Edwin Naidu
THE New Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Nobuhle Pamela Nkabane, in her maiden R137.5 billion budget for the 2024/25 financial year in the National Assembly, pledged to develop a skilled and capable workforce while broadening the country’s skills base to support an inclusive growth path.
In this regard, Nkabane said it was important to share the Ministry’s vision of the future and set priorities to guide the direction of the national higher education and training portfolio, guided by evidence-based research.
Flanked by the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, Tebogo Letsie, Deputy Ministers Buti Manamela, and Dr. Mimmy Gondwe, the Minister said the 2024/25 financial year budget of R137.5 billion increased on average by 4.8% from R130.5 billion in 2023/24 and will rise to R150.2 billion in 2026/27.
For this financial year, the budget breakdown is as follows:
- Administration – R565 million
- Planning, Policy and strategy – R4.2 billion
- University Education – R91.7 billion
- Technical and Vocational Education and Training – R13.2 billion
- Skills Development – R333 million
- Community Education and Training – R2.9 billion
- Skills Levy – R24.5 billion.
Nkabane said her mandate is to ensure that the Department’s vision of leading post-school education and training is more integrated, coordinated, and articulated for improved economic participation and social development of youth and adults.
She added that it was their mission to provide national strategic leadership in support of the post-school education and training system for improved quality of life of South Africans.
“As part of implementing this mandate, we oversee universities, TVET colleges, CET colleges, SETAs, quality councils and private education providers. Our goal remains to expand access to higher education and training opportunities and improve the quality of the provisioning, responsiveness and efficiency of the post-school education and training system. Improved skills development will maintain our national competitiveness in addressing societal challenges,” she said.
Delivering the budget vote, she dedicated it with a “heavy heart” to the memory of fallen heroes, particularly Mamotena Selena Mula, a lecturer at Modile Tlale Satellite Learning Centre in Parys under the Free State CET College, who was allegedly a victim of Gender-Based Violence (GBV).
She said GBV is a pandemic that the government has committed to fight relentlessly.
“We have managed to reprioritise within our budget at least R10.8 million to support the implementation of Gender-Based Violence Programmes, health and wellness services in the Community Education and Training Colleges,” she said.
The primary objective for the 7th Administration is to develop a skilled and capable workforce while broadening the country’s skills base to support an inclusive growth path.
This growth path will not be possible until the National Student Financial Aid Scheme is implemented.
“We have listened attentively to the voices agitating for transformation – regarding challenges of inefficiencies emanating from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. We have also listened to the silent prayers of parents for the Department of Higher Education and Training to resolve current student funding and payment challenges. We have also listened to the voices of landlords providing accommodation to students and those providing transportation to students,” she said.
The Minister said her team was inspired by these voices to acknowledge the common ground regarding students’ and learners’ hopes and aspirations.
“We are taking proactive steps to alleviate these problems. Our moral responsibility is to resolve these and other matters in the shortest period possible. All these problems will be fixed in the shortest period possible, or those harmed by the continued fractures will turn on the very system itself,” she warned.
“Institutional inefficiencies directly impact our solemn commitment inscribed in the Freedom Charter – that “The Doors of Learning and Culture Shall be Opened,” she added.
Nkabane reminded her colleagues in Parliament that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has grown from disbursing R21.4 million in 1991 to almost R54 billion in the current financial year, supporting 800,000 students.
The fund is for children of the working class and the poorest of the poor seeking to further their studies in public universities and TVET colleges.
She reminded colleagues that NSFAS represents the government’s deliberate intervention to broaden access to post-school education and training for those in communities without access to it.
She said NSFAS discharging its statutory responsibilities remains the department’s constant concern.
“We acknowledge our strengths and weaknesses in equal measure. NSFAS shouldn’t be undergoing a second administrative intervention five years after the conclusion of the previous intervention. However, despite all these systemic challenges, we are turning the tide. Our commitment is to root out corruption and maladministration in the NSFAS grant payment system.
“We have committed funds to improve NSFAS Information Communication Technologies, including loan system management. We acknowledge that some challenges have delayed finalising and tabling NSFAS annual reports in parliament,” Nkabane added.
Earlier this year, she said the Ministry developed the Comprehensive Student Funding Model, committing R3.8 billion in initial capitalisation funds to support “missing middle” students effective this financial year.
This is the category of students from families with total incomes of more than R350 000 but not more than R600 000 per annum. The fund covers prospective students for both Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and public university students.
This initial commitment comprises R1.5 billion from the National Skills Fund (NSF) and R2.3 billion from Sector Education Training Authorities.
At least 31 884 prospective learners stand to benefit from this investment.
The National Skills Fund has also contributed R1 billion to establish a Presidential seed fund to support R&D and innovation in high-end skills involving doctoral and post-doctoral research.
Since its inception, she said NSFAS has supported more than five million beneficiaries, producing hundreds of thousands of skilled professionals and the middle class, especially from within the poor and working-class sections of society.
“Certainly, this is one of the most important achievements of this government over the past 30 years of our democracy,” she added.
In April this year, her predecessor, Dr Blade Nzimande, appointed Sithembiso Freeman Nomvalo as NSFAS Administrator and simultaneously dissolved the Board.
Nomvalo has taken over the governance, management, and administration of NSFAS for 12 months ending March 2025; his task also involves resolving the misalignment of data between NSFAS and institutions, which results in the unreliability of data provided to finalise funding decisions and overseeing the opening of the 2025 online applications process.
“We are working overtime to ensure that NSFAS systems are ready for the commencement of the 2025 application season, which will start in September this year. This is critically important because NSFAS received approximately two million applications for bursaries in this financial year,” the Minister said.
Of this volume, 419 447 were returning students, while 297 809 were First-Time Entry students. Given these volumes, everything possible is being done to ensure NSFAS systems are ready.
She said the country was advancing in the skills revolution, and Artisans’ development remains a priority towards the 2030 target of producing 30,000 artisans per annum.
In 2021/22, the system produced 15,107 artisans, and in 2022/23 – 19, 461 artisans. Of these, 13,796 (or 70%) were young people under 35. The target for 2024/25 is to produce 26,500 artisans.
For the workplace-based learning programs, in 2020/21, the system placed 78 137 learners – a decrease from 158 651 in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and by 2022/23 – 99 778 learners were placed. The target for 2024/25 is to produce 190,000 work-based learning programmes.
A further R300 million has been earmarked to support 4 200 beneficiaries in the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative.
Nkabane said she was committed to providing strategic solutions to create an equitable, effective, and sustainable Post-School Education and Training System.
INSIDE EDUCATION
