Hon Chairperson, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, distinguished guests and hon Minister, we say proudly as the ANC that we support your Budget Vote, and we are going to ensure that we support you all the way so that you become successful in implementing this resolution. Everyone should know, especially the hon member from the FF Plus, that education is not an individual matter. It is a matter for everyone to consider. That may be something that he needs to learn.
Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. With these words, Minister, I am trying to emphasise that vocational and continuing education and training have a vital role to play in the skilling and re-skilling of South African citizens - the youth and adults. This sector has been repeatedly emphasised as the most significant sector in providing the immediate skills required in the country.
It is expected to respond appropriately to the critical skills agenda. Like universities, FET colleges were established along racial, linguistic and ethnic lines by the apartheid regime. There was an unfair distribution of resources, and the legacies and scars of apartheid are still visible in the current dispensation. And each time one says something or shows members these scars, some of them get touchy because these scars cut to the bone.
The sector has undergone a serious transformation and its identity has changed from that of technical colleges to FET colleges. We acknowledge the sterling work that our democratic government, under the leadership of the ANC, has done and continues to do with regard to moving these institutions from where they used to be to where they are supposed to be in terms of skills development.
We urgently ask, hon Minister, for the finalisation of the legislative process to transfer the FET college sector from a provincial to a national competence. This will go a long way in providing oversight and monitoring of these institutions.
We support the ministerial delivery agreements of increasing access to programmes leading to intermediate and high-level learning, and of increasing access to occupationally directed programmes in needed areas, thereby expanding the availability of intermediate-level skills with special focus on artisan skills.
We also welcome the increase in the allocation of the FET college bursary scheme, which will go a long way in increasing enrolment in programmes leading to intermediate-level and high-level learning. We also welcome the pronouncement by the President in his state of the nation address that students who qualify for financial aid in FET must be exempted from paying fees.
Siyabonga, Ndvuna kulalela emavi aMengameli, kwekutsi ulwente loluhlelo. Lutawukwati kutsi lusite bantfu labanyenti labamphofu labahleti emakhaya ngoba beswele, kantsi bayafuna kufundza. [Thank you, hon Minister, for responding positively to the President's pronouncements about this programme. It is going to assist many poor rural people who do not attend school, yet they wish to study further.]
This is the start of the realisation of free education.
Kancane kancane, Ndvuna, siyawuze sifike Ekhenane, live lesitsembiso, nasichubeka ngalendlela lowenta ngayo. Siyakubongisa. [Steadily but surely, hon Minister, we will reach Canaan, the Promised Land, if we continue the way you are going. We thank you.]
However, we say emphasis should not only be on increasing access but on improving the success and throughput rate in these programmes.
Hon Minister, we congratulate the Department of Higher Education and Training on rethinking its stance on N courses by re-introducing them and also making provision for their funding from this current financial year. These courses are vital to our country as they contribute to the production of artisans. We are still concerned about the articulation, mobilisation and progression of students from FET colleges to universities. There are limited articulation pathways for FET colleges into higher education. We cannot afford to leave these matters to individual higher-education institutions and FET colleges to establish their own collaboration agreements which, in some cases, are not translated across provinces or across higher-education institutions, as observed by Stumpf et al.
We appreciate the fact that the department is engaged in the process of reviewing the National Certificate (Vocational), NVC, qualification policy, reviewing and updating the four existing NCV subject curricula.
Ndvuna lehloniphekile, lesikubonile lokusenta kutsi sibe nemavi lesingawendlulisela kuwe, ngulokutsi Lamakolishi ema-FET etfu akakhoni kutsi atsatse bantfu bayewubhalisa kuwo. Loko kusenta sikhatsateke etimphilweni tetfu ngobe uyaye ubone nakuyawubhaliswa ekucaleni kwemnyaka, bonkhe bantfu labadzala kanye nebantfwababo bagijimela etikolweni temfundvo lephakeme, nasemanyuvesi, bayekele kuya Kulamakolishi ema-FET.
Sicabanga kutsi mhlawumbe kufanele kwentiwe lokunye njengekuvusetela kabusha Lamakolishi ema-FET atekwati kukhanga bantfu kutsi bete kuwo. Mhlawumbe, loko kungenta kutsi Lamakolishi ema-FET angakhona kukhicita lobungcweti lesibudzingako lapha eNingizimu Afrika.
Angiphindze ngisho-ke kutsi sikhonile kutsi Lamakolishi ema-FET ahlangabetane netinkinga mayelana nekuphatsa timali tawo. Manje-ke, Ndvuna, sicela kutsi wena Wekunene, kanye Nelitiko lakho, nisebente ngemandla lekungatsi ayagabadzela ekutsini nichubekele embili nifundzise labantfwana, nibanikete emandla ekukwati kuphatsa kahle timali talamakolishi. Ngaleyo ndlela, Ndvuna, sitawukhona kuwelusa kahle nekutsi sibone kutsi ayachubekela yini embili. (Translation of Siswati paragraphs follows.)
[Hon Minister, what we have observed leads us to say to you that these FET colleges are unable to take in students for registration. We are concerned with what we have noticed at the beginning of the year. All parents take their children and rush to universities, and they do not go to these FET colleges.
We think something different has to be done, like revamping these FET colleges so that they attract people to register with them. Perhaps these colleges would produce the skills that we are lacking in South Africa.
Let me say once more that these FET colleges have problems of having misappropriated their funds. Therefore, hon Minister, we request that you and your Ministry work enthusiastically to continue educating these children and empower them on how to properly manage finances of these colleges. In that way, hon Minister, we will be able to monitor them and their progress.]
Hon Minister, we do agree with you on increasing access to the programmes leading to intermediate - and high-level learning by increasing the number of Abet-level entrants to 300 000 per annum. Adult education should not be treated as the adopted child of the department. The department should improve the working conditions of the adult educators and implement the norms and standards for funding adult education and training.
We also welcome the decision of the department to foster relationships and collaboration between the FET sector and the Setas. This will go a long way in encouraging the Setas to invest in occupationally directed qualifications, unlike short courses, and also facilitate placement of FET students who need experiential learning in the workplace.
We are still concerned about the lack of implementation of the Recognition of Prior Learning, RPL. We cannot afford to focus only on learnerships to produce artisans. We need to explore RPL as an alternative route to artisan production. FET colleges are better placed to facilitate assessment through RPL, for the youth and adults who need it.
In conclusion, hon Minister, the department must implement the declaration of the FET Summit. Some of the very interesting resolutions of the summit - to mention two critical ones - were to start the process of constitutional amendment to make FET colleges an exclusive national function and to review the NCV qualification policy to make it responsive to the needs of the labour market.
It is very important, Minister, that members should start to learn that the issues of education are highly, highly important and when you deliver your speech, they must be able to accept that a new leader is now in place ... [Time expired.]