Hon member, I would concede that we actually do have a challenge, and not just in regard to lecturers at universities to train teachers. We have a challenge in regard to the academic profession in this country. Our academics are ageing; their average age now is over 50. Our young people are not taking up teaching. They don't stay for postgraduate studies and take up the teaching profession.
We have been asked by Cabinet, and this is something that we are developing together with the Minister of Science and Technology, to come up with a strategy - which we hope we will be able to announce a few months down the line - regarding what we intend doing to revitalise the academic profession in general, including with regard to lecturers who are going to be training, amongst others, future teachers. In particular it is very clear to us that we have to increase the amount of money and the bursaries that we offer to students to provide an incentive for them to become academics and to stay for Masters and PhD programmes.
Chairperson, one of the challenges we have today is that many of our students, of course, come from poor backgrounds - increasingly so - and they go to university with the idea of getting their first degree and leaving if they can find a job. There is not the luxury of staying for honours, Masters or a PhD, but we are looking at ways and means in this regard.
The last thing that I want to mention, which we will now have to take into account as a department, is the retirement age of academics. We think that the retirement age of academics in South Africa is out of step with international practice. You can still get a very good, sharp professor at 75 or 80 years of age, and that is an international norm, by the way. So, those are some of the things. We are looking at some of the things, and even if those people are not teaching full time, we can also use retired academics to mentor Masters and PhD students. Thank you very much.