Ministerial Committee on the review of the funding frameworks of TVET Colleges and CET colleges Information Report and Appendices for presentation to Minister B.E. Nzimande, M.P. Minister of Higher Education and Training July 2017 Contents Foreword. ................................................................................................................................. xi Executive summary. ..............................................................................................................xiii Abbreviations. ........................................................................................................................ xv A note on the problems and standardisation of terminology. ........................................... xix Acknowledgements. ............................................................................................................xxiii Section 1: The brief .................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1. The Committee, its purpose, tasks and Terms of Reference. ....................... 1 Section 2: The national context and the TVET College and Community Learning Centre systems. ..................................................................... 7 Chapter 2. Economy and education. ................................................................................. 7 Introduction: education and development. ......................................................... 7 Education and economic growth ...................................................................... 10 Inequality and poverty ..................................................................................... 13 Inequality ............................................................................................. 14 Income inequality ..................................................................... 14 Wealth inequality ..................................................................... 17 Poverty ................................................................................................. 18 Unemployment. ................................................................................................ 22 Skills and employment. ........................................................................ 23 Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET). .......................... 25 Inequality in schooling, higher education and the labour market. ................... 26 Concluding summary ....................................................................................... 28 Education and development. ................................................................ 28 Education and economic growth. ......................................................... 29 Inequality and poverty ......................................................................... 30 Unemployment. .................................................................................... 31 Inequality in schooling, higher education and the labour market. ....... 32 iii Chapter 3. Post-school education as a public good. ....................................................... 35 Introduction. ..................................................................................................... 35 Post-school education as a public good ........................................................... 36 High / Low / Middle: income and adult education .......................................... 37 Low income – low adult education and training .................................. 38 South Africa in the middle ................................................................... 39 National education and training challenges. .................................................... 39 Spatial inequalities. .............................................................................. 39 Lack of second chance education. ........................................................ 40 Limited provisioning ............................................................................ 42 Financial constraints. ........................................................................... 42 The effects of inaction in the post-school education and training system. ...... 43 What South Africa needs – five principles for action. ..................................... 45 Access. ................................................................................................. 45 Diversification of programmes. ........................................................... 46 Articulation. ......................................................................................... 47 Differentiation of institutions. .............................................................. 47 Capacity building ................................................................................. 48 Chapter 4. An overview of post-school education and training .................................... 49 Introduction. ..................................................................................................... 49 The changing landscape (1994 to 2014). ......................................................... 49 The Secondary School system. ............................................................ 49 Post-school education and training ...................................................... 52 Adult literacy and adult basic education and training .............. 53 Community Colleges and Community Learning Centres. ....... 54 Technical and Vocational Education and Training Colleges.. 56 The Higher Education system. ................................................. 58 Goals for the sector and policy imperatives. .................................................... 59 Predictable problems and challenges facing the post-school education and training sector. .................................................................................................. 61 The education and training legacy and the NEETs. ............................. 61 People Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEETs). ............ 62 The economy and the destination of students. ..................................... 62 The proportions of the education budget allocated to the various components of post-school education and training .............................. 64 iv Chapter 5. The Technical and Vocational Education and Training-Colleges. ............ 67 Introduction. ..................................................................................................... 67 The existing data and its inadequacy ............................................................... 68 The limitations of the PERSAL system for staffing data. .................... 68 Demographics and distribution of TVET College provisioning ...................... 69 The national and provincial pictures. ....................................... 69 The key data on TVET Colleges. ..................................................................... 70 Programmes offered. ............................................................................ 70 Throughputs. ........................................................................................ 74 Staffing and lecturer:student ratios. ..................................................... 76 Management and administrative capacity ............................................ 77 The current finding system. ................................................................. 78 Provincial equity issues in TVET College funding ............................. 80 The issue of budget shortfalls. ................................................. 83 Expenditure issues. .............................................................................. 87 The outputs of the TVET Colleges. ................................................................. 91 The performance goals. ........................................................................ 91 Outputs – success rates and graduation rates. ...................................... 94 Access to Higher Education. ................................................................ 98 The function shift and its consequences. ......................................................... 98 The Ministerial Committee field visits. ......................................................... 100 The challenges. .............................................................................................. 108 What are realistic targets and goals? .............................................................. 109 Chapter 6 The Community Learning Centres. ........................................................... 111 Introduction. ................................................................................................... 111 The Public Adult Learner Centre system. ...................................................... 111 The data on PALCs and its inadequacy ......................................................... 112 Making sense of the existing data. ................................................................. 112 The key data on PALCs. ................................................................................ 113 Centre numbers. ................................................................................. 113 Learner numbers. ............................................................................... 113 The educators. .................................................................................... 115 Programmes, qualifications, curriculum and materials. ..................... 117 Assessment. .......................................................................................