South Africa’s FET colleges receives R2.5 billion boost

South Africa’s 50 further education and training colleges (FET) recently received their share of the R2.5 billion which have been earmarked for the expansion of the FET sector to help in skills development in the key growth sectors of the South African economy. A further R1.5 billion will be made available for infrastructure improvement of the colleges.

To read more go to Megan Wait’s article in Creamer Media’s Engineering News by Clicking Here!

Education in crisis – FW de Klerk Foundation

Education in South Africa is in serious traouble, the FW de Klerk foundation said recently.

“Poor education lies at the root of most of South Africa’s problems, including unemployment, poverty and inequality”, it said in a statement.

The recent Limpopo textbook scandal was simply a sympton of much wider malaise. The crisis was also not because of a lack of resources. In 2011 the country spent 6 % of its gross domestic product on education.

The education system is failing to achieve basic standards of literacy and numeracy in grades three and six. This can be seen in the ranking of South Africa’s education system by the World Economic Forum as 133rd out of 142 countries.

To read more go to the SAPA article on News24 by Clicking Here!

South African Higher Education and Training Budget

The Minister of Higher Education and Training , Blade Nzimande recently presented the department’s budget vote in parliament.

He announced that  the Department of Higher Education and Training have ring-fenced R450 million for the 2012/13 to 2013/14 funding cycle to expand university infrastructure capacity for teacher education and plan to continue with this in the next funding cycle.

Mr Nzimande also noted a significant increase in full-time equivalent enrolments in initial teacher education progarmmes from 35 937 in 2009 to 41 292 in 20 120, a 15 % increase.The number of new teachers that graduated showed an increase from 6 976 in 2009 to 7 973 in 2010, an increase of 14%. He added that specific attention is given to the development of Foundation Phase teachers, and especially African language mother-tongue speakers.

He also announced that R499 million has been allocated to all universities for teaching development grants to assist in improving graduate outputs and R194 million for foundation programmes to improve the success rates of students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Programmes will also be initiated this year to support the academic and professional development of lecturers at universities.

An additional amount of R177 million has been allocated for research development at 15 of the 23 universities to develop research capability of university staff.

R850 miiion has been set aside for the period 2012/13 to 2013/14 for universities to build and refurbish student residences. with the majority being allocated to historically black institutions.

Over the next two year, R3,8 billion has been allocated for universities’ overall infrastructure development of which R1,6 billion has been set aside specifically for the historically disadvantaged universities.

The information for this article was obtained from an article compiled by the Government Communication and Information System, and can be obtained from 7th Space by Clicking Here!   

South African government to re-open former Teacher Training Colleges

In a bid to produce more teachers in South Africa the government’s Higher Education and Training Department is planning to open three former teacher training colleges next year, Mr Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education and Training recently announced in his departments budget vote in parliament. The colleges are the Ndebele College Campus in Mpumalanga for foundation phase teacher education, and one former teacher training college each in Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Eastern Cape.

 To read more go to the article at 7th Space Interactive by Clicking Here!

R15 billion set aside for Further Education and Training Colleges

South African Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande has set aside R15-billion to increase the number of students attending South Africa’s Further Education and Training Colleges. This is part of a plan to improve the quality of education at FET colleges so that they become the tertiary institutions of choice. The plan also includes an agreement with retired accountants to step in as CFOs at these institutions.

Nzimande wants the  FET student population to grow from the current 400 000 to 4 million by 2030.

To read more go to the article on East Coast Radio Newswatch by Clicking Here!

South Africa plans to open 2 new universities

Mr Blade Nzimande, South African Minister of Higher Education and Training, recently announced that two new universities are expected to open in South Africa, one in the Mpumalanga province and the other in the Northern Cape Province. Two task teams investigated the appropriate models for these new universities and recommended possible sites to be seats of these universities. Mr Nzimande will announce the seat of learning of each new institution in three months time. The government plans to have the first intake of these tow new universities at the start of 2014.

To read more go to Sapa’s article at Sowetan Live by Clicking Here! 

Plan to expand and improve South Africa’s Higher Education sector

In a Green Paper on Post-School Education and Training, the South African government Department of Higher Education and Training recently announced its plans to raise university enrolments from the current 900 000 students to 1.5 million by 2030. Also mooted was a target of 4 million students for colleges and other post-school institutions – 6 times more than current numbers. These changes will raise the participation rate in post-school education of 18-24 year olds from the current 16% to 23%.

The Green Paper includes in its agenda:

• new funding;
• improvement of access to education and training opportunities;
• research on financial problems facing many students as well as poor living conditions and student support services;
• strengthening of institutions to improve education quality;
• the development of a post-school education and training system that is equitable, accessible and affordable to all sections of the population, with free education and training for the poor;
• support for previously disadvantaged universities, including asisstance to improve infrastructure and quality of teaching and research;
• reform of South Africa’s complex regulatory system, by doing away with duplication. and incoherence and inconsistency in the functioning parts of the system;
• building coherence between basic education and the post-school system and between the post-school system and the labour market;
• strengthening of collaboration between private and public sectors;
• expansion of distance education, using appropriate information communication technologies, other technologies and methods;
• the creation of two new universities in the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga provinces;
• improvement of throughput rates;
• addressing concern sbout low participation rate of Africans;
• addressing concern about decrease of male students;
• improvement of graduation rates in science, engineering and technology, because it is not meeting economic development objectives;
• strengthening of scholarship in the humanities;
• provision of resources and funding to strenthen teaching in universities, without reducing the importance of research;
• exploration of the possibility of partnerships between public and private institutions;
• strengthening of African languages as part of formal programmes

 The Department of Higher Education and Training also plans to work with the Department of Science and Technology to ensure increased support for postgraduate study and for senior researchers, as well as a stable funding model for all educational institutions that conduct research. This means improving research capacity as a major focus for universities with a specific focus on meeting the country’s developmental objectives.

To read more go to Karen McGregor’s article on University World News by Clicking Here!

To read more go to Kim Cloete’s article at Cross Currents on MoneyWeb by Clicking Here!

To read the Green Paper on Post-School Education and Training Click Here!

Centralised admissions to SA universities on the cards

South African Minister of Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande, yesterday announced that his department is planning a central application system for universities across South Africa. He said, they are considering discontinuing walk-ins at registration time at universities, and aim to have a centralised application office in place by 2013. The applications office will handle all higher education applications in one office and will carry one application fee.

Minister Nzimande’s announcement came shortly after a tragic incident where the mother of a prospective student was killed at the University of Johannesburg, during a stampede at the entrance to the university.

To read more go to Mvuzo Ponono’s and Tebogo Monama’s article in the Sowetan, by Clicking Here!

Access to Education in South Africa has improved – Nzimande

Access to education has improved over the past 17 years, Higher Education minister Blade Nzimande said recently in parliament.

“Approximately 96 percent of children now gain access to school in South Africa,” Nzimande said during debate in the National Assembly on President Jacob Zuma’s state of the nation address.

Nzimande said that in 2009 the gross enrolment ratio for Grades 1 to 12 stood at 92 percent. In higher education the total enrolments was nearing 90,000, which means the throughput rate has been improving, although it still has a long way to go.

The biggest challenge identified by the Department of Basic Education [DBE] according to Nzimande is the improvement of the quality of education, while nearly all of the Department of Basic Education’s current interventions are aimed at achieving this.

Dr Nzimande cited the improvement of learning outcomes in Maths, Science and Literacy as the biggest priority of the department, which is in line with Zuma’s directive on the three Ts –teachers, text and time.

The “improved” 2010 matric results proved that the schooling system was on a much better footing, he said.

Minister Nzimande then focussed on Higher Education and said the Department of Higher Education and Training had made “significant strides” in the past year in the field of higher education and training to tackle the challenge of creating a post school system that was responsive to the needs of youths and adults.

The adoption of the National Skills Development Strategy had been the anchor of government’s intervention on the skills development front, according to him.

Nzimande emphasized that South African universities needed to be nurtured, and must continue to provide high quality teaching, research, innovation and community service activities and to progressively improve their capacities.

“But”, Nzimande said, “we are working to ensure that these universities become more accessible and place student interests at the centre of their activities.”

Assistance would be given to institutions that need special attention, like those in rural areas, to help them build capacity to provide quality education. Task teams are also working hard to prepare for the establishment of universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape.

To read the original Sapa article on NewsTime Click Here!

South African Education Faculties flooded by students

The calibre of teachers in schools looks set to drastically improve as scores of South Africa’s top students sign up for the teaching profession, writes Prega Govender on Times Live.

Universities across the country confirmed being flooded with applications from first-year students wanting to study the four-year teaching degree.

The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s education faculty, increased its admission requirements after receiving almost 14,000 applications for only 650 places

Increased applications for the teaching degree at other South African institutions include:

• University of Johannesburg: 2690 applications with 965 enrolled;
• University of the Witwatersrand: 2800 applications with only 420 enrolled;
• University of Pretoria: 2625 applications with 1333 enrolled;
• University of Limpopo: more than 1500 applications for 524 places;
• North West University: 1851 applications at two of its three campuses for 926 places; and
• Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University: 1452 applications and only 365 admitted.

The University of Cape Town though does not offer the bachelor of education degree, and Stellenbosch University recorded a drop of 64 in its teacher enrolment from 280 last year to 216 this year.

A very encouraging trend according to Bobby Soobrayan, director -general of Basic Education is that pupils with good matric passes are thinking about teaching, which is ideal “as we want good students to go into teaching”.

To read Prega Govender’s original article that were published on Times Live Click Here!