Hon House Chair, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, hon Members of the House I greet you all. Hon House Chair the NFP will welcome and supports the debate of the Department of Higher Education and Training budget vote tabled here today. The need to produce quality and competitive young professionals must be one of the top priorities for government. The graduates we produce must be able to compete with other countries Many students have been given the opportunity to study further after being awarded bursaries. The opportunity to walk through the doors of a prestigious institution for a young man or woman from a rural town in KwaZulu-Natal is indeed a dream come true.
However, House Chair, high living standards in many of our top educational institutions places many of these students in unbearable conditions. Mental health programs must be provided for all students, focusing on students suffering from depression, anxiety and those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD. Student suicides have increased
over the past two years shedding a dark cloud over our educational institutions.
The reports indicate that the department achieved 2516 below their enrolment targets. However, with regards to graduate output in engineering sciences, the 2018/19 target of 12590 was exceeded by 365, we thank that. The 2018/19 graduate target of 8490 in natural and physical sciences from universities and 22 780 for initial teacher education was exceeded by 111 and 2432 respectively. Similarly, graduates target of 2 965 for doctoral studies from universities was exceeded by 92. These results indicate that students are filling the gap in the system. We applaud the department for that.
We need to educate students on bursaries available rather than taking out a student loan. We have many students in student debt due to misinformation which places students in a desperate and disadvantaged position after graduating. The youth unemployment rate places our students in a more disadvantage due to the inability to pay back loans. However, the decline in eligible
NSFAS recipients from 323 337 to 300 000 is an indication of a quality decline and we are very concerned about that.
Being a student is an exciting thing. However, ... [Time expired]. Thank you.