Widening Choice: giving strength to the college sector in South Africa

Many Further Education and Training (FET) colleges currently enjoy a poor reputation for quality and still cater only for a small fraction of the students who could benefit from them. Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande is in the process of taking responsibility for FET colleges away from the provinces, and placing it completely in his own hands, because the ANC government believes this will solve the sector's problems.  But centralisation, the DA believes, will not solve these problems and may in fact worsen them. There are other and better ways to deal with the problems facing these colleges, and the DA proposes some of these in this document.

Our educational authorities find themselves in the unique position of being able to develop and nurture an exciting and vibrant college sector. If the recently created Department of Higher Education and Training does nothing else but focus on building this sector in an organised and deliberate manner it would leave an extraordinary legacy.

To get there requires a single-minded devotion to quality education for young adults who choose to pursue vocational and technical careers. The principal consideration is to improve the credibility of this educational opportunity for the benefit of individuals leaving our school system, and therefore widening choice.

The FET College Act of 2006 provides for provincial responsibilities in establishing the colleges under province law, appointing college councils and senior executives, approving programmes of study and enrolments and, of course, funding. Budget planning, allocation, transfer and accountability therefore rest with provincial education authorities.

We believe the centralisation of college governance is the wrong remedy for the problems of quality, expansion and ‘goodness of fit' with the rest of the higher education system and - importantly - the skills question and the economy. Unless the national authorities duplicate the current provincial civil service capacity - unaffordably expensive in our view - it would be unable to run an effective and quality college sector.  

Improving quality

Instability in financial support for student enrolment is undermining the important concept of the ‘well-led and well-functioning institution'.

It will surely get worse if educational support services are transferred from the provinces to central government. While there are clearly major problems with the quality of support on a provincial level, national government does not have the resources or staff to provide a quality service from on high. Besides, provincial-level support is much closer to the ground and in tune with local conditions. As with anything else, difficult to build, easy to destroy, the FET sector must be restored to financial and therefore planning stability.

The Democratic Alliance is of the view that restoring financial and planning stability to the FET sector is to keep support services- planning, budgeting, human resources - at provincial level and leave them there, even if the funding for colleges comes directly from central government. The important requirement is that this decision be made and stuck to.

Financing Expansion

Presently enrolling about 400,000 students, by one estimate the recent recapitalization programme successfully completed by all of the provinces creates the infrastructure that would permit the FET sector to enrol 800,000 students. The question of course is finding the funding to deliver the curriculum - staff salaries and educational materials mainly - particularly in the recessionary times we face.

The DA proposes bring the private sector in to help run the colleges. The model proposed by the Democratic Alliance is (1) the government provides the land and infrastructure (2) private sector colleges deliver the curriculum against standards and norms set nationally (3) students pay fees with government providing bursaries to qualifying needs-assessed students by way of vouchers. The model is not new but rather taken from workable practice in Sweden.

Goodness of Fit

Getting the best returns on our considerable annual investment in higher education and training require a seamless system with multiple opportunities and credible points of exit in the interests of students seeking a worthwhile qualification.

In the DA's view, the system needs to be adapted to allow more movement between the different tertiary institutions. An articulated and integrated higher education system should have three linked tiers. The college system would be the first, allowing students to complete their matric in vocational subjects, but mostly to complete qualifications for vocational and technical training. Graduates go on to jobs and careers in the majority of cases. However, graduates who qualify may choose to go on to university.

To work properly, students ought to be educated to a standard where admission to third-year for a university is possible. Termed trading-up, this is how the famous state-supported California university system works. Exit to careers and job is the norm, but the opportunity for further education is always there.

Governance

The 50 FET Colleges have been established with their current names by provincial legislation, and provincial departments determine funding of FET Colleges. Provincial departments of education approve the academic programmes and enrolment targets for each college annually and provide funding.  The design of the system gives provinces opportunities for on the ground support for regionally specific academic programmes. For example, Western Cape colleges might specialise in wine-related industries; mining in the North West and fisheries in KwaZulu-Natal. This would be compromised under a centralised system.

The DA believes that there are no good reasons for transferring colleges to national level and this plan should be scrapped.

Clearly aware of the problems, Minister Nzimande confirmed that he is reviewing the situation. The DA calls on him to thoroughly review the very idea of moving all or most functions to central government. A co-operative arrangement with agreed upon protocols will be cheaper and more practical.

Statement issued by Wilmot James, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of higher education and training, November 9 2009

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