Duncan Hindle, at the Southern African Society for Co-operative Education
conference, Riviera International Hotel, Vereeniging
18 April 2005
A FUNDAMENTAL CONTRIBUTION TO SKILLS
The challenge to build human capital in South Africa has three main
components.
The first is to improve the quality of education in all our schools. The
quality of general education has not improved for children in most rural and
township schools.
The second is to ensure the success of students in further education and
training colleges, universities of technology and universities. The number of
graduates from these institutions has more than doubled over the last decade.
That is encouraging. But the actual success rate is not what it should be. Most
importantly we need to encourage students to acquire skills in those areas that
are needed to meet our target of 6% growth.
The third challenge is to make the national skills development strategy (the
industrial training programme) work more effectively to support a more
competitive business sector and a more efficient state. The broad challenge is
to reduce the level of youth unemployment, in other words to prepare young
people for work more effectively.
To improve the quality of schooling for all we have embarked a number of key
interventions.
First, we have major plans to improve the school resources of our poorest
schools, particularly in rural areas, so that we supplement basic
infrastructure adequate for learning (toilets, water, electricity, classrooms)
with exciting learning resources and materials in hard and soft format.
E-learning is one key way in which we intend to bridge the divide between rich
and deprived schools.
Second, we have resolved to pursue quality maths and science education for
all through a targeted focus school approach to the learning of maths and
science. Our Dinaledi schools are currently being expanded to 529 and our
target is to have 50 000 maths and science matriculates by the year 2008, that
is, double the number we have at the moment. Once that target is achieved the
focus-school strategy will be expanded to more schools until all secondary
schools have a specialist mission and purpose. This requires a significant
investment in textbooks and laboratories for science and information
technologies. It also means improving the abilities of our teachers to teach
maths and science.
Third, we have introduced a new curriculum in grades 10 to 12 and this
brings to an end our 10-year long transformation of the curriculum. It is a
curriculum for the 21st century and it requires grade 9s to make the best
career choices possible.
The second component of governmentâs strategy is to increase the number of
matriculants who go on to acquire intermediate and high level skills.
First, we are in the process of recapitalising our further education and
training colleges.
Currently R1.5 billion is budgeted for this over the next three-year Medium
Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period. In addition, all college sites have
the capacity to absorb more students on skill programmes especially those
related to training for construction industry and infrastructure development,
the needs of the Integrated Development Plan (IDPs) and early childhood
education.
Second, we are seeking to improve equitable access to higher education
institutions through targeting National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)
funds to certain fields of study in science and technology.
Third, the Department of Education (DoE) has, together with Treasury,
undertaken a major review of the financing of higher education. I will soon be
in a position to announce major changes in this regard.
The third component of governmentâs human capital strategy is the national
skills programme. Government has played a leading role in aligning the skills
supply of the education and training sector with the demands of the economy,
that is, the skills needs of the private sector, state operated enterprises and
government.
To focus and facilitate this process the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills
Acquisition (JIPSA), which includes government, business and labour leaders,
has been established. JIPSA serves as a central clearing house for discussion
on skills needs and strategy development.
It is here that technology universities have a fundamental role to play.
Because we know we are short of high-level skills. We are short of business
and financial managers. We are short of men and women with engineering skills.
We are short of men and women with information technology (IT) skills.
All recent studies and surveys confirm what we already know about scarce
skills - management, engineering, and IT are key areas of shortage.
During the decade of freedom there have been fundamental changes in
occupational structure, in qualifications and in skills required in different
economic sectors.
However, the overall pattern is for upskilling or an increase in âskill
intensityâ, especially in managerial, professional and associate professional
occupations.
In addition, there is an increasing need for job specific, technical skill,
which is paralleled by an increased demand for skill types that cut across
sectors and occupation, including basic skills, generic skill (including
verbal, numerical, planning and communication skills), IT skills and management
skills.
In closing,
Technology universities have made a phenomenal contribution to the growth of
human capital in South Africa. This is evident through the massive expansion in
enrolment in the recent past and the massive improvement in qualification
profile of graduates.
It is very encouraging to see that it is not only men who are succeeding in
science, engineering and technology fields but also increasingly women. This is
a positive development.
The DoE has clearly signalled that career-oriented education needs to be
expanded. The market requires that graduates increasingly master technical
competencies and have practical work-based experience.
My concern is that technology universities are still focused on the diploma
qualification rather than the B Tech. We need to change that focus so as to
ensure that the skills graduates learn are more suitable for our rapidly
growing and complex economy.
Thank you.
Issued by: Department of Education
18 April 2005
