Minister of Higher Education, Science And Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, address on the occasion of the Ithuba Scholarship Awards 2021
Programme Director Ms. Zainab Seria; ITHUBA Chairman Mr. Seth Phalatse; ITHUBA CEO, Mrs Mabuza;
All scholarship recipients present; Alumni representatives; Distinguished guests;
Members of the media; Ladies and gentlemen
Good Morning!!!
I am glad to be joining the Eric and Charmaine Mabuza Foundation in partnership with Ithuba Holdings 2021 Scholarship Intake ceremony which will be awarding a group of 26 students with scholarships.
This awards today brings the ITHUBA 2021 intake to 43 students. It is indeed pleasing to see "Ithuba", our National Lottery Operator, prioritising the education of our youth by awarding them with bursaries that covers full university tuition, housing and living expenses in order for them to pursue their dreams in their chosen fields of studies. Congratulations to ITHUBA, the recipients and all those who were central in organising this event.
As former President Nelson Mandela once said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the World”.
As Minister, I have decided to support this event primarily because it is important to mobilise the whole of South Africa, especially those of us with resources to join in the effort of educating our youth and therefore educating the nation - albeit holding it under difficult circumstances of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Our entire post-school education landscape has not been spared the negative effects of Covid 19.
As we are gathering here today our own state bursary fund for poor and working-class students, the National Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has not as yet released its list of potential beneficiaries as we are still involved in discussions with my colleague, the Minister of Finance, on how to deal with the impact of Covid 19 and the difficult economic situation it has spurned on the amount of funding available for NSFAS this year. Government however remains committed in ensuring that all deserving students who have been admitted to a TVET college or a university is supported, including those already in the system who have met the requirements for progression. I intend making the necessary announcements by early next week so as to give certainty to our students and institutions.
We had to endure and sustain months of hardships brought by this ‘New Normal’, which not only changed the way we do things but also brought pain and death.
The good news is that government has now started the rollout our vaccination programme and the hope and dignity of our people will finally be restored.
In response to the coronavirus socio-economic distraction, as a higher education, science and innovation sector, sector we have developed and consolidating our twin strategies on innovation and skills in support of our country’s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP), as announced by our President, Cyril Ramaphosa, in October last year. And provision of education to our youth and adults is an important dimension in any economic strategy.
It is also an undisputed that COVID 19 has acted as an accelerant on the back of previously existing levels of social inequality n our country. Education is therefore a very important weapon with which to fight poverty and inequality in society.
Our goal as a higher education, science and innovation sector is to reposition our country not just to be a consumer of knowledge but also to be a producer of knowledge and new innovation.
I am delighted to point out that that in our own strategies, particularly in our skills plans, we do place emphasis on interventions to allow a large number of young people to access opportunities in the immediate-term to ensure that they are able to be absorbed into high-potential growth sectors of our economy in order to boost job creation.
Similarly, we are called-upon to develop interventions to support the re-skilling of workers so as to prevent further job losses in support of an inclusive economic growth.
Addressing youth unemployment, in particular, remains our utmost priority. As you will be aware, for the cohort of youth aged between 15-24 years old, unemployment remains high at 61.3%, whilst those not economically active remains at 8.2 million, and those not in employment, education and training (NEET) remains at 3.2 million, as reported on 12 November 2020 by the StatsSA.
Much as government has, and continues to, put billions of rands into education, and that our single highest budget expenditure is for education, government alone will not be able to tackle the enormity of the education challenge alone. Hence the importance and significance of the role played by foundations like yours.
To ensure maximum success as government, we continue to forge mutually beneficial partnerships with the private sector, private foundations, communities, religious bodies, etc to forge dynamic partnerships on education.
One ther big area of need, which I hope your foundation in partnership with Ithuba needs to consciously focus on is to support those students who come from families with income above the NSFAS threshold, yet that are not rich to be able to afford university and college education - those we normally refer to as the missing middle. It is also important that initiatives like yours work closely with government in order to eliminate the problems of double dipping where some students benefit from both the state and private bursaries like yours. We must eliminate this phenomenon as it deprives many deserving student the necessary funding to pursue their post school education.
It is also important that we increasingly focus our education support to those areas of scarce skills that we have in our country. Last year, my Department of Higher Education and Training released important lists on scarce and critical skills, as well as skills in high demand, that I would urge your Foundation to study closely as a guide to priority areas for bursary and scholarship provision. For instance, the list identified that 345 occupations are in high demand out of a total of 1 500 registered in our Organising Framework for Occupations. These occupations are at both high as well as intermediate skills levels.
Many of the occupations on the list can be associated with key areas and sectors identified as crucial for the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan such as the digital economy, energy, infrastructure development, manufacturing, tourism and agriculture, data scientists, web developer, computer network technician, electrical engineer, concentrated solar power process controller, mechatronic technician, toolmaker, gaming worker, crop produce analyst, agricultural scientist, just to name a few.
Our other challenge that maybe of interest to you is the need to support work placement for practical experience especially for students in universities of technology and TVET colleges. We appreciate the commitment by some employers in taking on inexperienced young people into their work placement, and this is another kind of support needed especially to give stipends for trainees and learnerships.
To further encourage this government has introduced the Employment Tax Incentive, which incentivises the cost to employers of hiring these young people.
To this end, we also want to strengthen our Adopt-a-TVET College Campaign to promote cooperation between industry and TVET Colleges. Here we encourage employers to adopt and support particular programmes in our TVET colleges. This assists a great deal in ensuring that what is taught in our TVET colleges is in line with what is required by the industry.
We have entered into Service Level Agreements with a number of major industry partners and associations specialising in identified trades and occupations in the capacity 26 targeted TVET Colleges across the country, through what we call Centres of Specialisation focusing on the increased provision of training in particular trades and occupations.
On the same note, through the National Skills Fund, we have made available R150 million to upgrade workshops at TVET Colleges to meet industry requirements.
In conclusion
As government we are more than determined to engage the private sector and foundations like yours as part of our strategies to build a thriving and responsive PSET sector.
Youth unemployment can only be addressed if learners are equipped with the skills needed on the labour market. This is the reason that today, we are so grateful to the Eric and Charmaine Mabuza Foundation, in partnership with Ithuba Holdings (RF) (PTY) LTD ("Ithuba"), in their quest to ensure that South Africa’s youth receive the education they deserve, and to bridge the social divide that exist in South Africa.
I would like to make a call today to corporate South Africa, particularly the banks and philanthropies to extend their helping hands and assist academically deserving students who cannot afford to pay for their studies, particularly those who are not covered by the current funding policy of government, commonly known as the “missing middle” It remains the commitment of the South African government that ensure that the doors of learning and culture shall be opened so that no deserving child is left behind.
Once more congratulations to all the recipients of the scholarships!! Halala kinina nonke. Please do yourselves, Ithuba, your families and community proud by studying hard and be better ambassadors of our future and country.
I thank you.
