Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, I am going to present my thoughts to you in English because I would really
like us to reach some common ground and let us use the common oppressor's language to communicate. [Laughter.] We understand very well the need that the ANC government has to transform the higher education sector of South Africa. We also understand that each speech starts with a narrative about the anniversary of historical events like Rivonia Trial, the birth of Nelson Mandela, etc, because it puts everything into a context. Context is actually very important. We realise that.
We as Afrikaners also have a decolonising history. We have a narrative that starts with the devastation of the Anglo Boer War, when impoverished peasants and urban labourers wanted to climb the ladder in terms of the economy, and just as you, education and especially higher education was regarded as one of the most important ways to do so.
If I share our narrative, it is not as a competitive narrative or to make the narrative that you offer us ongeldig [less important]. I am looking for a word. Delegitimise. We don't want to delegitimise your narrative. It is an addition, to explain that we also have an experience.
When Afrikaners were offered by the conquering British Empire the opportunity to become part of this empire and to share in the benefits of establishing English institutions, many of our ancestors declined that. We said that we would rather establish our own institutions and indeed, we made very good use of state money to do so.
However, we started with so-called third-rate institutions and we gradually built them up with a work ethic and dogged hidden curriculum. We wanted to show them that we are just as good or even better. In that whole evolution, it was approached with a spirit of deep gratitude and not one of entitlement.
I think that is one of the main reasons why I don't desire your job, because you have to deal with a youth who works with a deep sense of entitlement that anything that they do not have, you owe to them and that it is not necessary that they do very much.
If I look at the last document that the Department of Higher Education presented regarding legal training in South Africa, they made a great point of transformative constitutionalism,
which has to be integrated into each and every legal course in South Africa.
I am very worried about that because this is a form of thought police. Transformative constitutionalism is not an objective or a widely appreciated form of legal training, it actually undermines the whole idea of a constitution, which is enduring and the law of president.
Now, one of the main functions of a legal system is to give people certainty of their legal position, to know beforehand what they may and may not do, and what their rights are.
When we have a transformative constitutional bench, then it is basically impossible to know how the judge is going to interpret transformative demands in this specific case. That is why one of the most surprising judgments was when the University of the Free State was allowed to unilaterally do away with Afrikaans education.
With the Afrikaner background, are you surprised that the new generation of Afrikaners rather does their own thing? [Time expired.]
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: House Chairperson, The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Dr Blade Ndzimande, chairperson and members of the portfolio committee, hon members, director-general, leaders of all post-school education and training institutions and organisations, senior officials and invited guests, it gives me a great pleasure to address you on the Department of Higher Education and Training budget vote and to further expand on some the issues that the Minister has addressed.
Our President, in this year state of the nation address, Sona, stirred our imagination towards a smart city built on the technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Smart cities need smart universities and smart post- school education and training institutions. These smart institutions creatively integrate innovation in their Deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA.
They have smart software and hardware systems with smart classrooms and state of the art technologies. They have smart pedagogy with modern teaching and learning strategies. They offer smart qualifications and programmes that are in demand. They push the frontiers of knowledge production. These are the smart post-school education and training institutions that strive for. As we strive for smart institutions, we are mindful of the existential challenges that our students and institutions are faced with.
We have made great strides in improving access to post-school education and training. Even if we can come here in this pulpit and try and rubbish the progress that have been made, the reality is that we would not be where are had it not been of some of the decisions and policy choices that this government have made to increase access to our post-school education and training.
The numbers of students in these institutions are significant and attest to the progress that we have made in broadening access. Now we are strengthening structures, systems and
interventions to increase through put rate and success. After all our students enter our institutions because they want to make a success of their lives. Access must lead to success.
We know that the well-being of students is challenged every day. Suicide for instance, is the second leading cause of death for higher education students. As many of 24,5% of students interviewed reported some suicide ideation in a recent survey. According to the South African Depression and Anxiety Group, one in four university students have been diagnosed with depression. Only one in six students receive minimally adequate mental health treatment. The challenges are varied and can be debilitating where students need psycho-social support.
Hon member from the EFF, we are really willing to work with the EFF Student Command to attend to these challenges. We think that we can work much better if we are focused together as opposed to wanting to be mother Christmas and gifts-certain things which are actually not even realisable- not in the immediate and also not in the long term.
The Higher Education and Training HIV/AIDS Programme, HEAIDS, in our department will be rebranded and will be launched as Higher Health. In addition to providing free mobile health and wellness screening on HIV and Aids, Tuberculosis, TB, Sexually transmitted infections STI, contraceptives and family planning, Higher Health will also include psycho-social services for supporting students on gender based violence, mental illnesses, alcohol and substance abuse as well as assisting students who are marginalized based on gender diversity and disability.
The HEAIDS programme also promotes the prevention, early detection and management of non-communicable diseases. Not only is type 2 diabetes increasingly common among children and young adults across the world, but South Africa has a specific problem of hypertension among young people. Blood sugar and blood pressure checks are increasing. HEAIDS conducted 141,785 blood pressure measurements and 85,328 blood sugar tests across our universities and TVET colleges. Overall, in the past three years, the HEAIDS Programme has facilitated the establishment of 80 clinics at TVET colleges. We are making progress in the
points that you made around having colleges in all our institutions of post- school education and training.
We will continue to improve and expand health and psycho-social services across our institutions because we believe this contributes to student success and also in ensuring that we assure students in higher education and training institutions that they are not alone. We will work with them to design and implement appropriate and relevant interventions to tackle the psycho-social issues that students are faced with. Together we will tackle these problems so that we can have greater success in higher education.
This year marks the fourth year of existence of the Community Education and Training Colleges, a sector that has the potential to bring tangible transformation to historically-marginalised communities including out of school youth and adults. I find it quite interesting that everyone who came to speak here have essentially overlooked the importance of Community Education and Training Colleges - I am referring to members from the oppositions benches. Because we see this as one of the single
most important intervention if we are to deal with the majority of young people who are excluded from our universities and from our TVET colleges.
Second chance learning, be it general education or skills programmes, is also a priority. In this year, our department will strengthen the capacity of our 54 Community Learning Centres to pilot the Community Education and Training concept through the introduction of skills programmes. A total of R2,5 billion has been set aside towards the community education and training function. In 2019, the department will finalise the development of norms and standards for funding Community Education and Training colleges to ensure equitable share of the budget among the nine Community Education and Training Colleges.
The department has also put in place a Community Education and Training system National Plan for the implementation of the White Paper for Post- School Education and Training system for 2019-30.
This plan clarifies our vision of the Community Education and Training Programme, and provides guidance on access and success towards achieving the National Development Plan, NDP, 2030 target of a million enrolments in Community Education and Training Programme. The plan also provides guidance on the rationalisation of the Community Education and Training, institutional landscape through consolidation of the 3 276 Community Learning Centres and Satellite Learning Centres for efficiency, development and support.
Our Sector Education and Training Authorities, SETA, continue to play a critical role in closing the skills gap. As the Minister has indicated we will soon be publishing the new sector and education authority landscape that will be implemented on the 1st of April 2020. This will ensure certainty in the skills development system so that we focus on producing skills that are required for our socio-economic development. The new landscape will align with the National Skills Development Plan which will also be implemented in April 2020. Some of our SETAs have experience poor governance and management while the majority of
SETAs steadily continued their vital role in skills development.
I want to assure you hon Bozzoli that there is no SETA that is under administration. All of the SETAs are under what we believe is sound management and we will ensure that with the new SETA landscape that will be announced that the turnaround in terms of what the SETAs need to be achieving is actually achieved. It is also quite unfortunate that all that we are prepared to emphasise are some of the old bad stories around what has been happening with the SETAs and fail to appreciate the progress that has been made with regard to these interventions and some of the outcomes that we have seen in terms of the work of our SETAs. In our view they must provide hope to large majority of South Africans who are yearning for skills development.
SETAs will also be directed to supporting more occupational programmes, and to further work closely with TVET and Community colleges so that linkages can be strengthened across our post- school education and training institutions.
Career guidance and career development are also important areas of work for our department. Far too many young people do not receive adequate career information that will steer them in making appropriate career choices. Working with the SETAs and other government departments, will lead and expand the necessary career guidance and development work that must be done in our communities.
We still prioritise artisan development and at the same time, we will be expanding other forms of workplace-based learning, such as learnerships, work integrated learning and internships. Both artisanal skills and learnerships show high levels of employment and are backed up by tracer studies from the Human Science Research Council. The department has just completed a tracer study for artisans who passed their trade test in the 2017-18 Financial Year, where the employment rate stands at 74 %and 3% are self-employed, implying that 77% of these artisans have entered the labour market.
The Centres of Specialisation Programme will be prioritised as well at our public TVET colleges which will train youth in
artisan skills. The programme will assist 26 TVET college sites improve their capacity to develop successful artisans with industry partners in 13 priority trades related to infrastructure projects. There are four employer associations involved with this initiative: the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa, the Retail Motor Industry, the Institute of Plumbing South Africa and the Southern African Institute of Welding.
The 26 Centres of Specialisation college sites were launched and given certificates and have started training 780 apprentices whom employers have recruited and placed at these colleges. The programme is leading the transformation of our TVET college system to making them more relevant and responsive to industry labour needs, at the same time lifting their capacity to deliver high-level quality occupational programmes. The role of SETAs in linking employers to the Centres of Specialisation has ensured that all participating employers are guaranteed discretionary grants.
One of the projects that we are working on which is about work place integrated learning is the one which is between TVET and Clicks where young people are being placed in Clicks stores and TVET colleges have teamed up with these stores so that graduates received permanent employment. I am mentioning this because we really want to encourage the private sector to work with our colleges so that the transition from college to work and the articulation between the two becomes very seamless. We will be working hard to ensure that more and more of these projects are there and are strengthened.
We are also involved in the "Decade of Artisan", a drive to encourage young people to venture into artisanal careers towards meeting the NDP target of producing 30 000 artisans per annum. Earlier this year we hosted Third World Skills National Competition in Durban in February were 171 competitors across 19 skill competition areas, including electrical installations, graphic design technology, and computer numerical control and turning. Twenty-four winners will be representing South Africa at the World Skills International Competition that will take place in Kazan, Russia next month. Among the winners are young
women who will be flying South Africa's flag high. I would like to acknowledge them in the gallery, Ms Nicole Thebus from the College of Cape Town who won the section on hairdressing, graphic design, Ms Hannah Selah Smith from the Durban University of Technology, DUT, restaurant services, Ms Ntsako Shidzinga from Ekurhuleni West, cooking, Ms Melanie Jean de Lange from Ekurhuleni West TVET College; and electrical installation, Ms Philile Jessica Mngadi from Shukela Training Centre in KwaZulu- Natal. A special acknowledgement for Ms Mngadi as she was the only woman who competed in this category and she won.
This is important hon Bosshof precisely because - in as much as you would want us to believe that the interventions made by the apartheid regime were crucial we should never forget that those interventions were for a specific race. Our government is making interventions for all South Africans including yourself. And I found it quite interesting that you said we should communicate in a common language of the oppressor. I am wondering which one is the uncommon language of the oppressor.