision of university entrance requirements, because, according to him, the exemption rate of 18% was far too low. We may ask if this implies that the Minister is asking for a lowering of our university entrance requirements.
The IFP supports the notion that in order to have a world-class tertiary education system, there have to be minimum entry requirements, and we urge the Minister to work closely with his counterpart in the Department of Basic Education to see to it that our high-school learners are equipped with the skills necessary to succeed at a tertiary level.
The second point is about transformation. The Minister called for university curricula to become more revolutionary when he addressed a Nehawu meeting earlier this year. What exactly did the Minister mean by this statement? At the same meeting, the Minister decried the fact that South Africa's universities were dominated by a neo-liberal approach. Is he advocating a socialist orientation for all universities to follow? [Interjections.]
Hon Minister, we would support you if you had made a call for freedom of political thought and discourse within our educational institutions and society.
Many of our universities are world-class academic institutions at the cutting edge of research in certain spheres. In fact, according to the World Bank classification of top universities in Africa, South African universities claim the top seven positions, with the University of Cape Town leading the pack. Both the Minister and the department have a paramount duty to ensure that these high standards of tertiary education are maintained and even improved upon.
We acknowledge that there are challenges. For instance, what is the Minister doing in order to address the challenge of ageing professors within our universities, as alluded to by the Council on Higher Education?
The third point is to do with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. The department, we concede, has done extremely well in this field, but no success is final. It is in this vein that the IFP supports the Minister in his efforts to better the scheme through new initiatives, such as the review of the scheme of which there is currently a report now out for public comment.
The IFP is currently studying the proposals contained in the report and we assure the Minister that we'll make our views known in the correct forums.
In conclusion, our fourth point is about graduates. In the current period we're expecting 137 000 graduates, and the IFP would like to see this number increase by close to 20 000 graduates per year, and we hope that the Minister is setting similar objectives in this regard.
IsiZulu:
Sesiphetha-ke Mhlonishwa, indaba yezimali lezi ezinikwa abafundi. Kuthe ekuqaleni konyaka laphana eUniversity of Zululand ngemumva nje kokuvakasha kwakho khona kwabakhona izingane eziboshwa ngamaphoyisa ngoba zibize umhlangano wokukhononda ngezimali.
Manje kwenzeka kwaba abafundi abangamalungu eSadesmo. Baboshwa bahlala isonto lonke esitokisini ngokuthi nje bezama ukubiza umhlangano. Lolu daba namanje lusesezithebeni zenkantolo.
Bengingacela-ke Mhlonishwa ukuthi ulubhekisise lolu daba ngoba siyasola sengathi kwaba khona ukwenzelela lapha ngakwesozombusazwe. Siyabonga. [Ihlombe.]
NPM/English & IsiZulu
END OF TAKE
Mr G LEKGETHO
Mr A M MPONTSHANE
Mr G LEKGETHO: Chairperson, hon members, comrades and fellow South Africans, South Africa's education system has made a lot of progress in ensuring the efficiency of further education and training in the transformation agenda of the ANC. Since the 1994 breakthrough, significant pieces of legislation and policies have been implemented to promote access to education in line with the Freedom Charter clause that says: The doors of learning and culture shall be opened. This clause has been an inspiration to students' lives, struggles, classroom politics and learning for a better education system.
After listening to hon Dr James, I thought it very important to remind him of where we come from. We are busy addressing the legacy of apartheid. The enormous progress in education derives its strength from the gallant student struggles, school boycotts, and protests and sacrifices of the working class and the poor. Central to key different historic moments of student struggles was protest against the Bantu Education Act, Act 47 of 1953.
Between 1976 and 1977 a significant number of political trials involving students reached high proportions. Between 1984 and 1989 there were resurgent student struggles after a period of political lull in 1970. Part of the apartheid strategy was to deny black children access to education because they posed a threat to the ideals of minority rule. This was a strategy to produce and reproduce docile and unskilled people who would not challenge the status quo of the time. Furthermore, the strategy would produce people that would not be relevant to economic growth, need skills and decent work, including teaching and developing new knowledge.
In the postapartheid society colleges and universities should reflect and be motivated by the imperatives of the new growth path and development for a better life for all. In this regard, the ANC 2009 manifesto states that education is a means of promoting good citizenship as well as preparing our people for the needs of a modern economy and a democratic society.
The ANC national executive committee in the January 2010 bulletin resolved that Further Education and Training colleges should be geared towards promoting scarce skills. This means that FETs should, therefore, be geared towards producing artisans, plumbers, electricians, and engineers, which the economy needs for development.
For this year, the policy priorities, amongst other things, will be to facilitate the training of 16 to 25-year-olds in the FET band and to provide a second chance at education for those who did not qualify for university education. It cannot be business as usual for Setas. They should not only talk, but they should work with higher education institutions to ensure that poor and previously disadvantaged students get financial assistance through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.
Hon Dr James, I know that you do not like this but it's directed at you. We will accredit the farmworkers through the SA Qualifications Authority for experience and expertise acquired through many years of slavery. This will enable these workers to acquire land and have access to the assistance of banks. A constitutional amendment is required to return the arable land to the state. The willing-seller, willing-buyer policy has failed us. We will establish further education and training systems, development systems, and accountability and ethical practice systems to improve the functioning of FET colleges.
For all this, the Minister of Finance announced a budget allocation of R12 billion to FET colleges over three years. This budget allocation has been shifted from the province to the national department. A further R1,3 billion is allocated to improve the salaries of FET college educators. As my hon President Jacob Zuma also said, this time around, government will work faster, harder and smarter. We must accept that we are also faced with challenges in the existing colleges.
For example, the merger of the Lehurutshe College of Education with Mafikeng and Lichtenberg Colleges into the Taletso College, which is situated in Mafikeng, is faced with the following challenges. One, with regard to advocacy, communities still have misconceptions about the college and its programmes. They do not regard this college as an institution of first choice after matric. Two, big industries and mines in the region are reluctant to partner with the college in the placement of students and with sponsorship. Three, there is a lack of qualified staff in class and in administration. Four, there is of lack of equipment for engineering workshops. Five, bursaries are not adequate and this results in many dropouts. Six, machines are not adequately serviced because of the resources. Finally, the introduction of short-term contracts has resulted in the resignations of skilled artisans, technicians and professional lecturers.
In conclusion, I would like to request that the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training and the department visit this institution and intervene. The ANC supports this Budget Vote. I thank you. [Applause.]
Mr D J MAYNIER
Mr G LEKGETHO
Mr D J MAYNIER: Hon Chair, the hon Mulder couldn't be here, so I will be conveying the message to the Minister instead.
Afrikaans:
Die uitsluitlike gebruik van Engels as onderrigtaal in baie Suid-Afrikaanse en Afrika universiteite is 'n bron van groot kommer vir taalkundiges. In 'n artikel getiteld The State of African Languages and the Global Language Politics: Empowering African Languages in the Era of Globalisation stel prof Zaline Roy-Campbell dit as volg:
English:
One result of the disuse of African languages in education, and the devaluation of the knowledge embodied in these languages, is the positioning of Africa as a receiver rather than a contributor. African countries receive knowledge, know-how, technology, books, etc, from other countries, particularly in the West, but are not seen to contribute anything of recognised value to the global knowledge pool.
We want this century to be the African century. How can we be happy with this kind of situation? At the moment a significant part of the Afrikaans-speaking community feels that the government does not regard multilingualism and mother-tongue education at tertiary levels as a serious matter.
For instance, the University of Cape Town decided that English would be its only medium of instruction and there is no reaction from the government's side. This is even though this is a university in a province where 60% of the population is Afrikaans-speaking. With such a decision the University of Cape Town makes itself inaccessible to many of Afrikaans-speaking students and, in the same breath, may I remind the House that the majority of Afrikaans speakers in South Africa and the Western Cape are not white people. On the other hand, the University of Stellenbosch is constantly under pressure because of its language policy.
This confirms the suspicions of Afrikaans-speaking citizens. This also creates the impression that English is deliberately used to oust Afrikaans and the other official languages at university level. There must be a clear distinction between language as a communication instrument, language as an instrument for formulating thought, and language as a medium of instruction. This does not mean that English is not important. As a communication instrument, English is a great asset for many South Africans because it gives one access to a large part of the world. Therefore government can consider making communication English a compulsory subject at tertiary institutions for all those students who are educated in any one of the other official languages. Communication English should, therefore, not be confused with English as the medium of instruction or English as the medium for formulating thoughts.
Approximately nine years ago, Prof Jakes Gerwel, as head of an informal committee, reported to the former Minister of Education on the place of Afrikaans in the higher education system. He recommended that the Minister give two specific institutions instructions to see to the continued growth and development of Afrikaans as an academic and a scientific language in conjunction with the educational and scientific roles. The recommendation was made within the broader framework of promoting multilingualism in South Africa.
Furthermore, it was argued that social diversity, including and especially language diversity, is one of our fundamental values in the vision of our society as expressed by and contained in our Constitution. According to Prof Gerwel, when the announcement of the findings of the committee was made nine years ago, it was already clear that the use of Afrikaans was fast being eroded at most of the historically Afrikaans universities. Thank you. [Time expired.]
Nb (Eng)/NP(Afr)//GM (ed)
END OF TAKE
Mrs C DUDLEY
Mr D J MAYNIER
Mrs C DUDLEY: Chair, Ministers, the ACDP commends the efforts to expand and improve the capacity of FET colleges and welcomes the R12 billion allocation over the next three years, plus the further R1,3 billion allocation to improve the salaries of FET college educators.
While targets to expand the number of young people studying vocational subjects are ambitious, the ACDP believes that they are necessary. We also concur with the usefulness of shifting the budget from provinces to the national department at this time.
Investing in youth to ensure a skilled and capable workforce to support growth and job creation in South African – a key strategic priority for the department – will very definitely require a National Student Financial Aid Scheme, with the capacity and funds to deliver increased access to institutions of higher learning and to have the capacity for retention.
Over the past two years the ACDP has repeatedly highlighted the need to broaden the criteria for which students could qualify for a loan. Our proposal has been that loans should not only be available to certain categories of people, but to any student that is willing to work hard and produce what is required.
We therefore support the recommendation in a recent report to increase the income level for those who qualify, and allow for both complete support for poor students and partial support for other categories, as a step in the right direction. We also note the recent DA support for a voucher system, which has been ACDP policy since as far back as 1994.
Hon Minister, what is the story with the reopening of teacher colleges? How will they factor into this budget? Besides education, many sectors, both public and private, are facing skills shortages but the public-sector crisis directly undermines the ability of government to provide services, including health and emergency services, social services and infrastructure in general.
Nursing colleges had also been promised, and what involvement will your department have here and does your budget take this into consideration?
The President and the Finance Minister both identified skills development as a vehicle to economic growth. Will the allocation for this financial year enable your department to achieve its goals?
The ACDP will support this Budget Vote, but it is concerned that the new department is chronically underfunded, making the task before us, or before you, hon Minister, excruciatingly difficult. Thank you.
Mr G S RADEBE
Mrs C DUDLEY
Siswati:
Umnu G S RADEBE: Sihlalo lohloniphekile, Indvuna Yelitiko Letemfundvo Lephakeme Netekucecesha, Tindvuna tematiko letikhona lapha endlini kanye netivakashi letikhona, ngibonga kutsi singene kulensindzabetjatsi lenkhulu kangaka yetemfundvo lamuhla. Njengobe sihlangene lapha nje lamuhla, siphuma kuyawugubha umkhosi welusuku lwemalungelo ebantfu labalimala kakhulu.
Angisho nje, Sihlalo, kutsi lenhlangano leyalwela emalungelo ebantfu yahlangana ngemnyaka wanga 1955. Emkhatsini wetintfo leyakhetsa kutsi itakutenta kutsi iyawuvula ematiko etemfundvo yabo bonkhe bantfu balapha eNingizimu Afrika. Sihlalo, lamuhla sihlangene lapha nje sitewukhuluma ngalendzaba lenkhulu yekutsi temfundvo lephakeme tibaluleke kangakanani, kuze sikwati nekusekela emasu ekutsi tisebente kahle kulomnyakatimali walonyaka.
Ngitsandza kukhumbuta Indvuna yetemfundvo lephakeme kutsi, ngalomnyaka lophelile Ngenhlaba yetsembisa bantfu kutsi itakwenta ngawo onkhe emandla ayo kutsi ibeke eceleni imali lefanele kuze kusitakale bantfu bakulelive.
English:
The current state of higher education facilities is insufficient as we only have 23 universities in the whole county. These can only accommodate a few students. Of the 350 000 matriculants that passed, universities can only register 100 000 students. The statistics prove undoubtedly that the country needs more universities and other post-schooling institutions.
Hon Minister, it is a fact that all the other students not counted here are not accommodated by these institutions. They are out there gallivanting about, and it is not known what they are doing. The Department of Higher Education and Training should do something about this situation as soon as possible.
A country that doesn't educate its nation doesn't have a future. It is in that spirit that the ANC vowed in its manifesto to prioritise education within its five key priorities. Hence, President Jacob Zuma emphasised that "Education must be at the centre of our efforts to improve the potential of every citizen and enable each one of us to play a productive role in building our nation."
Minister, it is important to make sure that when you negotiate with teachers, you emphasise the importance of education, that it is a high priority.
It is very important, hon James, to ensure that we follow due process when we speak about the issue of universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape. It is important to note that this issue is being dealt with at the highest level of the nation, and the Minister has just pronounced that he has taken the initiative. The pronouncement made by the President in his state of the nation address about the establishment of fully-fledged universities that must be built in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape has to be realised.
The Minister must ensure that this is implemented so as to fulfil the commitments made by our President to the nation. The people of the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga welcome the announcement made by the Minister today, and we assure the Minister that we are going to support him in this regard. But you must make sure, Minister, that this does not become an empty promise and is realised as soon as possible.
It is important that we speak about the accessibility of education in rural areas. The National Student Financial Aid Scheme should take the important initiative of effectively marketing NSFAS in those previously disadvantaged areas. We further encouraged the Department of Higher Education and Training to speedily establish a research task team that will be able to work together with the unions, the student organisations and the people of those respective provinces, because without those people we cannot succeed with implementation.
Together we can achieve and expand quality education and access for all. It is exciting to see the Department of Higher Education and Training, the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and the Department of Trade and Industry working together in establishing the co-ops academy for there to be access to education in the rural areas.
With this budget debate on the newly established Department of Higher Education and Training, the department should kick-start the process of researching the type of universities that must be built in these two provinces. These universities should reflect the very important state of our new democracy - reflect transformation – so that they do not have to be transformed at a later stage.
As we welcome the review report of the NSFAS, we also acknowledge the mammoth task ahead of us in ensuring that we address the critical question of whether NSFAS provides financial assistance to more for less, or to less for more. However, at the forefront we need to ensure that as the ANC government we encourage students from the working class and poor communities to go to tertiary institutions by providing all kinds of financial support, and that we reaffirm our commitment through our 52nd conference resolutions.
Indeed, Mr Minister, in my capacity I would encourage the NSFAS to ensure that it provides 100% financial assistance to make sure that all students get accommodation, food, transport, etc. All this should be given to needy and poor students. A better skilled and educated community is capable of driving the agenda of the developmental state.
It is important that there is enhanced, proper and close monitoring of the universities and Setas as we are going to align these two systems. The notion of not funding Setas is an element of corrupt naughtiness that comes from the opposition party. We recommend to the Minister of Finance that he run a lifestyle audit of university councils, as we notice the sleaziness that goes with the tendency of "tenderpreneurs" amongst them, as the Minister has mentioned.
Transformation in these higher education institutions has become a national anthem as some of these universities also failed to provide us with holistic reports on transformation. It is no surprise that some of those universities, hon Minister, are in Cape Town.
When we did an oversight visit of one of these universities we discovered that transformation was only happening at the top management level, namely that of the University of Stellenbosch. When we encouraged them to do transformation holistically, we discovered that some of the members from the opposition party defended this practice.
We want to discourage the issue of people not accepting transformation. As the ANC, we reject the notion of engaging or negotiating transformation; we want transformation to happen now. Bantfu abayekele ingevu. [People must stop idle talk.]
The President, in his state of the nation address, stated that this was the year of action. This country should stop negotiating transformation and implement it now.
It is important that we notice that the hon James made a few comments about FETs not having enough funding. We have noticed that the funding is not enough, but it is unfortunate that while he was galvanising his experts he never came forward to assist the country. It really shows that there is still a notion of "kusebentela likhaya lakenu kunekusebentela sonkhe sive" [working for your own family rather than working for the whole nation].
It is very important to note that in this respect the ANC and the portfolio committee are going to support you, Minister. As you require more support and financial assistance from the Department of Finance, we are going to support you and ensure that you improve in your work. In that regard, the ANC supports this Budget Vote. Thank you. [Applause.]
///tfm///
END OF TAKE
Mr R B BHOOLA
Mr G S RADEBE
Mr R B BHOOLA: Hon Chairperson, the MF fully supports the hon Minister in his plans to give financial assistance to tertiary education. I don't think that anybody with ability and talent should be denied the opportunity of advancing in higher education.
The MF would like to know what the relationship is between bursaries that are to be offered by higher education institutions and learners in rural and disadvantaged institutions. How are they being attracted? Surely, it cannot be on the basis of qualifications and the best symbols. At the same time, what we require is a tremendous amount of discipline on the part of students as well as student organisations. We also have to look at how we retain skills in rural areas; otherwise rural areas will never be developed. You cannot get a single teacher to go to the rural areas, and this is the responsibility of higher education.
What is the role of teacher training? What programmes do they have? When is teacher training supposed to start? In KwaZulu-Natal, for example, we have 14 000 unqualified people, but there is no systematic training in higher education to produce teachers.
I want to make an appeal that education knows no nationality, no race, no colour and no barriers; and that, after 16 years, the admissions policy moves away from being based on racial quotas, because we are losing a lot of highly educated people from South Africa. Recently, there was a meeting of all MBA graduates in Paris who have left this country and the purpose of the meeting was to get them to return.
Adult basic education and training falls within the higher education sphere. The conditions of service for those educators are supposed to be dealt with and developed there. Whilst the responsibility for funding, housing, and determining their conditions of service resides with higher education, their actual contract of employment falls under basic education, which places them in a grey area. You don't know who is responsible for them, so clarity must be sought. The right to education includes the right to adult basic education, and there is neglect in this area.
The issue of further education and training has to be clarified. Is it going to reside under basic education or higher education? This is because the bargaining council has been established within the sector. Its future has to be clarified, because it plays a critical role in the development of skills and, if it is not correctly located, then we have a huge problem.
The MF is concerned that the education system is not linked to economic and industrial growth, and that starts to explain the huge problem of unemployment even amongst graduates. That's because there is no proper alignment of the educational structure.
The MF suggests that more tertiary, technical and medical institutions be established in provinces. I suggest that the hon Minister take a leaf out of India's book, as it has produced 400 million professional, middle-class people from a massive injection of public and private capital into tertiary education.
The MF will support the Budget Vote. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Ms M N MAGAZI
Mr R B BHOOLA
Ms M N MAGAZI: Chairperson, hon Minister of Higher Education Comrade Blade Nzimande, hon Minister of Basic Education Comrade Angie Motshekga, hon members - all protocol observed - this Vote is critical in ensuring continued assistance to disadvantaged students. For decades the disadvantaged faced exclusion from getting a tertiary education owing to a lack of access and funds. The ANC recognises education as a fundamental human right, and, in this regard, has created a vehicle for disadvantaged students to gain access to higher education.
The ANC Polokwane conference took the decision that free education should be progressively introduced for all the poor up to undergraduate level. Previously, the responsibility was on higher education institutions to raise funds to support students that were financially disadvantaged. Sources were, commonly, local and international donors and, in addition, institutions allocated part of their general operating budgets to finance student aid.
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme has maintained very high administrative standards and is confident of its future sustainability, underpinned by two important factors vis-à-vis government showing the political will to ensure that the scheme is adequately funded, and students that have demonstrated their academic ability and a willingness to repay.
The NSFAS is not without challenges, amongst which are: enormous backlogs in access to higher education; requests for increased funding; expectations that transformation will bring higher education within everyone's reach; and tension between students and higher education institutions' administrations.
Whilst the budget has increased, it has not kept pace with the increasing demand for assistance. The NSFAS would have to triple its budget to meet even the current demand. Funds managed by the NSFAS have increased substantially, from R441 million in 1999 to R2,375 billion in 2008. This provided financial aid to 17% of higher education students.
All stakeholders applaud the considerable growth in the allocation of funds by government, but the demand for increased investment in student financial aid must be seen in relation to the growing inequality in South Africa, an extremely high rate of unemployment and the skills shortage. In 2009 South Africa was rated the most unequal society in the world. This is not surprising, given our history and our highly racialised society in which millions were disempowered and therefore disadvantaged.
The available funding for higher and further education and training does not cater for the estimated 2,8 million young people between the ages of 18 and 24 who are not employed. The new policy framework envisages progressing towards the realisation of the constitutional right of access to education by providing free higher and further education to disadvantaged students from poor and working class communities.
The ANC-led government is doing all this because it understands the urgent need to produce graduates who are well rounded, skilled and competent, graduates who can be creative and adaptive to the new challenges.
The provision of loans at a lower rate of interest than that of commercial educational loans offers students an affordable loan with favourable repayment terms. Linked to this is the incentive, based on academic performance, that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme can convert up to 40% of a loan to a bursary.
Painful to report is that 72% of students have not completed their studies. The White Paper warned in 1997 of poor students gaining access to higher education, but being unable to complete their studies and returning to the vicious cycle of poverty.
The review committee's finding that the allocation formula to universities is inappropriate is a step in the right direction. The formula recognises race as a proxy for socioeconomic need, but that the individual's socioeconomic status should remain the criterion. Therefore a historically advantaged institution with affluent black students will not get the same NSFAS allocation as that of a historically disadvantaged institution with poor black students provided that they qualify for the funding. The ANC supports the budget. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
ag
END OF TAKE
Mr M A MANGENA
Ms M N MAGAZI
Mr M A MANGENA: Chairperson, hon members, most of us accept with satisfaction that our country has reached a consensus on the crucial importance of research, development and innovation for our nation. We have reached this consensus because we don't want to remain a developing country forever. We have aspirations to become a developed country one day. We know that those countries that dominate others - economically, militarily and in other areas of human endeavour - are those countries that have been able to harness knowledge to develop new technologies, products and services.
We want to modernise our economy and our society to move away from relying too heavily on raw materials and natural resources, such as minerals which, in any case, will be exhausted one day. We want to produce goods and services containing our own intellectual property with which we can trade with the rest of the world. To do this we need strong research, development and innovation arrangements at our universities.
For that research arrangement to be meaningful we need to do the following. Firstly, we need to build and maintain strong research infrastructure at our universities. Secondly, we need to keep our senior researchers in the country through the provision of challenging research projects. As we know, by virtue of the fact that they are knowledge workers, they tend to have itchy feet and a roving eye for opportunities. If opportunities do not exist here, they will seek them elsewhere. Thirdly, we need to use the senior researchers to train and mentor young researchers and academics to ensure that we have a dependable pipeline to develop a skilled and knowledgeable population.
Fourthly, we need to have a strong system of registering, protecting and exploiting our intellectual property generated through research at our institutions. That would mean, inter alia, strengthening intellectual property management offices at our universities. Fifthly, we need to align the research work at universities with research activities at science councils, state-owned enterprises and the private sector so that we have a less fragmented South African research, development and innovation system.
Sixthly, we need to identify research priorities for our country, the region or the developing world to which we would direct an important portion of our resources. This could, for example, be diseases prevalent in our country or region such as malaria, HIV or TB, or areas of advantage in renewables such as solar energy or wind energy. And, seventhly, we need to fund research as adequately as possible and on a sustained basis.
The latter point cannot be overemphasised. We will not be able to create the desired knowledge economy if we are given to short-term and start-stop activities in research, development and innovation. We need focus and staying power or stamina if we are to turn our knowledge into more "Sasols" in our country.
The scaling down of work at the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor, PBMR, after investments of around R8 billion and at a time when nuclear energy is globally reasserting itself, is just the kind of thing we should not have done. One is almost certain that the nuclear scientists and engineers who worked on the PBMR will be snapped up by the rest of the world, leaving us poorer. A few years down the line we could find ourselves importing pebble bed modular reactors and related services from the rest of the world at great cost. This kind of leakage in intellectual property, expertise and human resources should not be mildly countenanced.
Our country is certainly not where it should or can be in investments, in research and in development. As the Minister is aware, South Africa spends around 0,95% of GDP on research, development and innovation. We need to have this at, at least, 1% of GDP and then push it up to 2%. Institutions of higher learning are critical in this regard.
We look to the Minister to keep research, development and innovation robust at our universities through sufficient funding and political support. We are glad that in his speech the Minister asserted that his Ministry will continue on this path. Perhaps as a quid pro quo, these institutions should undertake to teach the Minister how to use this clock. Whether or not they will succeed is another matter. [Laughter.] We can only pray for them. Thank you very much.
Mr G G BOINAMO
Mr M A MANGENA
Mr G G BOINAMO: Chairperson, hon members, Minister and our honoured guests, a man sustains a badly fractured neck and is bleeding profusely. He groans with pain, but his life cannot be saved. I behead him out of love in order to save him from pain. [Laughter.] It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one, than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.
The fact of the matter is that the Sector Education and Training Authorities, Setas, have failed the youth of this country who find themselves trapped in them, their precious time wasted, and they have been grossly frustrated. Billions of rand in state funds have just gone down the drain. This is evidenced by a huge number of young people who have received training in various Setas, and yet the majority of them cannot get placements. The fact that they remain unemployable despite the qualifications they have attained is indicative of the fact that they have received irrelevant training, which does not appeal to the labour market of this country.
I concur with Minister Pravin Gordhan who, in his Budget Speech on 17 February 2010, said: Our people need hope. Our people want government to lead ... want action on jobs and services, and quality education. We need courage and humility to do things correctly and effectively. Successful social development is not only dependent on government.
Government should allocate more money to skills development so that when real economic growth occurs there will be a sufficient number of highly skilled people in the labour force. The prospect of prosperity is a struggle worth fighting.
It is a sad fact that with all the best resources we have in this country, we are counted amongst the worst in terms of quality performance. With regard to this, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, DBSA, has indicated that of all the SADC countries we spend much more of our budget on education. Nonetheless, the quality we get is very poor. However, we need to take cognisance of the fact that it is not money alone that can produce quality, because many poor countries in Africa, far worse off than in our case, produce better education than we do. One glaring example is Mozambique; the poorest of the poor countries.
There is ample evidence to the effect that governance continues to plague the sector. The Auditor-General has issued disclaimers against the Setas because supporting documents and further explanations on how the funds were utilised could not be provided as required in terms of section 55(1)(a) of the Public Finance Management Act.
The sector's problem is aggravated by the department's reluctance to allocate adequate grants per trainee. For example, the department's grant for Merseta – the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Seta - is R25 000, whereas the total cost per trainee is R200 000. The industry has to pay R175 000. This is the reason for the industry's reluctance to train for government.
Apprenticeship should be an alternative to Setas. It is therefore imperative to enter into partnerships with big trainers such as Eskom, Telkom, Nissan and BMW so that they can provide both training and guidance on the sort of workforce that should be trained.
Hon Minister, relocate Setas to the industry where they will be better directed to train the youth in relevant and marketable skills for the betterment of our economy. South African skills development can come to fruition if apprenticeship is returned and trade schools work in close collaboration with industry.
The DA recommends that Seta money be allocated to the expansion of the Further Education and Training colleges. Thank you. [Applause.]
GM (ed)
END OF TAKE
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M B Skosana)/Mr Z S MAKHUBELE
Mr G G BOINAMO
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M B Skosana): Thank you, hon member. I am in a slight quandary here. I just went out to take something for my headache. Now when I come into the House I hear that there is talk about beheading. [Laughter.] I don't know whether I should go to the Minister or go to the hon Boinamo, but I am fearful.
Mr Z S MAKHUBELE: Hon Chairperson, thank you for giving me this opportunity. Hon Ministers, Deputy Minister, colleagues and guests, good afternoon. Perhaps even before I start with my prepared speech, I may need to clarify or deal with two or three of the issues raised by members, particularly from the opposition parties.
What became clear from all of them - I will go beyond two now that you have requested me to – is that there was no policy directive that they were actually bringing forward. What we have seen, particularly from the hon Mpontshane, because he was saying something ... [Interjections.] ... about clarity on the speech by the Minister on issues raised some time back. [Interjections.]
Mr A M MPONTSHANE: We are debating the budget. You want clarity on issues. Minister, I think you will have time to clarify most of the issues, whether we need the ... [Interjections.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M B Skosana): Hon member! Hon member! Hon Mpontshane, we don't need a dialogue.
Mr Z S MAKHUBELE: ... all we are saying is that people came to the debate with confusion, and they did not know what issues to raise. But the first thing we want to deal with is that each time the ANC produces a plan or a programme, we are asked where the money will come from – not engaged on the issues, but exactly where we will get the money to do all the good things we want to do.
Our understanding is that the Minister will be behind you and if there is any need to lobby for more funds to attend to the issues that you confront, we are ready to handle that.
With regard to the universities, as it's being said that some of them are universities in name only, particularly the previously disadvantaged universities, we are aware that they might have had difficulties in lifting their own standards. The ANC had to establish the Department of Higher Education and Training separate from the Department of Basic Education to deal exactly with issues that confront higher education in particular. So we have a dedicated department to handle these issues.
The Minister is ready to confront all these particular challenges and there has also been learning from the experiences of the measures that actually took place to ensure that we lifted the standards of those universities to be productive and competitive, just like other universities, because we can't continue with the system of the past.
Whilst we have some of the unemployed graduates, it is clear that there is a direct link between unemployment and the skills deficit in the country - in terms of the mismatch. We need to attend to that. We can't blame government necessarily, that government alone must take up the issue. The private sector must be brought on board to be able to handle these kinds of issues as well. We must encourage them to absorb these graduates.
Yes, it is true that we do have world-class universities in South Africa. But the question and issue that we must deal with should be accessibility for all learners at those particular institutions and not just for the privileged few. [Applause.]
With regard to the Service Sector Education and Training Authorities, Setas, as the ANC, we were among the first to indicate that there were concerns in that particular regard. You say that only five are needed - I know the Minister has the overall responsibility of reconfiguring this – while also talking about expanding in terms of training and skills development and propagating that you need the monies to be channelled to universities. You can't dictate to us why universities only, because you know the indirect benefits to those particular universities.
With regard to the language policy issue, for example Afrikaans particularly should be preserved and all that, our understanding, as the ANC, is that you need to ensure that issues of access and success at these universities are promoted to all people across the board. Any barrier or hurdle affecting some races or ethnic groups should be attended to and removed out of the way of students who want to be successful at these universities. Afrikaans, yes, it is very important and in fact, as the ANC, we analysed the understanding of the status of all the languages we have in the country, including the indigenous languages. We are very careful in saying Afrikaans is a language belonging to the minority. That's not correct. We also have an overall understanding, as the ANC, on what we want to do about the language policies. So, access and success should be the major issue for all our young people.
Regarding further education and training colleges, I don't think there are any issues with them. We are just clarifying that they belong to higher education and training. There is no thinking that perhaps it belongs to basic education. In case we came here with some confusion, there is clarity on that. [Laughter.]
IsiZulu:
Ms T B SUNDUZA: Mpontshane uyezwa?
English:
Mr Z S MAKHUBELE: The Setas' relocation is an issue that will be handled properly and thoroughly by the Minister as we deal with the review process. I want to leave it at that.
The ANC-led government has correctly identified education as one of its primary priorities, to the extent that it was divided into two departments, namely that of Basic Education and that of Higher Education and Training. This came about from the recognition that education is a useful instrument in the fight against poverty and inequality and that it is indispensable in the reversal of the past social and economic imbalances.
Higher Education and Training is crucial in the empowerment of the working class and the poor, who were previously marginalised from central economic activity, to enable them to participate in the economic mainstream, thereby emancipating themselves from being entrapped in the vicious cycle of structural and systemic poverty.
This government has set, as one of its objectives, the creation of decent work and sustainable livelihoods, and higher education is a potent weapon in the hands of our people in rolling back the distortion of human potential that persists as a legacy of the past.
Research has shown that there is a mismatch in the skills deficit and unemployment in South Africa. This area of work calls for immediate transformation as in yesterday, lest our freedom be meaningless. It is the ANC government, under President Jacob Zuma, that established a dedicated Department of Higher Education and Training for there to be adequate attention and focus on the challenges at hand faced by the majority of our people.
In his state of the nation address, the President said, "We have placed education and skills development at the centre of government's policies." Hon Minister, it will be important that the skills development interventions being considered are aligned with the National Industrial Policy Framework, the Provincial Growth and Development Strategies and the Local Economic Development Goals in order to maximise placement opportunities for graduates of our programmes.
You should be congratulated, however, hon Minister, on your efforts made in aligning the National Skills Development Strategy with the Human Resource Development Strategy for the first time since.
It is a common knowledge that the majority of the Setas function below expectation, as evidenced by the Auditor-General's annual reports. Among those are the Energy Seta, the Public Service Seta, the Construction Seta and the Media, Advertising, Publishing, Printing and Packaging Seta, which are all of major concern and would like to urge you, Minister, to deal thoroughly with the review process outcomes and within the set timelines agreed to.
The funds earmarked for training and skills development by the Setas through service providers should not end up benefiting big business in the industry without showing regard for emerging companies, particularly those run by previously disadvantaged persons.
The Setas should strengthen their monitoring capacity to ensure that the work done by service providers has the necessary impact and is able to achieve its required goals.
In the event that foreign companies and countries have been engaged in mentoring, coaching and in general skills transferral, we need to monitor these programmes to ensure that our main objective is realised.
We need to acknowledge that we do have some best practice models. For instance there is the Fountain Hill Estate in KwaZulu-Natal which became the first farm to establish a learning centre in 2005 through the collaboration of AgriSA, Media Works and the Fountain Hill Estate, and they actually succeeded in that particular regard.
We are aware that whereas considerable progress has been registered, the capacity to spend all the national skills fund monies is found wanting. It is hoped that under your capable leadership, all the bottlenecks will be removed and the backlogs speedily addressed. The department should continue to invest extensively in the FET colleges and the Setas to ensure the broad skilling of the South African nation. We must strengthen the college sector by changing the mindset to ensure that the colleges are equally attractive as providers of skills, and we must also create relationships with business and employers to ensure work-driven training, retention and promotion of people in in-service training.
These colleges should produce artisans, technicians and engineers with an increased focus on training much-needed artisans as a measure to improve the growth of the economy. Strengthening FET colleges should also mean their reorientation in order to foster patriotism, social cohesion and nation-building to avoid turning South Africa into a skills-manufacturing plant for the benefit of other countries. For example, in the medical profession nurses are going to Canada, Britain and Saudi Arabia.
We need a real campaign to mobilise the public to support FET colleges as centres of first choice for learners and students in order to remove the negative perception and to restore their credibility.
The other main challenge which needs to be acted upon is the recognition of prior learning, RPL. The original noble concept for RPL was intended to build a more inclusive education and training system and to provide easier access to different levels and forms of learning to those who had been disadvantaged by the previous system, thereby creating a system for redress and equity.
The SA Qualifications Authority, the National Artisan Moderating Body and the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations should facilitate qualification for trades as well as access to learning in the workplace.
There are many opportunities provided by the recognition of prior learning if implemented properly, such as access to better jobs, occupational mobility, the safeguarding of jobs, access to further education and training, a return to the formal education system, increased self-confidence, salary increases and so on.
Therefore, RPL's implementation and proper funding may not be overemphasised as greater needs and expectations have been created. Of course, there are success stories, as witnessed by the University of the Western Cape and the Workers' College of KwaZulu-Natal, the SA Police Service ...
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M B Skosana): Hon member, your time has expired.
Mr Z S MAKHUBELE: ... just to conclude, hon Chairperson ...
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M B Skosana): Hon member, your time has expired. [Interjections.]
Mr Z S MAKHUBELE: Let me then thank you for the opportunity. [Applause.]
VM/
END OF TAKE
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Mr Z S MAKHUBELE
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING: Chairperson, firstly, let me start by taking this opportunity to thank all the members. There were really many important and informative contributions that were made. It is quite heartening for a new department that we are grappling with these issues, not alone but with members who are also seriously grappling and thinking through these issues.
I think that it actually bodes well for the future, and I also want to thank the portfolio committee, especially the chairperson, Comrade Marius Fransman, for his leadership and also the colleagues for the contribution that they have been making in helping us to navigate this department, as also shown by the general contributions that have been made here.
So, I am not going to be responding to each and every issue that has been raised. We have listened, but I just want to highlight a few issues. But before I do that, I think that we made a mistake. We should actually have acknowledged the guests who are watching on the big screen at the Imbizo Centre, to say you are part of us. Thank you very much. It's because there has actually been a huge interest in this debate, and not everybody could fit in here.
Secondly, I would like to acknowledge the presence of the apprentices from the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority, Merseta, who are also at the Imbizo Centre, watching on the big screen. You are our pride and our hope in our drive for artisan production in this country. I would also just like to inform members and announce that, as they may have been aware that we've been having problems at the Durban University of Technology, we have agreed with all the stakeholders to actually appoint a mediator and someone who is also going to investigate the problems, and Dr Vincent Maphai has graciously agreed to act as a mediator in this process.
By the way, this links me to the point that Mr Mpontshane was making. I am sure to call you "baba" uMpontshane, as it is more honourable than saying hon Mr Mpontshane. With regard to the SA Democratic Students' Movement, Sadesmo, and the students that were arrested, I think that you know during the registration period we had set up a task team. It's a pity that in a Budget Vote you can't share everything that you want to share.
We have learned a lot of things, and I hope that through the House and especially Comrade Marius through the portfolio committee, we will be able to have ongoing engagements on some of these issues. You see, it is clear that there are legitimate problems that are facing students at many of our institutions, including the problems of accommodation and so on, and that the students have the right to protest. But what we cannot accept is the destruction of property. I am not making a judgment about the students who were arrested, whether they were involved in that, but we must leave it to the judgment of the law-enforcement agencies, to actually take action and be able to take things to their logical conclusion.
I am disturbed when you say you seemed to smell a rat. I was assured because I've also been engaging with the Commissioner of Police on some of these problems that we have been experiencing. The police have been asked to act firmly but with restraint, not carelessly, to try to protect this property that we need for our children and future generations. So, maybe we should allow the law to take its course, and then we will be able to see what it is that we can do.
Whilst talking about the matters that were raised by the hon Mpontshane, the issue of a revolutionary curriculum means, in simple terms, that we are suffocating from a singular totalitarian ideology which tells us that their market is the solution to everything. The world economy has collapsed precisely because of that intolerant totalitarian ideology which has failed the majority of the people in the world.
IsiZulu:
Ms T B SUNDUZA: Awuyazi i-revolutionary.[ubuwelewele.]
English:
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING: Yes, I agree with you.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M B Skosana): Order! Order, please!
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING: We must learn from the bad things that happened in the Soviet Union, since you are provoking me, but also we must learn from the good things of the Soviet Union. For instance, one positive lesson from the former socialist countries was that it was indeed possible to have full employment, free health, free education and even free transport for poor people. [Applause.]
But that is not the point; let's not take the debate that way. We need our universities to teach different views and perspectives. We are battling at the moment. The kinds of economists, for instance, that are being produced by most of our universities can't even spell the word "developmental". Yet, we are saying we want a developmental state and we have to intervene, to see what our universities are doing to also assist us to produce the kind of graduate that is needed to fight poverty and unemployment in this country, and not only graduates, because many of those who flee do it because we train them at Empangeni and KwaDlangezwa as if we are training them for the New York Stock Exchange or the London Stock Exchange and not for the realities, Mr Mpontshane, which are facing, for instance, Empangeni and the rural areas.
You see, when I talk about this, I am reminded of Alvin Toffler's saying, or warning rather, "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn." [Applause.]
I must thank the hon Fransman for his contributions and suggestions on things that we need to look into, especially the centrality of teacher development. We are working closely with Minister Motshekga to look into this. As we unfold things, we are actually going to be engaging the two portfolio committees, because as I have said, this is critical. And thanks also to you, chairperson of the portfolio committee, for all the positive remarks that you have made.
Let me just take the little time I have left – unfortunately, I would have liked to comment on many things - to respond to the hon Wilmot James, and also challenge, by saying let's have a debate. You see, at one level you are right that as things stand now, we do not have funds that are adequate to do some of the things that we want to do with the further education and training colleges. But on the other hand, that's not correct. The problem is that from your approach, you are looking at FET colleges as some kind of glorified high schools or mini universities, where you're calculating the programmes only in terms of full-time equivalence.
We need to radically change the landscape of FET colleges. As far as I am concerned, FET colleges should operate seven days a week by presenting part-time courses over weekends for people who are working, responding to local needs with programmes and so on and also with the linkages to the skills development infrastructure and funds that can be creatively tapped into in order to fund these programmes, legitimately so. For example, that is why amongst other things, we are saying, we are going to talk to the Sector Education and Training Authorities, Setas, and seek an agreement and arrangement that we should actually be prioritising programmes through FET colleges.
It can't just be that most of that money is spent through private providers; we must build these public institutions. That's one more creative way of accessing money for FET colleges - through programmes - but that does not mean, as the hon Makhubela was saying, that we may not want to, say, go to Cabinet to ask for more money.
I also think in your approach to the Setas, hon James, there is a problem in the sense that your approach is problem driven rather than a strategic one. You can't say that because 18 or 19 of the Setas, for example, have problems, that they should be shut down. It is problem driven. If those Setas have a problem, tackle the problem, but as to the actual Seta landscape, it must be determined by our own strategic objectives, moving forward. [Applause.]
IsiZulu:
Angizwanga baba, ngiwayinda kuphi? Sisuke singaneli isikhathi lana sihlala engathi lezindaba kwesinye isikhathi singaze siyozixoxela noma kusesibayeni ukuze ukuwazi ukuthi kungabibikho umkhawulo.
English:
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING: Let me also say that I think Cope has done better today. [Laughter.] You have done much better, which shows that it's not been very long since you left the ANC. The teaching of lecturers, replenishing our academia, is a fundamental question that we will have to deal with because we've got ageing academics. Once more, let me thank everybody. I am sorry, Mr Makhubela. Thanks also for the issues that you have raised, and to all the other members, I am looking forward to an ongoing relationship under our slogan: "Working together we can do more." Thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
The Committee rose at 16:31.
GG//Mia/END OF TAKE
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