If I may just repeat it again that whilst members have a right to make remarks and heckling and so on, they must also be able to keep the balance ensure that they do not disturb the speakers to an extent where we can't even hear what the speaker is saying. Thank you very much.
Mr M E NCHABELENG (CHAIRPERSON OF SELECT COMMITTEE: EDUCATION &
TECHNOLOGY, SPORTS, ARTS & CULTURE): Hon Chairperson, hon Minister and the Deputy Minister, hon members of Parliament, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. In the 54th Conference in NASREC, the ANC re-affirmed that education remains an apex priority of government pro-poor policies. Education is the weapon that we can use to fight the triple challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment. Failure to accelerate inclusive access to higher education and training will have dire consequences.
It is against this background that the Department of Higher Education and Training introduced free higher education for qualifying first year students; and this was also emphasized by the President in the state of the nation address. The scheme is being phased in over a period of five years until all undergraduate students who qualify in terms of the criteria can benefit. Stabilising the business processes of the National Students
Financial Aid Scheme will also be a priority in the coming year, so that it is properly capacitated to carry out its critical role in supporting eligible students.
The National Development Plan, NDP, provides the framework for achieving radical socio- economic agenda for the country, and the Post School Education and Training Sector is positioned appropriately for the country to achieve this noble goal. To achieve this agenda, the capacity of the state should be uplifted, so that all South Africans should access education and training of the highest quality. The NDP states that by 2030, university headcount enrolments should reach 1.6 million in public universities and 2.5 million in TVET colleges. Community Colleges should reach one million headcount enrolments. These students should be trained such that they meet the current and future needs of the economy and society.
Training at these Community Colleges will offer both hard and soft skills, within a framework that seeks to improve livelihoods, promote inclusion into the world of work and that supports community and individual needs. Community Colleges offer skills, vocational and occupational programmes.
The examples of programmes offered by community colleges, albeit in exhaustive are early childhood development; community development works Programmes; worker education; Cooperative and Entrepreneurship education and training, plumbing, construction, carpentry, electricity, welding and auto Body Repair, motor mechanics, home- based care, parenting and childcare, civic education, community mobilisation and organisation, expanded public works programme, community health workers programme, including HIV /AIDS Education, information and communication technology; and arts and crafts.
In order to meet current and future needs of the economy, the government wants to increase the number of students eligible to study mathematics and science at university to 450 O00 per year, o produce 30 O00 artisans per year, have 100 doctoral graduates per million per year; and have a wider system of innovation that links key public institutions (universities and science councils) with areas of the economy consistent with our economic priorities.
In this financial year, the department will develop and review legislative frameworks aimed at steering the post-school education and training system in line with the imperatives of the white paper. Teaching and learning support intentions for universities and TVET
Colleges will be introduced to improve the quality of post school education and training. A new institutional type known, as community colleges, the ones I have talked about earlier, will be established to promote education and training opportunities for young people who cannot access the universities or TVET colleges.
The introduction of community colleges will come with the challenge of infrastructure, thus, the Department needs to address this. One of the progressive members will be talking about this during the debate. Responding to improving access to quality of education and training, the department has embarked on the following: an additional R967 m allocated to National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, to settle the historic debt owed to universities by 52 514 NSFAS-funded continuing students; fully subsidised free higher education and training would be provided for poor and working class students from families with a gross income of up to R350 000 per annum in 2018, starting with first time entry students and phased in over five years.
Chairperson, looking at this, the R350 000 per annum as a major who qualifies to be funded by the state, in university. Looking at my village, I would say even my district Sekhukhuneland, I can safely say more that 70% of people who live in Sekhukhuneland, earn less
than this amount per annum. So which means, there won't be any reason for any child coming from Sekhukhuneland and other outlying rural areas not to go to university. This government cares, the government of the ANC cares about people.
The establishment of the Departmental Bursary Scheme for poor and Working Class Students in universities, was introduced to set in place the necessary agreements and mechanisms to enable the new funding regime.
Before you can provide that, there are systems that were put in place, those cannot the Department were funding from their bursary funds within the Department and once the systems are in place, then it will run like a machine.
The department has the new Generation of Academic Programme, GAP, which is a dedicated programme focusing on attracting and developing young black scholars to be the future generation of academics. The Department has this programme in order to have representatively in the instructional personnel at universities. There is also the University Capacity Development Programme, UCDP, is improving the quality of student experience at universities, the relevance of the curricula, the abilities and motivation of our academic staff, and
the range of student support services. The UCDP will also assist to improve the qualifications of academic staff, so that more academics can obtain a Doctoral Degree.
It is commonly known that student accommodation at universities and TVET colleges is a challenge, thus, the department has made funding available through the Infrastructure and Efficiency Grant, IEG, to address accommodation challenges at 17 institutions of higher learning across the country. In addition, the department is working with some institutions to facilitate larger scale and sustained accommodation options through the Student Housing Infrastructure Programme, SHIP.
The department will ensure the strategic use of the Historically Disadvantaged Institutions, HDI, development grant to enable the HDl's to develop into viable, strong institutions with a clear mandate in a differentiated higher education system. In addition, there is a need to strengthen teacher education at universities through ongoing implementation of the Teaching and Learning Development Capacity Improvement Programme, TLDCIP. We need teachers of high calibre so that when learners get to university, they are ready for the challenge. As we are in the 4th Industrial revolution,
the Department is going to develop and implement the National Open Learning System for the Post School Education and Training Sector.
Chairperson, South Africa is part of the BRICS community. As part of the BRICS, we have an ongoing collaboration and exchange between universities across Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Just for a moment imagine, how much we would gain in this relationship with China through BRICS, China on Science and Technology.
India started where we are, we were both English colonist. They got their freedom before us but they are far, far ahead even more than countries than have been free before them. India is sending people into space, they are designing rockets and all the other things, so this relation is going to benefit South Africa quite a lot. These students who are here, will be beneficiaries of this relationship and we are looking forward to international programmes to take ground. I thank you Chairperson.