Chairperson, hon Cabinet colleagues, hon members, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, let me start by acknowledging four very special people who are present today, the four longest serving workers in our department. The first three, Shalati Ndlovu, Nomafundo Mswanganyani, Albertia Ndlovu have served 27 years, and Ledia Masala has served 23 years. [Applause.] Without the working class, there can be no higher education and training. This Budget Vote debate of the newly created Department of Higher Education and Training takes place on the 20th anniversary of a significant but tragic event that affected thousands of families in Pietermaritzburg. The Seven-Day War, named by the late Comrade Harry Gwala, started on 25 March 1990 and ended on 31 March of the same year. It was a war waged by the apartheid regime against the ANC, hardly two months after its unbanning and the release of Nelson Mandela, to try to prevent the ANC from re- establishing its legal structures, especially in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. It was the largest mass attack ever witnessed in the history of KwaZulu-Natal and, in fact, our country as a whole. Marauding gangs of impis, in open collusion with the apartheid police, maimed, killed and burned.
I therefore wish to dedicate this speech to the hundreds of people who died during this massacre, and the thousands who live with the memory of it, and hope that the new integrated system of education and training we seek to build will, in one way or another, benefit the children and relatives of those who fell. It is partly for this reason that I invited pupils from some of the Edendale schools, the area which was the primary target of this massacre. There is Zakithi Zulu, who is doing Grade 7, who is here from the Mthethomusha Higher Primary School; Thobile Mcwabe, who is doing Grade 12 and was the top Grade 11 student at Georgetown High School; and Mr S G Hayili, who was the top University of Zululand student across all faculties last year.
A new postschool system that is aimed at responding to the youth and adults to accelerate skills development is our key mandate. The new higher education and training landscape represents an important shift towards expanding postschool opportunities. Working together with stakeholders, many of whom are here today, we are determined to build a solid base for a postschool education and training system that will be the lifeblood of the social and economic development of our country for generations to come, long after we inhabited this earth, hon Mike Ellis.
I wish to acknowledge the leadership of President Zuma in creating these possibilities and the foundation laid by my predecessors. Through continuity with their innovative policies, we will strengthen the system, but some significant and decisive changes are required to build a truly integrated system of education and training with quality and high throughput rates.
The twin challenges of high unemployment and a critical skills shortage must be tackled. The work of this department is central in the achievement of decent work, as well as in the realisation of other government priorities. While there are no instant solutions, the cycle of poverty and hopelessness must be broken as soon as possible.
In every village and town, in every suburb and city centre, there are gifted people with broken dreams and no income, who do not qualify for jobs that must be filled. For this evolving system to meaningfully contribute to the lives of individuals, to the economy and to broader society, we are striving to ensure that all the work of our department is underscored by addressing five key interrelated issues: class inequalities, racial inequalities, gender inequalities and fighting the HIV/Aids scourge, as well as making sure that people with disabilities do have access to education and training.
I am proud to say that we now have a five-year strategic plan to systematically strengthen the skills and human resource base of our country. We will draw on the knowledge, ability and experience of all stakeholders in the sector. Our point of departure is simple: education and training, Baba uTrollip, is a common public good which must not be sold and traded as a commodity, in terms of which only those with money and other resources are able to afford it. [Applause.] Only by providing equal opportunities for all, irrespective of social background, can we contribute towards building a nation in which everyone has a stake and a common loyalty.
Government's prioritisation of education is evident in the budget allocation of 19,9% of the total national Budget to education and training as a whole. Vote 16 has received R32 billion, of which R8,4 billion is a direct charge against the national revenue fund and goes to our sector education and training authorities, Setas, and the National Skills Fund. Universities receive R17,5 billion for the 2010-11 financial year. An amount of R3,8 billion is allocated for further education and training, FET, colleges. An amount of R2 billion is allocated to our public entities, of which R1,9 billion is allocated to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS. The remainder goes to the SA Qualifications Authority, SAQA, and the Council on Higher Education. In the next financial year, NSFAS will disburse R2,7 billion in loans and bursaries.
Hon members, 98,78% of our budget is allocated for transfer to institutions, our key partners. All of our partner institutions are responsible together with us for the achievement of our transformation goals. We have with us today, as I have said, our very special partners from universities, colleges, Setas, and our other public institutions.
Chairperson, we are under no illusion about the scope of challenges confronting our education and training system. We have one education system comprising the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Higher Education and Training, not two education systems; it is one. Minister Motshekga in her Budget Vote speech on Tuesday committed herself to continuing to improve the schooling system. We will support her.
The postschool system depends on the quality of basic education and its reach to every young person in this country, just as basic education is dependent on the Department of Higher Education and Training providing, amongst other things, quality teacher education, especially the production of foundation phase educators. So, there is interdependence and a dialectic as well.
The programmes of our department must interface with the range of social and economic development strategies across all spheres of government. We are creating necessary synergies with the National Industrial Policy Framework, the Industrial Policy Action Plan, the government's antipoverty strategy, the rural development strategy, and the technology and innovation plan. The overarching framework for all our work is the Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa, the HRDSA, led by the Deputy President and managed by the Department of Higher Education and Training.
The Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa will improve alignment and ensure that all players in human resource development, government, civil society, organised business, labour, professional bodies and research communities, reinforce and complement the work of others. The Human Resource Development Council, which will oversee and drive the strategy, will be launched next week. This is indeed a momentous development in driving skills development.
Central to the realisation of the goals of the HRDSA is the alignment of its subordinate strategies. One of these is the National Skills Development Strategy, NSDS, which directs the skills levy and the work of the Setas. I have extended the NSDS-2 for a further year and requested the Setas to closely align their programmes to the FET colleges and placement of these students through learnerships and apprenticeships. In order to make FET colleges a system of choice, we must ensure, as a country, that FET college students will prioritise these levies and that the Setas will place them and give them work opportunities. My department is submitting a draft NSDS- 3 framework to the National Skills Authority, NSA, next month. This will include a skills strategy for rural development, which I am undertaking in partnership with Minister Gugile Nkwinti. The executive of the NSA is here today, and I thank them for their commitment.
The absence of adequate career guidance and information contributes to high dropout rates in postschooling career choices. I am pleased to announce that by the end of June, the SAQA will launch a comprehensive national career advice centre through the medium of a career development helpline. This model will be accessible to learners across the system and will require co-ordinated action across a range of departments.
We have to assist learners to move between learning and work. The skills levy funds will be used as incentives to firms to open up structured workplace learning for college students, as well as for university and university of technology students. The state-owned enterprises and other large employers have a special role to play in this regard.
The mandate of the three quality assurance councils that fall under our department is central to our goals. The Quality Council for Trades and Occupations, QCTO, which I launched last month, has the mandate to address the quality of the training in and for the workplace and to ensure that workplace training and knowledge is accredited and certified, including proper recognition of prior learning.
This is indeed a huge victory for the labour movement in this country which has been championing this for many years. Under the QCTO umbrella, we will establish a body called the national artisan moderating body, as part of pushing the agenda for artisan production in our country. I am pleased to report that the implementation of the new National Qualifications Framework Act is progressing well. I must compliment the SA Qualifications Authority, the Council on Higher Education, Umalusi, as well as the project team of the QCTO for the positive way in which the new Act has been embraced.
I also wish to inform the House that during this financial year, funding will be set aside to educate the public on the National Qualifications Framework, NQF, to ensure that the wider public, especially our people living in rural areas and in the poorest communities, fully understand how the NQF benefits them.
I now want to move closer to some concrete activities and outcomes that we are targeting. Having outlined what essentially amounts to a call for a new paradigm in thinking of education and training in this country, I wish to announce in this House that I will be taking a special and personal interest in driving artisan training in this financial year. [Applause.] I will work intensively with the initiatives that are under way to strengthen artisan training.
We will increase the numbers and the quality of skilled artisans, particularly in priority trades, through a synergy of strengthening FET colleges, the Setas' work and business initiatives. A key priority will be to expand access to structured workplace learning and to develop partnerships to address the scarcity of artisan skills. During this year I will also address the long-outstanding challenges of trade testing. What this means, amongst other things, is that Setas will have to work in such a manner that they prioritise the strengthening of our FET college system.
Hon members, the Setas are by far the most widely criticised of our delivery institutions. I can hear now that the DA is agreeing with me. [Laughter.] But you must be careful, when someone gets involved in an accident and has been hurt or cut a little bit on the neck, you must not prescribe that that person's neck be cut off completely in order to save his or her life. [Laughter.] [Applause.]
Ningathi uma umuntu elimele akanqunywe intamo ukuze kusindiswe impilo yakhe. [Do not aggravate the situation.]
That is what the DA is saying. However, I would like to commend 19 of the 23 Setas for getting a clean bill of health from the Auditor-General's office and for their concerted efforts, which have enabled us to meet many of our NSDS-2 targets.
During 2009, the Setas registered 17 228 artisans in training, and 109 351 workers completed training in scarce and critical skills through learnerships, apprenticeships and other learning programmes. Targets set in the NSDS-2 were well exceeded, and these numbers will rise this year.
Targets of Setas for this year are 19 288 artisans in training, and 145 899 workers are completing training in scarce and critical skills through learnerships, apprenticeships and other learning programmes. Over 13 000 graduates from education and training institutions will be placed by the Setas to gain work experience. For those Setas that are not performing, decisive action will be taken to remedy the problem. A new Seta landscape, which is a critical outcome for us this year, will be adopted by the third quarter of the year after consultation with the National Skills Authority,