DHET’s response to South African FET Students Association
The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has always been willing to discuss with South African Further Education and Training Student Association (SAFETSA) all issues of concern to students. Indeed, we have always attended to issues that have been brought to our attention and that are within our control.
However, it is important to note that there are some issues that cannot be solved in the short to medium term, as these would require additional resources from the Government – which can only happen through the laid-down government and parliamentary channels.
SAFETSA’s demands:
The Department of Higher Education and Training received a memorandum from SAFETSA dated 31 December 2016, which listed a number of demands and commitments from the department.
Rather unhelpfully, SAFETSA made it clear that it did not wish to meet with the Minister or DG, or any other DHET official for that matter, adding that it would also be embarking on a shutdown of TVET colleges starting 19 January 2017 when the new academic year resumes. This action, it said, would continue until all the demands were met.
Background to, and the development of the TVET sector in recent years:
Up until the 31st of March 2015, the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector was managed by provincial Education departments. In 2009 a decision was taken to move the Further Education and Training (FET) colleges to a national competency, resulting in the following action being taken:
- An intergovernmental protocol was signed by the Minister of Higher Education and Training with the then MECs for Education in the provinces at that time.
- Legislation was amended in 2012 to move the functions assigned to the MECs and provincial Heads of Education to the Minister and the Director-General.
- New college councils were established and made operational as most of the colleges did not have constituted councils, as their term of office had expired.
- The Minister also began to fill long-standing vacant management posts, especially those of principals and deputy principals.
- Historically, personnel in colleges, other than management, were employed by the colleges and the subsequent legislation transferred them to the employ of the Department of Higher Education and Training. This meant that about 9 000 support personnel and 9 000 lecturers had to be migrated to DHET, with the process being concluded on 31 March 2015.
- Intensive and complex processes were undertaken to ensure that funds allocated for the management of the FET system were moved to DHET. This required negotiations with each provincial Education department, as well as the national and provincial treasuries – and this was also concluded by 31 March 2015.
- During the period 2010 to 2015, enrollment at colleges almost doubled from just over 420 000 to just over 710 535 students currently in all programmes offered in TVET colleges. Considerable funds were allocated by Sector Education and Training Authority (SETAs) and the NSF to achieve this.
- A ministerial turnaround strategy was also instituted to provide support to colleges to enhance their governance, management and operations.
- In 2009, very few colleges had qualified or competent finance officers. This necessitated the department, through the assistance of the South African Institute of Chartered Accounts, to appoint qualified Charted Accountants in each of the 50 public TVET colleges.
- Subsequent to the appointment of the support CFOs, human relations generalists were also appointed to support the HR functions in the colleges.
- Understanding that the rebranded FET Colleges had to be relevant and responsive, the names of the colleges were also changed to TVETs.
- The PSET White Paper makes profound policy proposals to make TVETs institutions of choice, meaning that their curriculum also had to be reviewed, to provide more occupational and vocational qualifications.
- During the last few years, the allocations to National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) increased exponentially from R312 million serving 55 174 students, to the current R2,32 billion serving 256 904 students.
- The conditions of service of the employees of all colleges were also substantially upgraded three years ago, after years of neglect.
- The number of students in the artisan areas has also increased exponentially to over 25 000 per annum today.
There is no doubt that although much remains to be done in the sector, much has already been achieved. However, South Africa’s ongoing constraints with regards to the country's low economic growth has put pressure on the TVET sector.
Importantly, most of the demands and concerns articulated in SAFETSA’s memorandum are not unrealistic.
However, many of them cannot be rectified in the short-term, given that the sector has had these problems for decades. Once sufficient resources are secured many of these issues will be resolved.
Point by Point response to SAFETSA’s demands
1. TVET 2017 enrollment
In terms of the fully-costed funding norms, the total number of headcount enrollments funded in Ministerial-approved programmes for 2016 is 429 638 – compared to the actual 664 748 that are in the TVET system. It is also important to note that the system, as was indicated earlier, grew very rapidly over the past five years.
Available figures also indicate that in real terms, TVET college students are funded at 57% of the required 80% programme funding from the State.
In the absence of an increase in the baseline funding for enrollments, due to budgetary constraints, the department is unable to increase enrollment and will have to maintain its 2016 enrolment targets, in line with the available budget. Therefore no growth in enrolments are projected in the 2017/18 MTEF.
2. Accountability of accounting officers
The audit outcomes for TVET colleges regressed slightly between 2014 and 2015. In this regard, the department is working in collaboration with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants to design and implement audit action plans to address the identified internal control weaknesses and to improve the audit outcomes for 2016.
The department will also issue accountability letters to college principals to ensure that tangible progress is achieved during the next audit.
3. TVET sector threshold
The 8% fee adjustment Government subsidy that was recently announced by the Minister is also applicable to TVET colleges. Thus, TVET colleges have been requested to cap their fee adjustments for Ministerial-approved programmes to a maximum of 8% increase.
TVET students who are eligible for financial support (gross household income below R600,000 a year) will not be liable for any fee increases. This was communicated to all TVET colleges. We are not sure why this communication may not have reached all students. However, the department is available to share the process with SAFETSA if the association is willing to meet with us.
4. Infrastructure grants
The department is aware that no additional Capital infrastructure grants have been made available to TVET colleges for the past five years. This is due to the budget shortfall described above.
The department will again be submitting capital bid requests to National Treasury during 2017 and will re-emphasise the importance of getting additional funds in this regard.
In spite of the constraints, the Minister was able to secure National Skills Fund resources to build 12 college campuses, with each of them housing about 500 students. One of these campuses (Thabazimbi Campus in Waterberg TVET College in Limpopo) is already operational and the other two will be in operation in the second trimester of this year that is Bambanani Campus in uMfolozi TVET College and Nkandla A Campus in uMfolozi TVET College both in KwaZulu-Natal.
A. Examinations and certification
5. Leakage of question papers
We have substantially reviewed the delivery model used for the distribution of question papers. Question papers are now delivered to dedicated delivery points and are kept in safe storage until the morning of the examination.
Examination centres only collect question papers from the delivery point on the morning of an examination and return scripts for examinations written on the same day to the same said delivery points.
Despite the review to the delivery model, four Engineering Studies question papers were confirmed to have leaked during the November 2016 examinations. The HAWKS have been approached to assist in determining the source of this and any future leaks.
During 2017 the security of question papers while in transit and during storage at delivery points will be given greater attention.
The department is busy negotiating the implementation of a comprehensive track-and-trace process with Skynet to ensure that all parcels are accounted for from the point of dispatch to the point of delivery. This will make it possible for any gaps in consignments to be detected and investigated immediately.
In addition to this, the use of sealed bins will be piloted to further ensure the security of question papers while in transit and in storage at delivery points prior to an examination.
6. Pending results
The department is plagued with information system issues, as well as administrative issues in the examinations process. We have commissioned the development of a new examinations system and work in this regard has already begun.
The department’s national examinations unit will be following up with individual examination centres to verify and resolve the outstanding marks for the November 2016 examinations.
Each college is responsible for the submission of marks as it is at the examination centres of a college that all ICASS and ISAT marks are generated and captured along with examination marks for the National Certificate (Vocational) Level 2 and 3 qualifications and N1 part-qualifications.
The department may only release the results for a subject once the required 95% capture rate has been achieved for the external (exam) mark component of the subject.
Similarly, where the centre capture rate for raw marks in a subject does not meet the required 80%, the department may not release the results for the affected subject(s) to a centre. In smaller cohorts of students (i.e. 1-14), the capture rate needs to be 100% for a subject at a centre.
Furthermore, the department may not release the results of subjects where the irregularity reported during the conduct of examinations was of such a nature that it impacted on the overall integrity of the subject. The results for affected subjects are released as soon as investigations have been concluded.
It is important to note that all candidates who were absent or wrote the November 2016 examinations without complying with the minimum examination admission requirements as indicated in Memorandum 46 of 2015 are not considered for results.
Gaps in results can be attributed to numerous factors. For example, during the the November 2016 examinations, a high volume of NC (V) Level 2, 3 and 4 raw exam marks were not uploaded on the examinations IT system despite the fact that exam centres were required to capture and submit these marks electronically upon completion of the marking of Level 2 and 3 scripts.
The department is investigating the cause of the gaps in this regard (capture error at centre, uploading error on exams IT system, failure by departmental exams official to verify and/or upload and/or implement mechanisms, etc.) and will work to ensure that this situation is arrested.
Similarly, the national marking centres are required to capture and submit the raw exam marks electronically upon completion of the marking of Level 4 scripts.
The department is setting up high level team to sort out all the issues and to ensure that there is consequence management for all those that cause delays.
In terms of the agreement with SITA, all outstanding results for the November 2016 examinations will be resolved by 28 February 2017.
7. Outstanding certificates
The department may only process and distribute certificates if the resulting data and indicators informing said certificates are accurate. Numerous processing errors have been experienced on the examinations IT system in this regard, and this is what has led to the withdrawal and republication of Report 190/1 results during 2016 and a similar situation for NC (V) results in earlier years.
This has subsequently led to a delay in the release of certificates for NC (V) and Report 190/1 Engineering and Business Studies N certificates during 2016.
Report 190/1 certificates for the 2016 Trimester 1 examinations were released to centres during last year and the 2016 Trimester 2 and Semester 2 certificates will follow shortly.
Data processing challenges are still being experienced with individual NC (V) certificates across different exam cycles and NC (V) certificates are released to centres as soon as a batch is received from the printers.
The current examinations IT system is old and no longer adequate for the TVET sector. The department, with the approval from Cabinet, has appointed an outside service provider to develop a new examinations IT system as part of a three-year project, and work on the new system is in progress.
In terms of the agreement with SITA, all certificates for the November 2016 examinations will be processed by 31 March 2017.
It Is worth noting that the department has been instrumental in reducing the certification backlog for the National Certificate (Vocational) Level 2, 3 and 4 qualifications from 236 821 in August 2015 to 973 outstanding certificates. SITA has also committed to resolve all outstanding certificates for earlier examination cycles.
B. Work placement to complete qualifications and in-service training stipends
8. Unreleased diplomas
It has come to the department’s attention that many students are applying for the N–Diploma without doing relevant work placement.
In order to preserve the credibility of the qualification, every N-Diploma application is evaluated. We do however accept that students are often not aware of the specific qualification requirements and may be accepting work, which will not fulfill the requirements of a qualification.
DHET has started engagements with the QCTO on this matter and will continue to do so until the matter is resolved. This could mean that colleges will need to provide greater support and play a key role in this process, or that formal workplace approvals must be done by either the Seta or QCTO.
9. In service training stipend
This matter has not been raised with DHET previously and our attention has only just been drawn to this matter. Our understanding of the concern is that all N6 students are requesting funding for the workplace component of the qualification.
Currently, employers pay students according to the sectoral determination or, alternatively, there are instances where SETAs fund this workplace component.
The department will urgently engage with the SETAS to see what funding arrangement can be made in this regard. However, it must be acknowledged that even if funding was available, there may still not be enough workplace opportunities to support all learners.
DHET is in discussion with the QCTO around all the difficulties which the compulsory workplace component bring. Options of simulation are being explored in this regard.
C. Curriculum related
10. Unqualified lecturers
The competence of lecturers is a matter of serious concern to the department. In 2013, a policy on the minimum guidelines for lecturer qualifications was developed and gazetted.
Since then, a number of universities have developed programmes to address the skills gap of existing lecturers. To date, about 10 universities are developing a post-graduate diploma for lecturers. The University of the Western Cape has already started enrollments on their programme and others are to follow.
However, without adequate ability to up-skill lecturers, the minimum guidelines cannot yet be enforced.
We also recognise that the didactical ability of lecturers is not the only area where work is required. Curriculum updates, technical competence and work placement are all required. In all of these areas, projects have been launched on a small scale to work towards lecturer improvement. Similarly:
- The department, through its University Branch, is currently engaging with universities to develop qualifications for lecturers on subject and pedagogical content knowledge and didactics for TVET lecturers;
- Through SSACI and the ETDP SETA, a comprehensive work placement programme has been undertaken;
- Through the lecture support system support by NICHE/CINOP(Dutch organisations), DHET is developing subject-related content to support TVET college lecturers in their day-to-day teaching and learning activities and almost all 50 TVET colleges are participating in the project;
- We are also exploring methodologies to systematically improve the technical competence of lecturers. We have been able to secure some German funding to develop a lecturer development facility.
- We are also in discussion with the Swiss to develop custom-made programmes for lecturers;
- We will be undertaking a thorough analysis of engineering studies lecturers this year within to understand the exact lecturer qualifications against the programmes they are offering.
As all these initiatives have been piloted on a small scale, large systematic intervention is required to turn the system around. DHET is planning to host a conference in 2017 focused on developing a strategy for lecturer development.
We also now have access to skills levy funds, which we will employ specifically to build capacity in our colleges.
11. Life orientation and applied accounting
We recognise the need for students to promote themselves and their qualifications to employers. It has long been said that employers are not adequately familiar with the qualifications (specifically the NCV), which is obtained in our TVET colleges.
As an attempt to market TVET college students to prospective employers, a task team has started to develop a series of brochures aimed at reaching employers. We believe that this will assist employers to better understand what skills and competencies students have once qualified.
In addition to this we will explore changing the name of the Life orientation programme to include for example “Computer practice”. However this would be a significant process to follow with both the State Information Agency (SITA) and Umalusi.
