As we celebrate the national Youth Month in South Africa this year, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has seen it fit to celebrate this month by focusing on Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges and to pause and reflect for a moment on the current state of these Colleges. The DHET is one of the key departments in addressing the many challenges facing our young people through, amongst other things, access to education opportunities and skills development.
The FET colleges are institutions that sit at the centre of government’s strategy to increase the numbers of young people who access education, training and employment opportunities through programmes that are geared towards alleviating many of the social and economic challenges our youth finds itself faced with today. Tshekiso Molohlanyi, in an article in yesterday’s Sunday Times, under the title: “I just want to belong”, gives us a glimpse into the gruelling challenges our youth – particularly those from poor marginalised backgrounds - are faced with today.
Government is celebrating the Youth Month under the theme: "Together We Can Do More to Build Infrastructure and Fight Youth Unemployment, Poverty and
Inequality". Government has specifically also called upon, and signed agreements with, the business sector to invest more in the youth and prioritise them for skills development, including learnerships and other workplace experience opportunities.
When the Department of Higher Education and Training was established three years ago, we inherited 50 FET colleges with 264 campuses at varying levels of functionality.
It immediately became evident that the Department was not going to be able to deliver on its education and training mandate if the FET colleges were not subjected to urgent but gradual capacity and quality improvements in a wide range of areas.
I am also pleased to formally indicate that the President has assented to the Further Education and Training Amendment Bill, and it is now an Act that transfers all responsibility for FET colleges from provinces to national government under our department. On Tuesday we are meeting with all the Colleges to finalise migration plans. This will go a long way in strengthening colleges and aligning them with the rest of the post-schooling system and employers, whilst ensuring that these colleges respond more effectively to the challenges facing them.
At the time the Department came about, the only programme supported and funded by government in FET Colleges was the National Certificate (Vocational) which did not cater for adults, the employed and unemployed. It was also not able to support the artisan development agenda at the speed required by the economy. In this regard we took the decision to rescind the phasing out of the NATED programmes (or Nprogrammes) and re-introduced them to lay the theoretical foundations for Artisan Development.
The FET Summit of 2010 recommended that the NC (V) qualifications be reviewed. A Task Team has now concluded the review and accordingly, the Department and Umalusi, will revise the qualification. We are targeting 2013 for the first rollout of the revised NC (V) qualification.
In the past, I have spoken about the need to review the curriculum for the N programmes with a view to updating and modernising their content. The Department, the QCTO and Umalusi are currently at work reviewing the content of some of the subjects.
In addition to our efforts to improve the quality, breadth and relevance of the education in FET Colleges, we have also recognised the need to increase access into these colleges, especially for youth coming from poor families. In 2009, the bursary allocation for FET Colleges was R300-m, which immediately increased to R318-m in 2010. In 2011 Government took the bold decision to further increase the FET bursary allocation fourfold from R318-million in 2010 to R1.235 billion in 2011. This is the single largest ever increase in government funding of FET colleges. In 2012 this bursary has increased to R1,7 billion, thus making FET College education for poor students free.
Many of these students are also supported with transport costs of up to R6000.00 per annum per student or accommodation.
This investment is one of Government’s most significant responses to the youth unemployment challenge, and an instrument to gradually correct the structural distortions of the Post-School system in which the University sector has become much bigger than the FET college sector. Expansion of the College sector will go a long way in increasing post-school opportunities for our youth.
The focus of the Department over the past two and a half years has not been limited to access only. Serious attention has been given to improving student retention, success and certification rates. Once access has been created through these bursary schemes, we expect our youth to aim for success, so that more can come through the system and benefit from these interventions by government. The certification rate on the NC(V) level 2 in 2009 was 9.6%, and, within two years, this was improved and increased to 44.8% in 2011. Similarly the Certification rate in the National N1 Certificate was 14.8% and improved to 35.1% in 2011. These improvements are largely due to the Department’s interventions to stabilising the weaker colleges, developing the capacity of lecturers and the colleges investing in continuing professional development of their staff. The gradual improvement is also due to improvements the capacity of College Student Support Services.
To improve governance and finance in FET colleges, we have started the process of appointing Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) for all the colleges. All our colleges did not have qualified CFOs, and to this end we have entered into an arrangement with the South African Institution of Chartered Accountants to identify and second retired accountants and other financial administrators to be appointed as CFOs. We are pleased to announce that all the CFOs in the nine FET colleges in the province of KwaZulu-Natal were appointed last week and our Director General has also met with all the College principals and the newly appointed CFOs. This will go a long way in addressing many of the financial administration challenges facing the FET Colleges.
Other colleges are expected to get new CFOs in the next two months.
To ensure alignment and integration of the entire Post-School system, of which FET Colleges are an integral part, we have developed the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) III, which enjoins the SETAs (Sector Education and Training Authorities) to use FET Colleges as sites of sector skills delivery. Where the FET College is found to lack the capacity to deliver the skills needed for the economy, I have further directed that SETAs should invest in building such capacity. At the same time, the FET Colleges themselves also have the responsibility to ensure that Government gets value for the money invested in them.
Earlier this year, during a meeting called by the President with all the FET College Principals and chairpersons of governing councils, the President announced an investment of R2,5 billion rand for infrastructure, equipment and programmes for FET Colleges. This will further strengthen these institutions and gradually turn them into institutions of choice for our youth.
The signing of the National Skills Accord by Government, Organised Business, Organised Labour and Community organisations in July last year, is one of the most important factors in achieving our vision of improving work-placement for FET college students and graduates. This Accord also commits business and other employers to expose college lecturers to the current needs of industry, thus improving their capacity to offer relevant courses and programmes.
We have also started pilots with some universities for dedicated and tailor-made training of FET College lecturers, thus contributing significantly to the improvement of programme offerings through appropriately trained lecturing personnel.
The The Green Paper we published early this year also sets out our plans to develop pathways for achieving a coherent post school system with articulation, collaboration, and coordination with the other institutions in the post-school system. We also seek closer alignment between the various institutional types (e.g. between colleges and universities) and between education and training institutions and the labour market. We cannot train towards cul-de-sacs! FET colleges are central in creating such a postschool education and training system.
I therefore call upon our youth, students, parents and communities to make use of these opportunities in order to effectively respond to the needs of our youth and those adults who require opportunities for further education and training.
At this point, allow me to address specific issues that we cannot leave out of this briefing. The first one is the issue of the Transport Allowance within the FET College Bursary Scheme, which FET College students are allocated as part of their bursary where this is required. In a number of campuses around the country, students have sadly embarked on protest action, demanding to be given left-over funds from the Transport Allowance. The Department has met with College stakeholders, including the students themselves, to explain this matter.
We wish to state categorically that money set aside as a transport allowance must only be used for that only. Any unused funds will be allocated in the following year either to the same students or to other equally needy students. We cannot allow money meant to assist students with their studies and transport to be used as a cash-cow. This would compromise the very many advances made to open access for poor students to further their education. We call upon all our youth and student organisations, as well as parents and communities to work with us to ensure that government money is not abused. The appointment of CFOs will also go a long way towards improving the capacity of Colleges to manage such funds transparently and properly.
Currently, the Bursary Scheme covers tuition, travel, as well as accommodation for qualifying and deserving students. Our projections are that at least 180,826 students will benefit from our FET Colleges Bursary Scheme this year. This is an important achievement and demonstrates government’s commitment to address the needs of our youth.
The maximum amount for a Transport Allowance award is R6000 per annum, which therefore means that the amounts awarded for travel may vary from one student to the next depending on the distance that each student has to travel to get to the college.
There is no change due to the students in instances where the actual costs of transport fall below the maximum award.
AS Salaam Campus Report
The Department is fully aware and deeply concerned about developments and the stalemate that has resulted in the As Salaam Campus of the Coastal FZN FET College in Umzinto being closed down. Our senior officials have been meeting and making investigations about the grievances from the various stakeholders and seek a way to address these.
I also intend setting up an investigation into how an arrangement of this nature was made by the College. I wish to state that as a constitutional democracy and secular state, no student in any public institution can be forced to practice any religion, irrespective of the circumstances that might have warranted the College to enter into accommodation arrangements with any institution. I am deeply concerned and worried by these developments and arrangements which are completely unconstitutional and in fact violates the rights of the students who legitimately registered in a public FET College.
In this youth month and beyond we call upon all our youth and communities to make full use of these opportunities which are part of our efforts to make higher education free for poor students in our country.
Reflecting on the current state of Further Education and Training Colleges as South Africa celebrates the youth month of 2012 by the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr B.E. Nzimande, MP The Hilton Hotel, Durban
