4.4 Lovedale FET college a) Student Representative Council Mr L Bolana, President of SRC led the presentation which highlighted the following key issues: . The SRC was extremely concerned with current leadership of the higher education and training landscape of the country. . The late release of the NC(V) and Report 191 results remained a serious concern for students of the college. . Students had a serious challenge with the transport grant from NSFAS. Certain students did not obtain the R6000 allocated for transport costs and were struggling to travel to the college on a daily basis due to the high cost. . The NSFAS bursary allocation for students was inadequate. The bursary did not cover meal vouchers for students staying in residences. Majority of students received the bursary late during the academic year which caused some to drop out. . Students were being taught by unqualified lecturers who lacked a sound knowledge of subjects resulting in a high failure and drop out rate. b) Unions Mr E Mefu, the FET Coordinator of NEHAWU led the presentation which highlighted the following key issues: . Uniformity in the conditions of service between state-employed and college council employed staff remained a serious concern. The contracts of college employed staff were different and they did not obtain benefits enjoyed by state employees. . The college employed staff members who have been on contract for more than 10 years. The shortage of staff remained a serious concern for the college. Lecturers were overburdened with work owing to the high student / lecturer ratio. . The late delivery of textbooks affected learning and some textbooks had not yet been delivered to the college. Training at the college was biased towards lecturing staff while support staff were not offered any formal training. . College staff did not belong to any bargaining council and their conditions of service depended on the decisions of council. The college council was not fully functional and did not prioritise the needs of its employees.