State working towards free education

MUCH has been said about student funding and the high costs of university education in South Africa, especially lately. This has been a long-standing concern for us in government.

As a result, we have reiterated our position – which is also ANC policy – of moving towards providing free education until at least the attainment of the first tertiary qualification for the poor.

As we’re all aware, financial constraints have been – and remain – a major constraint in us achieving all our societal transformation goals.

However, while most attention has been focused on universities, scant – if any – has been paid to the important Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges sector.

Yet this has been identified as being one of the key focuses of economic development and growth for our country in our National Development Plan.

One of the key strategic goals of the Department of Higher Education and Training, as espoused in the White Paper for Post-School Education and Training and in the National Development Plan Vision 2030, is that of increasing access to education and training opportunities by the youth. The department has made significant progress in this regard. Access to TVET colleges has increased from 226 889 in 2010 to 709 535 in 2014. This is more than 100 percent growth, as it translates to 117 percent growth in education and training opportunities.

To promote student access to colleges for academically deserving students from poor backgrounds, the department increased the college bursary allocation from R312 million in 2009 to R2.2 billion this year. During the same period (from 2009 to 2015) the Department has allocated R9.9bn to colleges, which has enabled 1.1 million young people to enter the system.

In 2012, I initiated a department and South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) project to stabilise, standardise and sustain the financial management and governance of the 50 colleges. The project has had numerous successes to date, which cannot be enumerated here because of space constraints.

In a nutshell, the department and Saica project will continue until June 30 next year, after which the department will take over the functions currently performed jointly by the project and the department.

The department will continue to focus on the improvement initiatives that have been initiated and are being worked on. This will include placing permanent deputy principals: finance in all colleges, ensuring that the finance units at colleges are structured correctly and that the posts are filled with people with appropriate skills and experience.

The work done on the implementation of policies, governance structures and to improve the financial management will be continued, and we will also ensure that the required areas receive constant attention to maintain performance levels once all colleges are functioning as required.

Since 1994 there has been no co-ordinated investment in the expansion of the TVET college subsystem. The establishment of the 12 new college campuses and the refurbishment of two existing campuses was aimed at putting in place a standard for expansion, with a particular focus on improving access in areas which have a high poverty index and in which there was inadequate or no provision of education and training at all.

According to the White Paper for Post-School Education and Training, the TVET infrastructure expansion programme aims to expand the college system by providing quality teaching and learning infrastructure, with the multipurpose capacity for a mix in qualifications and programmes specifically within each affected local municipality.

The process of prioritising the establishment and refurbishment of these colleges was done after consideration of the HSRC research of 2006 on Provincial Indices of Multiple Deprivation for South Africa. The use of this priority list guided the interventions towards skills and economic development for the identified local municipalities and for the country.

In terms of the socio-economic impact, the estimated impact at each site is on-site training and employment opportunities during construction of approximately 430 people, and financial investment in local procurement of R162m.

There are 16 campuses planned for construction and/or refurbishment in 4 provinces, namely; Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

Three sites (Thabazimbi campus for the Waterberg, Bambanani for the Umfolozi and Nkandla A for the Umfolozi college) are under construction and expected to have partial enrolment for the next academic year.

Since its inception in 2009, the department has been engaged in the challenge of what we have billed as “building a skilled and capable work force to support an inclusive growth path”.

This necessitated a reorganisation of Sector Education and Training Authorities (Setas) to respond to the skills challenges of our country; 21 Setas, each with newly constituted boards, have been functioning since April 1, 2011. Also in 2011 was the introduction of the National Skills Development Strategy, which redirected Setas to a new skills development dispensation that focuses on addressing scarce and critical skills required by our economy.

New grant regulations were published that came into effect in 2013. Central to these regulations was redirecting Setas to invest more in pivotal programmes – which means professional, vocational, technical and academic learning programmes – resulting in a qualification or part-qualification.

In 2011/12 Setas produced about 14 023 artisans; in 2013/14 this number rose to 18 110. In the same period bursaries provided increased from 5 711 to 13 911 for the unemployed.

For the period to March 31 last year, 19 Setas contributed R305 929 645 to the national student financial aid scheme, with a total head count of 10 185 students.

For the financial year 2014/15 workers entered various learning programmes, through Setas. The target was 115 418 beneficiaries with the total achievement of 142 028.

So the department continues to work hard tackling the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality, especially investing in youth empowerment through the provision of education and skills to ensure a prosperous and stable economic future for youth and the country.