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Date
:18/04/2006
Source: Department of Education
Title: Hindle: SA Society for Co-operative Education
Conference
Address by the Director-General of the Department of
Education, Duncan Hindle, at the Southern African Society for
Co-operative Education conference, Riviera International Hotel,
Vereeniging
A FUNDAMENTAL CONTRIBUTION TO SKILLS
The challenge to build human capital in South Africa has three main
components.
The first is to improve the quality of education in all our
schools. The quality of general education has not improved for
children in most rural and township schools.
The second is to ensure the success of students in further
education and training colleges, universities of technology and
universities. The number of graduates from these institutions has
more than doubled over the last decade. That is encouraging. But
the actual success rate is not what it should be. Most importantly
we need to encourage students to acquire skills in those areas that
are needed to meet our target of 6% growth.
The third challenge is to make the national skills development
strategy (the industrial training programme) work more effectively
to support a more competitive business sector and a more efficient
state. The broad challenge is to reduce the level of youth
unemployment, in other words to prepare young people for work more
effectively.
To improve the quality of schooling for all we have embarked a
number of key interventions.
First, we have major plans to improve the school resources of our
poorest schools, particularly in rural areas, so that we supplement
basic infrastructure adequate for learning (toilets, water,
electricity, classrooms) with exciting learning resources and
materials in hard and soft format. E-learning is one key way in
which we intend to bridge the divide between rich and deprived
schools.
Second, we have resolved to pursue quality maths and science
education for all through a targeted focus school approach to the
learning of maths and science. Our Dinaledi schools are currently
being expanded to 529 and our target is to have 50 000 maths and
science matriculates by the year 2008, that is, double the number
we have at the moment. Once that target is achieved the
focus-school strategy will be expanded to more schools until all
secondary schools have a specialist mission and purpose. This
requires a significant investment in textbooks and laboratories for
science and information technologies. It also means improving the
abilities of our teachers to teach maths and science.
Third, we have introduced a new curriculum in grades 10 to 12 and
this brings to an end our 10-year long transformation of the
curriculum. It is a curriculum for the 21st century and it requires
grade 9s to make the best career choices possible.
The second component of government’s strategy is to increase
the number of matriculants who go on to acquire intermediate and
high level skills.
First, we are in the process of recapitalising our further
education and training colleges.
Currently R1.5 billion is budgeted for this over the next
three-year Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period. In
addition, all college sites have the capacity to absorb more
students on skill programmes especially those related to training
for construction industry and infrastructure development, the needs
of the Integrated Development Plan (IDPs) and early childhood
education.
Second, we are seeking to improve equitable access to higher
education institutions through targeting National Student Financial
Aid Scheme (NSFAS) funds to certain fields of study in science and
technology.
Third, the Department of Education (DoE) has, together with
Treasury, undertaken a major review of the financing of higher
education. I will soon be in a position to announce major changes
in this regard.
The third component of government’s human capital strategy is
the national skills programme. Government has played a leading role
in aligning the skills supply of the education and training sector
with the demands of the economy, that is, the skills needs of the
private sector, state operated enterprises and government.
To focus and facilitate this process the Joint Initiative on
Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA), which includes government,
business and labour leaders, has been established. JIPSA serves as
a central clearing house for discussion on skills needs and
strategy development.
It is here that technology universities have a fundamental role to
play.
Because we know we are short of high-level skills. We are short of
business and financial managers. We are short of men and women with
engineering skills. We are short of men and women with information
technology (IT) skills.
All recent studies and surveys confirm what we already know about
scarce skills - management, engineering, and IT are key areas of
shortage.
During the decade of freedom there have been fundamental changes in
occupational structure, in qualifications and in skills required in
different economic sectors.
However, the overall pattern is for upskilling or an increase in
“skill intensity”, especially in managerial,
professional and associate professional occupations.
In addition, there is an increasing need for job specific,
technical skill, which is paralleled by an increased demand for
skill types that cut across sectors and occupation, including basic
skills, generic skill (including verbal, numerical, planning and
communication skills), IT skills and management skills.
In closing,
Technology universities have made a phenomenal contribution to the
growth of human capital in South Africa. This is evident through
the massive expansion in enrolment in the recent past and the
massive improvement in qualification profile of graduates.
It is very encouraging to see that it is not only men who are
succeeding in science, engineering and technology fields but also
increasingly women. This is a positive development.
The DoE has clearly signalled that career-oriented education needs
to be expanded. The market requires that graduates increasingly
master technical competencies and have practical work-based
experience.
My concern is that technology universities are still focused on the
diploma qualification rather than the B Tech. We need to change
that focus so as to ensure that the skills graduates learn are more
suitable for our rapidly growing and complex economy.
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