Keynote address by Minister of Higher Education and Training BE Nzimande to the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) Lekgotla

10 Feb 2012

President of the Youth League, Comrade Julius Malema
Secretary-General, Comrade Sindiso Magaqa
Members of the National Executive Committee
Delegates
Comrades
Media representatives
Ladies and Gentlemen

Amandla!

I would like to thank the African National Congress Youth League for affording me the honour and privilege to address you at this Lekgotla. Any platform that has education, training and development at the centre of robust and vigorous discussion is of great importance, particularly at this stage in our socio-economic development.

I stand here today not as the Secretary-General of the SACP, but as the Minister of Higher Education and Training, and I have been invited to bring you up to speed on the "State of Higher Education and Training in South Africa", therefore the Amandla will be the first and the last in my address.

Let me begin by stating that my department is committed to expanding the base of education and training opportunities for young people through a number of initiatives, most notably through the provision of financial resources to fund deserving students in institutions of higher learning, and this is a mandate from the demands of the young people 35 years ago who saw access to quality education as the cornerstone of full and unhindered socio-economic mobility.

As many of you know, in 2009, the education department was split into two departments representing Basic and Higher Education. The Department of Higher Education and Training is responsible for Higher Education Institutions, Further Education and Training Colleges, Adult Education and Training and Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), which we have rightfully adopted from the Department of Labour. 

I am certain you will agree that the union of all these institutions presents us with the most enabling environment with which to tackle the issue of providing relevant and quality education and training.

In my view this meant that the scene was set for the beginning of a comprehensive post-school education and training system. The vision of my department is to have a post school system that is able to service the young and the old, the haves and the have nots, those who have a schooling background and those with none, and those who aspire to be doctors both academic and medical and those who aspire to be artisans and engineers. 

This envisioned system should also at the heart of everything allowing for easy and flexible articulation between not only within institutions but within programmes. I am sure you will concur with me that such diversity will allow for a thriving economy.

The formation of the new department also affords us the opportunity to develop a diverse and differentiated post school learning system, serving adults and young people within the framework of the Human Resources Development Strategy of our country.

Currently, the higher education and training system has:

• 11 universities: traditional universities that offer Bachelor degrees and have strong research capacity and high proportions of postgraduate students.
• six universities of technology: vocationally oriented institutions that award higher certificates, diplomas and degrees in technology; and have some postgraduate and research capacity.
• six comprehensive universities: offering both Bachelor and technology qualifications, and focusing on teaching but also conducting research and postgraduate study.
• 50 further education and training (FET) colleges with over 269 campuses spread across the nine provinces, which offer the National Certificate (Vocational) and the Report 191 famously known as the "N courses" and a number of short skills programmes.

It was after the mergers that the number of higher education institutions were cut from 36 to 23 and 175 colleges to 50, but it is important to note that no campuses were closed, so there remains as much higher and vocational education provision as there were before the mergers.

The challenges facing our higher education and training system are well known and may I state are not insurmountable for our country, but they need us to work with total commitment and unwavering dedication and consistency. It is important that we are cognisent that there is no single intervention or locus of responsibility that can fully address the problems or serve as the panacea for its resolution.

What are some of these problems that I am referring to?

• Approximately 3 million adults between the ages of 18 and 23 are neither in education, training nor employment, the ones we like to refer to as NEETS;
• High dropout and failure rates;
• Untrained and unskilled educators especially in the Further Education and Training sector;
• Underfunded and under-resourced institutions especially the so called "former black institutions";
• Inadequate funding of the FET sector;
• Unresponsive and inflexible vocational education curriculum;
• Governance weaknesses especially in our FET sector and a few of our institutions of higher learning;
• Maladministration and misuse of government institutional funding;
• Absence of institutions of higher learning in the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga which forces students from these provinces to seek out education and employment opportunities in other Provinces.

I wish I could stand here today and confirm that indeed, as a continent we are providing Quality Education and Training for All. As a department we have certainly made many strides in trying to address each and every one of these challenges and more that face the sector, and it is also through such platforms that we are able to look to our stakeholders for possible solutions and recommendations that are relevant for the country and our young democracy.

My department has built on advances made since 1994, but added further impetus with its own new interventions to ensure both improved access and success in higher education and training, with a specific focus on students from the working class and the poor.

Let me take a few minutes to share with you some of the interventions we have made to address some of the challenges since my tenure in 2009 and some of the plans we have to improve access and success in higher education and training:

• With regards to further improving access for poor students at universities, in the 2011 academic year, all final year students who qualified for National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) financial aid have received loans equivalent to the full cost of study (tuition, accommodation, food and books), which if they successfully complete their studies, their final year loan will be converted into a full bursary.
• The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has also set aside an amount of R200 million to assist students who have successfully completed their university diplomas and degrees, but have not received their certificates or graduated since they owe money to universities. These loans will assist approximately 25 000 students.
• All Further Education and Training (FET) college students, who are pursuing the National Certificate Vocational NC (V) or Nated programmes and qualify for NSFAS, as from 2011, will be completely exempted from paying fees.
• In addition to the above the DHET has also set aside a special bursary fund of about R77 million, dedicated to supporting students with disabilities at universities to cover their full cost of study.
• Full bursary support for FET colleges have tripled from R318 million to R1.7 billion in 2012.

The above are clear indications that the declaration of the Freedom Charter, i.e. "That the doors of learning and culture shall be opened" and further stated that "Education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children. Higher education and training shall be opened to all by means of state allowances and scholarships awarded on the basis of merit"will be achieved and that there will be free education for all in our lifetime.

Over and above the significant interventions, my department also commits itself to not only serve all South Africans by meeting their various education and skills needs, but to do so in a manner that protects and promotes the legacy of 1976, a legacy which ultimately speaks to enabling opportunities and access to quality education and training within the context of a democratic developmental state.

What we are striving for as a country, and as the Department of Higher Education and Training, is access to decent education and training for our people which is essential for the completion of the liberation struggle, whose foundation must be economic liberation.

The department's goals are firmly located within the overall objectives of prioritising job creation, and within the framework of the New Growth Path, the Industrial Policy Action Plan II and the Human Resources Development Strategy.

It is not a national secret, but rather a national crisis, that the unemployment rate in our country is at its highest especially amongst our young people between the ages of 18 and 24. Our young people are becoming restless and are certainly losing hope of a decent life, or earning a decent salary. The figures show that the unemployment rate of our youth is close to 40%, which is around 2.8 million young South Africans, and this number is increasing alarmingly. Comrades, this is a national catastrophe!

My department has been actively and aggressively leading the Skills Development campaign amongst our youth. We started with the launch of the National Skills Development Strategy III (NSDS III) on 13 January 2011. The NSDS III commits to encouraging the linkage of skills development to career paths, career development, the promotion of work based experience and sustainable employment.

The strategy also puts an emphasis on forming partnerships between employers, public education institutions, Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) and private training providers, to ensure that inter-sectoral and cross-sectoral needs are adequately addressed.

The launch of the NSDS III is a clear message from my department that it accepts the responsibility to lead and to provide the best possible environment for skills acquisition, education and training which are indeed important investments into the development of our country. The NSDS III also gives the SETAs a clear direction on what is expected of them in the new post school system and in strengthening skills development in our country.

The SETAs have also been tasked with facilitating partnerships between institutions of learning and employers based on the fact that they have in depth knowledge of the labour market, in their respective sectors, and have contact with most employers in the country.

My department has set a target of 70% for the next three years for the placement of students in work places for employment and/or work experiential learning. For 2011/12 this target is 35%. We are aware that we can have many targets, but that they will only be meaningful if we support business and youth organisations.

I know some of you are reputable business people in your own right, I therefore urge you to take on students in your businesses and mentor them, not for my department to meet its target but for the benefit of our young people and our economy.

The department and I have had a number of engagements around skill development with employers in both the private sector and state-owned enterprises. I am pleased to say employers have been cooperative and have committed to taking on specific numbers of apprentices, learners and interns.

My department and the Department of Public Enterprises are in discussion with the State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) regarding the expansion artisan development. Our efforts are already starting to pay off. During 2010, 23 517 apprentices were registered by the SETAs compared to 17 228 in 2009. Also in 2010, 11 778 apprentices were certificated. The number of learners who passed their trade tests has gradually been increasing over the past 4 years.

This is an indication that the target of 10 000 artisans per annum will be met before the time frames set in my performance agreement with the president. The number of learners entering artisan training are expected to increase further over the next 5 years due to commitments made or expected from both business and the SETAs. In 2010, the learnership and other learning programmes registered by the SETAs, had increased to 120 615, up from 109 351 in 2009.

We will continue to do our best to support the creation and enhancement of skills required for the country as well as for a thriving and globally competitive economy. Furthermore, we will continue to ensure that our programmes are able to keep up with the evolving economies and technological developments of the 21^st century and beyond. After all, only a properly skilled workforce can improve productivity and meet national growth targets, which should eventually lead to the eradication of poverty and inequality, arguably the country's most entrenched structural constraints to meaningful human and economic advancement.

However, I must stress that the acquisition of skills will never be sufficient in the fight against all the challenges facing the country, it is certainly at the core but a lot more still needs to be done. We need to become more innovative in our approaches in addressing the countless challenges that the country faces and in developing practical solutions to alleviate and reduce these challenges.

One of the defining features of the higher education landscape, are the disparities and inequalities amongst universities. These have had an adverse effect on the production of knowledge and skills for the economy. These continue to be entrenched as a result of the current system to fund universities. I have appointed a Committee to review the current funding to universities. The Committee will further assist the department in determining the system's resource needs.

Part of the challenges relating to access and success of students in universities, is the lack of proper career guidance, with the establishment of the Career Guidance Service headed by South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) we hope to overcome this challenge. 

The department for some time has been discussing with Vice Chancellors about establishing a central applications office for the university sector, I have asked the Council on Higher Education (CHE) to advise me on the nature and form of this entity. This is especially urgent as we need to avoid what occurred during registration at the University of Johannesburg in January of this year where Ms Gloria Sekwena lost her life while standing in a queue for the registration of her son. Never again should an incident like this happen in our universities.

This incident also showed how desperate young people are for education, but they also need to be reminded that universities are not the only route they can take.

It is also imperative that we expand our FET Colleges to offer courses in partnership with our Higher Education institutions, so that young people have different and a variety of options when it comes to education. To further expand access to university education, we have taken a decision to establish universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape.

We have committed ourselves to a number of outputs in line with the performance agreement that I have signed with the President. Firstly, we seek to establish a credible institutional mechanism for skills planning, which includes the provision of information with respect to the demand and supply of skills, as well as a career guidance system for young people.

We also seek to increase access to programmes leading to intermediate and high level learning, including the raising of skills levels of both the youth and adults to access training. We have agreed to increase access to occupationally-directed programmes in needed areas with a specific focus on Engineering, Animal and Health Sciences, Physical and life sciences and teacher education.

However, emphasis on these fields of study does not mean that we will neglect the Humanities and Social Sciences fields. We believe that Humanities and Social Sciences are critical for the development of a society such as ours which still battles with issues of transformation and social cohesion. It is through these fields of study that we are able to understand and navigate complex societal challenges of HIV/AIDS, poverty, unemployment and their impact on the lives of our people and communities.

Last year I established a Task Team to look into the state of the Humanities and Social Sciences at our higher education institutions, and ways to reinvigorate these important subjects. This was because we were convinced at the time, and we are still are, that these fields of study were experiencing a serious decline at the universities in relation to other fields of study such as Science, Engineering and Technology, and Business Economics.

Another output that we have committed ourselves to is to increase research, and innovation for a growing economy. Our particular focus is on increasing post-graduate degrees, both Masters and PhDs. Although there has been a notable improvement in the number of doctoral graduates our system produced since 1994, overall our country compares badly with other developing countries such as Brazil and India when coming to the production of doctoral graduates.

We produce 28 PhD graduates per million people per year, while Portugal is producing 569s PhD per million, the UK on 288 PhDs per million, USA on 201 PhDs per million, Australia on 264 PhDs per million and Brazil 48 PhDs per million per year.

This low output of postgraduate (doctoral) students impacts negatively on our research and innovation performance due to our ageing academic population. The issues of gender and race also need to be addressed in this regard. Although we have made remarkable progress, we need to continue to improve in ensuring we produce more black and women researchers and academics in our system.

It is critical that we guard against providing education and training that is so narrow that it restricts our people to highly circumscribed job descriptions, denying them lateral and upward mobility in the workplace. Such workers tend to be extremely vulnerable in the workplace, particularly in times of massive economic upheavals and retrenchments. Indeed, even as we create more meaningful opportunities for the absorption of new entrants into the formal economy, we should also apply ourselves to the skills enhancement needs of those who are already in employment.

Ours should be an approach that is embedded in an overall ethos of life-long learning and human capability enhancement.

Let us today strive for constructive and productive debates that will assist our quest as a country to achieve quality education and training. The challenge is how best we can achieve this in a short space of time without compromising quality. As the DHET, we accept the responsibility to lead, to provide the best possible environment for skills acquisition and training and the development of our continent. 

We will continue to do our best to support the development of the skills we need to build the region.

I thank you.

Issued by the Department of Higher Education and Training, Februay 10 2012

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