Chairperson, hon Ministers, Deputy Ministers, hon Members of Parliament, distinguished guests and viewers at home, the budget of the Minister clearly spells out our choices as a nation, that all stakeholders must contribute towards the realisation of our goal and that achieving it depends on our action.
The further education and training sector is expected to be a significant locus of the delivery of vocational and continuing education and training, with strong links to industry. We hope that the R4,9 billion allocation will enable the department to ensure that vocational and continuing education take centre stage in terms of skills development.
I think it is relevant that I quote our hero, the people's person, Comrade Chris Hani, and not misrepresent his words, as one person has just done. [Laughter.] Comrade Chris Hani said:
Rich people know that they can pass on their money to their children; they can pass on their land; they can pass on their titles. But there is one great gift that workers can pass on to their children and that is good education.
In his meeting with the principals of the FET colleges, the President, Comrade Jacob Zuma, pointed to the vital space that this sector must occupy with regard to developing skills for building a strong manufacturing base and productive economy. The President further pointed to the successful industrial economies such as Germany, which is rooted in the apprenticeship model. I need to mention that Germany values its vocational education system. This is evident in the support that comes from all the institutions of government, industry and trade unions.
Industry should come on board to partner with colleges in order to develop skills that are really needed by those industries. We fully support the President's call for the changing of mind-sets of our society to enable FET colleges to be the kind of training institutions we wish them to be.
As the ANC, we welcome the contribution of R2,5 billion that the National Skills Fund and the Sector Education and Training Authorities will be injecting into the refurbishment and construction of the new FET college campuses. This will ensure that we go a long way.
Ndvuna lehloniphekile, ngitsandza kusho kutsi lobudlelwane lobentiwa ngemakolishi naletimboni kutawuhamba indlela lendze nangendlela lesifuna kutsi kwenteke ngayo. Kodvwa-ke lesitsandza kukugcizelela kakhulu kutsi sifuna kutsi letimboni tikwati kufaka sandla ngetimoto letinsha, ngobe sitsite nasenta luhlolo lwetfu lena KwaZulu-Natali sakhandza kutsi emakolishi asasebentisa timoto takadzeni. Sikhandze kusasebenta imesedisi yakadzeni-dzeni, yangeminyaka yabo-1980, lengasasilungeli lesikhatsi sanyalo.
Ngako-ke, loku kusho kutsi lesayensi letfutfukako yalemihla ngeke isakwati kuhambelana nalolwati labalutfola esikolweni. Ngaleto tizatfu, sicela kutsi tonkhe timboni tifake tandla ngetimoto tato, njengetinsimbi tetimoto khona titekwati kusita bafundzi kuze babe nebuchwephesha lobufanelekile balesikhatsi. (Translation of Siswati paragraphs follows.)
[Hon Minister, I would like to point out that the relationship forged by colleges and industries will go a long way and be what we would like it to be. However, what we would like to emphasise strongly is that these industries must contribute to the colleges by manufacturing new vehicles. This is because in our research conducted in KZN, we discovered that colleges were still using very old vehicles. We noted that they were still using an old Mercedes Benz of the 1980s, which is not suitable for the present.
This means that the training students are receiving is irrelevant and not keeping up with advancing scientific knowledge. It is for these reasons that we request all vehicle industries to assist for example by providing motor vehicle parts to help learners acquire relevant knowledge of today's technology. ] We are happy that government continues to deliver on its strategic objective of ensuring that students who qualify for financial aid at the FET colleges are exempted from paying fees.
Sihlalo, sibonga Indvuna ngekutsi bafundzi laba-191 bakwatilei kutfola imifundzate, loko kubasite ngekutsi bakwati kwelekeleleka etifundvweni tabo kulamalanga alamhla. Loku, Ndvuna, kutakwenta kutsi bafundzi batimisele ngemandla abo onkhe kuze bakwati kuphumelela nasetikolweni. Lemali itabachuba libanga lelidze kakhulu. (Translation of Siswati paragraph follows.)
[Chairperson, we thank the Minister because 191 learners were awarded bursaries, which are assisting them with their studies. Minister, this will motivate the learners to study very hard and to pass. This money will last them a long time.]
We are, however, concerned about the fact that out of the 50 FET colleges in the country, only 20 have fully constituted councils. This has implications for the governance and management of the finances of the colleges. It is very important that we ensure that the financial capacity that is given to the colleges is managed through the appointment of former chartered accountants, who can assist in the FET colleges and contribute positively to their management and governance. Thank you very much, hon Minister. [Applause.]
We also urge the Minister to speed up the process of developing and implementing the qualifications of FET lecturers, especially because you intend building new FET college campuses across the country. Hon Minister, currently we are battling with the fact that 57% of lecturers all over the country are underqualified, especially in KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo. It is important to acknowledge that the reopening of the Kwa-Ndebele College will require that we capacitate our lecturers to build a strong educational institution there.
It is important that DA members listened and heard you clearly, Minister, when you said that you were delivering within a short space of time. These colleges will be opened in the next financial year. We believe that these contributions by the Minister will impact positively on the success rate and through-put rate.
The President reiterated that textbooks should be delivered to schools on time to ensure the smooth execution of teaching and learning. We call upon all the provincial departments of education to ensure that textbooks for all subjects are delivered on time to FET colleges. We conducted an oversight visit to FET colleges in KwaZulu-Natal in January and it was sad to observe that most of the students hadn't received textbooks at that time. We also noticed that some of the teaching and learning had been continuing without textbooks. In some of the areas the textbooks given were not enough.
Minister, we further note the postponement of the norms and standards for funding of public adult learning centres, as published in the Gazette in February. We just hope it won't jeopardise the provision of education in that sector.
In conclusion, we are hoping that the 2012-13 funds voted for Programme 4 will help in solving some of the identified challenges and accelerate the improvements already experienced through the programme.
Minister, our education policy must enable everyone who receives education to develop morally, intellectually and physically and to become a worker with a social consciousness and culture. We must not be apologetic about that, Minister. It is our role to emphasise that. The ANC supports the Budget Vote.
Last but not least, people should listen carefully to what is being said because if you want to engage them, they must be able to talk about what was said here. Knowledge is very important. Some people cannot listen to other people because they don't have the necessary knowledge. [Applause.]
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES: Chairperson, it is not in dispute that our children must be fluent in English, as it is an international language. Last year, I agreed with the hon Minister when he expressed his disappointment at the slow progress in the development of African languages as languages of scholarship at the country's universities.
In his speech he made proposals on how to ensure that indigenous African languages could also become languages of higher-education instruction. The Minister and I have had many discussions on language and education. He knows how strongly I feel about these issues and that the FF Plus supports him in his statements.
Prof Samasskou of Mali, the president of the Africa Academy of Languages, said:
It is unacceptable that Africa is the only continent where children are not educated in their mother tongue. Germans learn in German, Japanese learn in Japanese, but the people of Africa learn in a foreign language.
The question is: Can African languages be developed to full and equal university languages? At the beginning of the previous century, Afrikaans was dismissed as a kitchen language that would never develop into a mature academic language. If the will is there, any language, including isiZulu and Sesotho, can be developed to this level. Hebrew was a dead historical language for 2 000 years but because the will was there, Hebrew was regenerated into a modern language in the 20th century; one in which computers are being built. Afrikaans, together with Hindi, Malaysian and Hebrew, are the only four languages that have developed themselves from kitchen languages into university languages in the 20th century. I believe that if the will is there, some of the African languages of South Africa could do the same in the 21st century.
In this regard, very good work is being done at present at some South African universities. I am thinking of the good work that someone like Prof Khumalo has done for the development of isiZulu at the University of Zululand. If I'm correct, he was the first person who did his PhD in the medium of isiZulu. I'm also aware of the good work that is being done at North West University, where there are already electronic spellcheckers for, among others, isiZulu, Setswana and isiXhosa.
My question is: What is being done to encourage these universities to continue and to promote South African languages other than English? For example, various universities offer classes in more than one language or make use of simultaneous translation. If the Minister is serious about his dream of developing other South African languages to university level, he and his department will have to institute measures to encourage these universities to continue with this. As far as I'm concerned, the best way would be to adjust the funding framework for universities in order to compensate them additionally for the extra expenses they incur in promoting multilingualism. I want to ask the Minister and his department whether they will be prepared to undertake such an investigation into the adjustment of the financing model.
Ek het aan die begin ges ons kinders moet tot op universiteitsvlak vlot in Engels wees omdat dit 'n internasionale taal is. Dit beteken egter nie dat daar nie ook ruimte gemaak moet word vir ander tale, soos Afrikaans, isiZulu en Sesotho, vir onderrig in hor onderwysinstellings nie. Hierdie departement moet dit doen. Ons sal hom daarin ondersteun sover hy bereid is om dit te doen. [Applous.]