Date: 25/03/2010
Source: Inkatha Freedom Party
Title: IFP: Mpontshane: Speech by IFP Member of Parliament in the debate on the Higher Education and Training budget vote

Our support for the Higher Education budget is qualified by the following
remarks;
1. Entrance qualifications for University admission ;
In June 2009 the minister called for a revision of the university entrance
requirements because according to him, the exemption rate of 18% was far too
low. Does this imply that the Minister is asking for a lowering of our
Universities entrance requirements? The IFP supports the notion that in
order to have a world class tertiary education system, their have to be
certain minimum entry requirements and we urge the Minister to work closely
with his counterpart in the Department of Basic education in order to see to
it that our high school learners are equipped with the skills necessary to
succeed at a tertiary level.

If we look at Universities in general we note that they already have high
drop-out rates between first and Second year degree courses, on this basis
alone we cannot support the lowering of entrance requirements.

2. Transformation
The Minister called for University curricula to become more "revolutionary"
when he addressed the Nehawu meeting earlier this year. What exactly does
the Minister mean by this statement?He also decried the fact that South
Africa's universities were dominated by a neo-liberal approach. Is he
advocating a socialist orientation for all universities to follow?

The IFP has always supported the notion of freedom of political thought and
discourse within our educational institutions and society. In South Africa
we have an extremely vibrant higher education sector, with more than a
million students enrolled in the country's 24 state-funded tertiary
institutions: 11 universities, five universities of technology, and six
comprehensive institutions. Many of our universities are world-class
academic institutions, at the cutting edge of research in certain spheres.
In fact, according to the World Bank classification of Top Universities in
Africa, South African Universities claim the top 7 positions with the
University of Cape Town leading the pack. Both the Minister and the
Department have a paramount duty to ensure that these high standards of
tertiary education are maintained and even improved upon. What is the
Minister doing in order to address the challenge of ageing professors within
our Universities as alluded to by the (CHE) Council for Higher Education?

3. The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)
The Department has done extremely well in this field but no success is
final. It is in this vein that the IFP supports the Minister in his efforts
to better the scheme through new initiatives eg The Review of the scheme of
which there is currently a report which is now out for public comment
thereupon. The IFP is currently studying the proposals contained in the
report and will make it's view's known in the correct forums .

4. Graduates

In the current period we are expecting 137000 graduates, the IFP would like
to see this number increase closer to 200000 graduates per year and we hope
that the Minister is setting similar objectives. Percentage pass rates for
artisans trade tests have been between the 35 and 50% margins over the past
few years. Wherein lies the problem with such a poor pass rate? And what is
the Minister doing to address this?

Subject to the above reservations the IFP supports the budget.