Mhlonishwa Sihlalo, Sekela likaNgqogqoshe, malungu ahloniphekile alo Mkhandlu weziFundazwe waseNingizimu Afrika, ngiyanibingelela. [Hon Chairperson, Deputy Minister, hon members of the NCOP, I greet you.]
We meet today, six days after the commemoration of the 35th anniversary of the Soweto uprising under the theme: Youth Action for Economic Freedom in our Lifetime.
It is this very department that could be best placed to help and advance our young generation, which is in the majority in our country. The majority of our young people drop out of school after Grade 9 and do not go to further education and training, FET, colleges, Adult Basic Education and Training, Abet, centres, to Grade 10 nor get employed. More than half of our matriculants do not pass, are not allowed to repeat and remain unemployed. More than 25% of South Africans are unemployed, and 20% have given up looking for jobs.
This department, then, is faced with the mammoth task of responding to these challenges. Sekela Ngqongqoshe [Deputy Minister], it is not enough that the department has held summits; the nation needs action now through the sector education and training suthorities, Setas, FET colleges, adult institutions, technikons and universities. It is against this backdrop that the legacy of apartheid has to be tackled. We dare not fail. [Interjections.]
We welcome the plans to transform the FET colleges in the areas of governance, curriculum, funding, etc. However, progress is very slow. The task teams are taking a long time. Learners continue to fail in their numbers, whilst the majority of unemployed youth cannot gain access to FET colleges because of insufficient capacity. Very few learners or students are enrolled per subject as per the current policy. Those that are enrolled fail in large numbers because of the microwave-type of teacher training that was done when National Certificate Vocational, NCV, was introduced.
The task teams that are working on these various areas should include lecturers who are best placed in advising the academics and industry people within those task teams. Timelines have to be revised so that there will be implementation, as we have just entered the third year of our term of office.
Because of the huge demand of skills by the unemployed youth and retrenched workers, more people become victims of unscrupulous private providers, financially and academically. Your department needs to protect such people against these unscrupulous private providers. Adult Basic Education and Training centres and night schools are not yet responding to the needs of the out-of-school youth. The issue of the community centres has to be taken forward with relevant and specific focus on our intention to open the doors of the world of work.
The issue of the recognition of prior learning within the National Qualifications Framework was the hope of the workers and the working class, as part of the redress programme and of opening the doors of learning. It is now 16 years since the establishment of the SA Qualifications Authority, Saqa, and providers are not responding to it.
The recognition of prior learning, RPL, remains in documents and in qualifications as a compliance issue, rather than an access or recognition issue. When a provider does it, it becomes so complicated and extremely difficult for a learner or worker to go forward and get a qualification or a certificate. There has to be an intervention in relation to having an institution for the RPL, with assessors, mentors and other resources provided if we are to move forward with this issue.
Saqa and the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations, QCTO, should help us to realise the people's education for the people's power. The 2009 manifesto of the ruling party has promised the reopening of the colleges of education to respond to initial teacher education and teacher development. A summit has been held and task teams established, but this process is yet to bear fruit.
As a delegate from Gauteng, where there were many teacher colleges, constituencies were happy about the commitment to the reopening of the teacher colleges. However, they are now asking for progress, as the universities are not really responding to the initial teacher training. Furthermore, universities are not strong on the foundation and intermediate phase training. Hence there is a low student intake in those areas.
You would also acknowledge that the Gauteng province has a number of universities. The closed teacher colleges in other provinces are white elephants, whilst there is a high demand for community development. I would like to commend the University of Johannesburg, UJ, on the revamping and upgrading of the former Vista University in Pimville, changing it from a glorified high school to a state-of-the-art university in Soweto. It is money well spent. This gives dignity to Soweto students, and they feel that they are part of UJ as an institution, and not in name only.
What is worse is that there is a drastic decline of students specialising in African languages in the universities. Prior to 1996 there was an over supply of them and they were stigmatised by other students or graduates who held that specialising in an African language depicted a reduced intellectual capacity. It was even worse in schools during redeployment time African language teachers would be the first to be redeployed and then they became more stigmatised.
Therefore what is needed is a campaign to recruit students of African languages as a scarce and critical skill and to incentivise the African languages. The provincial boards of PanSALB, the Department of Arts and Culture and the Department of Basic Education have to play a bigger role in this issue. Maybe it has to be elevated to a social cluster and/or an interministerial level.
Deputy Minister, during the recapitalisation of universities, the Vista University campuses were incorporated to well-established universities. Here I am specifically talking about the Vista University's Daveyton campus, which was incorporated into UJ. Thereafter, UJ closed it and the communities and the stakeholders made presentations about the need for Vista or UJ to continue to exist, as distance and other issues affected students who had to take more than three taxis to arrive at UJ. As we speak now, it is just used by the students studying on their own as a venue to submit Unisa assignments and is not of benefit to the community.
Whilst acknowledging the mammoth task of redressing the past imbalances created by the apartheid education championed and engineered by Mr Verwoerd, we have to increase and redouble the pace we are moving at in order to open up opportunities for all South Africans for a better life for blacks in general and for Africans in particular. With this budget and the necessary political will, we will open the doors of learning and bring about a better life. [Interjections.]
A campaign has to be launched by with the Department of Basic Education in order to give Grade 12 learners information about when to apply, which bursaries are available from the different departments, and who qualifies for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS. This will enable us to avoid the long queues that we see every year at universities of students who did not apply and students from the poorest of the poor, who end up not registering because of a lack of information.
Whilst demonstrations and raising issues of discomfort are allowed, rights have responsibilities and limitations. One would condemn the acts that destroy infrastructure and appeal to the leadership of students in tertiary education to educate their members.
I would like to commend the Ministry on its endeavours to transform the Setas. Some of these Setas are riddled with unaccountability, underspending of billions and investment of monies that are supposed to be spent on skills development.
The common constitution of the Setas is a result of consultation within the Seta community. As I was a member of the Education, Training and Development Practices, ETDP, Seta before I came here, and as a former member of the National Skills Authority, I can say without fear of contradiction or favour that this common constitution was not imposed on the Setas. So, the Ministry took over where the Department of Labour left off.
In closing, we appreciate the progress made on the establishment of the universities in the Mpumalanga and Northern Cape provinces. However, the pace of the progress has to be improved. Ke a leboga, ha khensa, dankie ha khensa. [I thank you.]