The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) came into existence in 2009. Reflecting on the past 42 months since the establishment of the department, this period has been marked with a number of key achievements in advancing Government’s electoral mandate, which is informed by the Outcomes approach as well as the targets in the Delivery Agreement.
Some of the key achievements worth noting are:
- Further Education and Training student headcount enrolments increased by 90% from 345 566 in 2010 to 657 690 in 2012.
- Student headcount enrolments at universities increased by 12% from 837 779 in in 2010 to 938 200 in 2011.
- The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) which is our primary tool to ensure access for poor students to post-school education has assisted 1.4 million students since 1991 with many NSFAS alumni now playing an important role in our economy and society.
- NSFAS student bursary funding at FET Colleges has increased from R318 million in 2010 benefitting 61 703 students to R1.988 billion in 2013 targeting 222 817 students.
- NSFAS student bursary funding at Universities has increased from R2.2 billion in 2010 benefitting 148 387 students to R3.693 billion in 2013 targeting 210 000 students
- The expansion and strengthening of teacher education for all education sub-sectors, including pre-schooling, schooling and post-schooling has resulted in an increase from just under 6 000 new teacher graduates in 2008 to 10 361 in 2011.
Some of our more recent notable achievements for the 2012/13 financial year include:
- The development of the FET College Turnaround Strategy which has focussed on building college capacity in management, governance and leadership, financial management, human resource management, teaching and learning, as well as student support services. This intervention, with the assistance from the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), has seen the appointment of 48 Chartered Accountants as Chief Financial Officers at FET Colleges, as well as the appointment of 20 Human Resources Specialists to support clusters of colleges to set up Human Resource systems, procedures and policies to ensure smooth and effective human resource management and development in each college.
- The Central Application Clearing House (CACH) mechanism, as a first phase towards the establishment of the Central Application System (CAS), was successfully established at the start of the 2013 academic year.
- A dedicated Unit on “Work Integrated Learning Partnerships and Innovation” has been established to engage with employers in both the private and public sector as well as with SETAs in order to promote and institutionalise work integrated learning. Government departments and agencies at national, provincial and local levels are now starting to step up their intake of young people for apprenticeships, learner ships and internships as are state owned companies which have a pivotal role to play in this regard.
- For the first time in its history, the NSF has reached a stage where its annual disbursements are on par with its annual income. In addition, all of the Fund’s R7 billion historic reserves have been earmarked for specific skills development projects of national priority. Most of the expenditure has been for improving infrastructure and programmes for expanding capacity and improving quality in the production of skills in engineering, medical and veterinary sciences, renewable energy, various trades and rural development.
The Budget Vote speech this afternoon will be consolidating on these achievements. It will form the basis from which the department will be moving forward, towards the provisioning of a highly integrated, articulated, responsive and flexible post-school system for South African youth and adults. Without going into the details of my Budget Vote speech, I will be talking to and in some instances make announcements in relation to:
- Policies to achieve our objectives that will be set out in a White Paper on Post-School Education and Training which I expect to be ready within the next few months.
- The first phase of the Further Education and Training (FET) infrastructure expansion and refurbishment programme will see the construction of 12 new campuses and upgrading of 2 existing campuses catering for 28 000 additional learners with the first intake of students at the new campuses in 2014.
- R2.5 billion has been allocated for capacity building and programme expansion at FET Colleges focusing on expanding enrolments (R2 billion), building institutional capacity (R365.5m), and upgrading of equipment (R192 million). The strategic significance of this investment cannot be overemphasised, as it will assist the colleges to better respond to their expanded mandate.
- A Policy on the Professional Qualifications for Lecturers in Technical and Vocational Education and Training has been finalised and will be gazetted within the next month. This policy will for the first time establish a coherent set of qualifications for college lecturers.
- A partnership with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) to improve the FET curriculum and make it more relevant to the world of work, and facilitating articulation into higher education. In addition, the DHET is also developing an FET College-based Mathematics and Science Foundation Programmes that will enable young people to take up university studies in the engineering, science and technology fields. This programme is expected to be piloted from next year.
- The infrastructure grant to universities has been extended from two to three years, increasing the R3.8 billion to R6 billion over the period 2012/13 to 2014/15, including amounts aimed at overcoming backlogs in historically disadvantaged institutions. Through co-funding, institutions will contribute a further R2 billion over this period to bring the total investment in university infrastructure to R8 billion.
- The establishment of the two new universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape is central to the expansion of the university system. The two institutions will be established as legal entities in the next month and these sites will be launched for construction from September this year, with both universities opening their doors in 2014 in selected academic programmes, using existing buildings.
- A draft Policy on Student Housing in Public Universities has been Gazetted for comment. This Policy will require universities to improve student housing in many areas such as governance, maintenance, admission for first years and also set minimum standards for a proper living and learning environment for students across the sector. This Policy will require universities to improve student housing in many areas such as governance, maintenance, admission for first years and also set minimum standards for a proper living and learning environment for students across the sector.
- A teaching development policy framework will be implemented and programmes will be initiated to support the academic and professional development of lecturers in universities.
- Our new SETA Grant Regulations came into operation on 1 April 2013 and requires SETAs to target funding towards structured workplace learning and experience, promoting partnerships between education and training institutions and employers. This will assist to institutionalise this very important work within the post school education and training system.
The Budget Vote speech will provide more detail in all these areas to ensure that we achieve our vision of a single, coherent, differentiated and articulated post-school education and training system that seeks to expand access, overcome inequalities and achieve high levels of excellence and innovation.
