Sports Reporter

Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Zizi Kodwa and Deputy Minister Nocawe Mafu handed over sports facilities and sports attire in ministerial outreach programme in KwaZulu-Natal from 20 to 23 Feb

 
These engagements form part of the Ministerial Outreach Programme in which the Minister and Deputy Minister formally hand over sports facilities commissioned by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture through its agencies. 

This programme continues interventions by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture to develop schools in rural communities, and to make school sport the bedrock of sports development.
 
On Tuesday, 20 February 2024 at the Greater Kokstad Local Municipality, the Minister and Deputy Minister will hand over two multipurpose sports courts as part of the Netball World Cup Legacy programme, in conjunction with The Sports Trust, the implementation partner of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. The Sports Trust celebrates 30 years of enhancing education through sport. Following this engagement, the Minister and Deputy Minister will open a library at Shayamoya Secondary School.

On Thursday, 22 February 2024, a sports field will be handed over at Banqobile Secondary School in Mkhambathini, while on Friday, 23 February 2024, a sports field will be handed over in Impendle.

INSIDE EDUCATION

 Inside Education Correspondence

Breaking the trend of negative publicity around institutions like them, the innovative Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority (CHIETA) has gone beyond the narrow confines of the industry to launch Smart Skills Centres in Saldanha Bay, Gqeberha and Babanango. 

More than 6,000 youth from the communities have used the centres. 

While the centres come in different sizes depending on the communities they serve, they all feature several pods in which virtual reality and augmented reality technologies can be used, with other pods providing laptops for surfing the internet, doing training or even job interviews. Connectivity and data are also provided. 

Getting people, especially women and girls, familiar with and confident in using technology is part of making them work-ready. At these centres, rural youth are taught digital skills, and they can keep up to date with artificial intelligence developments and get the latest in robotics and artificial intelligence. 

The following smart centre will be launched in the Highveld Industrial Park in Mpumalanga, on the former Highveld Steel and Vanadium factory site. The CHIETA wants to establish similar centres in all nine provinces. 

Although their research shows that data analysis is the number one skill petroleum companies seek, CHIETA remains duty-bound to do what it can to deepen the pool of data analytics talent for the benefit of its stakeholders. But it is also broadening how it interprets its remit, ensuring that it can positively impact the country’s high youth unemployment challenge. 

One of their groundbreaking initiatives is What About the Boys, a Gender Violence initiative in partnership with Primestars and several corporations, teaching 20,000 young boys about dealing with masculinity and learning about entrepreneurship. 

“We’ve got a good story to tell,” remarked Yershen Pillay, the chief executive officer of CHIETA, which received a clean audit, met 100% of its targets and grew levy income year-on-year from R592 million to R621 million. 

With a mission of “innovating for impact”, Pillay presented the CHIETA 2022/2023 Integrated Annual Report at its Annual General Meeting on 1 December in Sandton, saying that CHIETA was determined to continue making a difference and continue working on the hydrogen economy for which it has gained a growing reputation as a leader in the green economy. 

During International Day of Women and Girls in Science at the weekend, CHIETA could take comfort from the fact that they’re putting resources behind dozens of young girls – at least 217 last year – with positive results to boot. 

The Eastern Cape Department of Education recognised hard-working matriculant Liyabona Ncanywa as one of the province’s top achievers in the National Senior Certificate Examinations. 

CHIETA assisted her with tuition and school fees through its Science, technology, engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fund, which supports 1,000 learners nationwide. 

Through its various programmes, including the upcoming Discretionary Grant Funding Windows and working with corporations. CHIETA provides potential opportunities for 615 internships, 1085 leadership, 1 395 skills programmes, and 1285 TVET students for Work Integrated Learning. 

Such investment in skills development is vindicated when learners like Liyabona show evidence that investment in our youth bears fruit. It certainly encourages others to do more to ensure that the goals of the United Nations become a reality for women and girls worldwide. 

In 2016, the UN declared the 11th of February International Day of Women and Girls in Science to encourage more girls and women to take jobs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM subjects). But can they take their place without support? 

INSIDE EDUCATION

Inside Education Reporter 

In the South African tertiary education landscape, Higher Certificate training plays an important role in providing bridging courses for school-leavers who are not yet ready for longer term studies, as well as stepping stones into entry-level positions for young job seekers.  

SACAP (The South African College of Applied Psychology) has announced a new direction for its Higher Certificate in Business Management and Higher Certificate in Human Resources Management programs to make these one-year training courses more accessible.

Lee-Ann Drummond, Head of SACAP’s Management & Leadership faculty says, “SACAP is committed to finding innovative ways to ensure that our high-quality education is within the reach of the many young people who are thirsty for knowledge, skills, and work opportunities in the business field.  

These two redesigned SACAP Higher Certificate programmes give students meaningful insights into the Business Management and Human Resource Managements fields.  

They are vocational qualifications that focus on the practical skills and theoretical knowledge required for taking up entry-level positions in different industries.  Students have opportunities to develop essential skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking and communications.” 

Higher Certificate qualifications can serve as a bridge to a bachelor’s degree studies for students who did not pass Matric with a university exemption or for those who need to gain a better understanding of the world of work before they feel ready to choose a degree study path.

Students enrolled in SACAP’s Higher Certificates in Business Management and Human Resource Management can expect high levels of academic excellence and opportunities to develop applied skills, while being surrounded by community.  

Drummond says, “We’ve streamlined course costs by redesigning our delivery model to focus on providing a facilitator-led, structured learning path that is more self-directed.  These smart adaptations to our business-focused Higher Certificate courses have meant that we can make them more accessible by offering them at a significantly lower cost.”

Every week a facilitator will guide students through the targets and requirements.  There will be facilitated learning activities such as a forum discussion or a live presentation with a Q&A session.  

Students will engage with video and multimedia content as well as academic readings in their own direction, in their own time. Assessments such as quizzes are embedded in the learning process so that students get feedback and can gauge their mastery of a topic in real-time. 

Technology within the course structure includes built-in automatic triggers to activate personalized support from SACAP facilitators. 

SACAP has also introduced several new subjects in the education programs. The Higher Certificate in Business Management now includes coursework on Professional Communication and the Digital Landscape, Principles of Economics, Marketing Management, Supply Chain Management and Project Management. New subjects in the Higher Certificate in Human Resource Management program are Occupational Health and Safety Management, Professional Communication and the Digital Landscape and Project Management.

Drummond concludes, “There’s facilitation, feedback and support, however, as with all online learning, these are courses that require students to be self-directed, self-motivated and able to engage independently with a variety of information sources and formats.  

“SACAP Higher Certificate programs offer adaptive learning pathways that empower young people to develop their capacities for self-management and self-mastery.  These are abilities that are highly valued in the modern world of work and so through studying, they have opportunities to hone the 21st century skills that employers are seeking.”

Applications for SACAP’s Higher Certificate programs are now open. Visit sacap.edu.za to register.

INSIDE EDUCATION

Inside Education Reporter

The Minister of Finance is up for a tough speech on Wednesday. 

Economists would like to hear about spending cuts accompanied by a major review of budgets and spending. 

However, further austerity measures can cause a service delivery crisis. 

This is according to Professor Waldo Krugell, an economist at the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the North-West University (NWU), who looks ahead at what to expect when the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, delivers the 2024 Budget speech on 21 February.

Krugell said much will be said before and after the Budget speech this week. “It is normal to be concerned about how it affects your pocket – for example, can the minister increase the grant amounts and old age pension a bit, or what will happen to sin taxes and the fuel levy? Economists take a much broader view and will be talking about the sustainability of the fiscal stance,” said the Professor. 

Simply put, he added that it is about whether the government will be able to continue with its spending plans, tax plans and financing of the deficit over the next three years and beyond. 

“There are several things that can go wrong. The tax income that the minister budgets for is linked to the size and growth of the economy. If growth slows, the tax income shrinks. At the same time there is a lot of pressure for extra spending, such as extending grants and bailing out state-owned enterprises. 

“Put together, less tax income and more spending mean that the government must borrow more.”

Krugell added that there are a few issues with borrowing more. 

“Our quite large deficit is financed at particularly high interest rates compared to other emerging market economies. This pushes up the cost of servicing the debt. Debt service cost as a share of main budget revenue increased from 11,9% in 2024/25 to a projected 19,4% in 2024/25. 

“That is almost 20 cents of every rand of tax revenue collected. It crowds out other spending. If one considers that the compensation of government employees makes up 36% of current revenue and transfers to households make up another 35%, that does not leave a lot of income for other spending.”

The other issue is, he notes, who will buy the government’s bonds? 

Over the past ten years, according to Krugell, foreign investors have withdrawn from the bond market despite the relatively high interest rates that we offer. 

“South African financial institutions, particularly the banks, have stepped in, but the Reserve Bank has warned that for the banks to hold even more bonds may start to present a risk to the stability of the financial system. 

“In addition, offering very high interest rates to attract investors makes capital expensive for other borrowers, like corporates, who want to issue bonds. That limits investment. All in all, it is not straightforward to determine at what level the debt burden becomes unsustainable, but at a high level it does create uncertainty that has a negative impact on the exchange rate. That is bad for inflation, interest rates, the consumer, businesses, and the economy.”

So, Krugell says, economists will be listening for plans to put the government’s finances on a sustainable footing. That means increasing taxes or cutting spending.

“Though ideas like a wealth tax on individuals, or a tax on the super profits of a particular industry, are thrown about in the media from time to time, there are no serious proposals for a significant increase in taxes. 

“Our tax base is quite narrow. There are around 385 companies in South Africa that earn over R200 million in taxable income, and they contribute 65% of the total company tax take. Around 1,2 million personal income taxpayers earn over R500 000 per year, and they represent about 65% of the total personal tax liability. 

“There are more or less 275 000 taxpayers who earn over R1 million. This group represents under 2% of taxpayers and contributes over 35% of the total personal tax take. The geese that lay the golden eggs are relatively few and probably quite footloose. Any significant tax increases are likely to have negative consequences for investment and economic growth.”

Wits University is committed to enabling access to education*

In 2023, Wits disbursed approximately R1.5 billion to 26 076 students of which R646 million was NSFAS funding for 9 004 students. 

R169 million was disbursed during 2023 for Wits scholarships and bursaries, which includes, inter alia, the following:

•     R45 million for Undergraduate Merit and Scholarship Awards to support 3,343 undergraduate students,

•     R68 million for Postgraduate Merit Awards to support 1 354 students,

•     R28 million to the Wits Hardship Fund to help 1 441 students, and

•     R4 million for eligible LLB students who were defunded by NSFAS.

The University will match the funds raised via the SRC’s fundraising campaign. The Wits Hardship Fund was established in 2016 with an initial amount of R10 million per annum allocated to assist academically deserving, missing middle students to register and to secure emergency accommodation (limited number of beds available). For 2024, R28 million has been allocated to the Wits Hardship Fund to assist eligible students who meet the criteria:

Students with a family income of under R600 000 and who owe more than R10 000 can apply. 

Successful applicants receive 50% of the outstanding debt up to a maximum of R50 000, and students must meet the academic requirement of 48%. Students studying towards their first qualification are prioritised due to limited funds.

Funding sources

Students are encouraged to apply to NSFAS’ new loan scheme for the missing middle if they qualify and can also register for potential discretionary funding. Other options for funding include student loans, bursaries and sponsorships. 

Wits offers a range of support services to students including transport services to and from residences and between campuses, primary healthcare services, an after-hour ambulance service in partnership with ER24, career counselling, academic and psychosocial support, clubs and societies, food security programmes, and initiatives to end period poverty.

Wits is doing all that it can within its means to assist students, be it through funding students, fundraising from various sectors, and administering financial aid, bursaries, and scholarships. The University will continue to work with the SRC, the public and private sector, donors and partners to assist students.

INSIDE EDUCATION

Staff Reporter

There Is A Lot Of Stereotyping In The Way Sciences Are Taught To Girls, says Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, the world-renowned biodiversity scientist and former first female President of Mauritius. 

Mom of two, Gurib Fakim, says increasingly on the continent, women and girls are not being encouraged to do the sciences, and this is for many reasons.

“For example, if you look at the [teaching] textbooks, there is a lot of stereotyping in the way that the sciences are being taught to girls. If you look at the infrastructures in schools, they don’t really cater for girls to stay. 

“These issues need to be looked into. We need more mentoring, more advocacy. We need to take the girls by the hand and make them believe that they can do anything. By building their confidence from a very young age, telling them that the sky’s the limit, it will lead to more in the sciences.”

When it comes to women in leadership, she said: “I have been advocating that we need to have better representation and there is a need to fix what we are all talking about – the ‘leaky pipe syndrome’ – which loses a lot of women in the pipeline, instead of bringing them along into systems and institutions. 

“But the onus is also on all Africans. People have to start asking the right questions. Politicians, leaders, policymakers in normal democracies, are all accountable to the people. But, and I am sorry for saying this brutally, we get the government that we deserve. The one we vote in. It’s your vote.”

Gurib Fakim said we all need to push gender be it in medicine, food, education, agriculture – in everything that we do in all sectors. “We cannot compromise on quality. This is the message that we need to spread across our continent. And to get to the required degree of excellence and quality, we need to empower our youth, more so our girls, with the right tools and education that will take them to the highest levels of excellency.”

INSIDE EDUCATION

Johnathan Paoli

THE National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has received an adverse finding from the Auditor-General’s (AG’s) for its 2021/2022 financial report; this emerged in Parliament on Wednesday when officials from both entities were deliberating on student funding for 2024 and on the Werksmans report on corruption allegations.

Officials from the AG’s office and NSFAS briefed parliament’s higher education portfolio committee and the AG representative Ignatius Fourie told the committee that the adverse audit stems from unreliable financial statements provided by NSFAS and said this was due to the inefficient systems and a lack of capacity within the scheme.

“We were not able to conclude on the accuracy of the information in the annual performance report. There’s insufficient measurement definitions and processes to collate and to report performance information. As a result of that we are then unable to do reliability testing, and to see if the figures that are being included are reliable,” Fourie said.

Fourie told the committee that when they audited the books of NSFAS, they found a number of mistakes and that a lot of data was not supported, and subsequently could not be audited, and that there were errors in the calculations.

Fourie said the adverse audit meant that there were a number of material misstatements in the financial statements and the figures in the financial statements were not reliable, nor were they fairly stated.

The office found that there was no reconciliation between what is owed by universities to NSFAS and what is owed by NSFAS to universities and that there was a delay in submitting the annual report by NSFAS to Parliament, which was finally tabled in December last year.

Fourie confirmed that in terms of addressing those matters, NSFAS started the process of reconciling between the institutions’ students data and their own data to determine any overall underpayments to students.

“There are various reasons why over and underpayments can happen, because they do payments on the original registration and if there are changes, like students changing their course, there could be an impact on that,” Fourie said.

INSIDE EDUCATION

Lerato Mbhiza

THE Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation says it is pressing ahead with the completion of the establishment of the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) campus in Giyani and opening the facility’s doors in 2025.

“The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Blade Nzimande, has become aware of the circulation of information on various social media platforms that are designed to create the false impression that the Minister is blocking or deliberately delaying the finalisation of the establishment of the Tshwane University of Technology Giyani campus,” the statement read on Tuesday.

This misrepresentation according to the department “This false impression, according to the department, is designed to create confusion, ferment chaos and disrupt the finalisation of this important project”.

“In the interest of transparency and concern for the future of the young people of Giyani and surrounding areas, the Minister wishes to provide the necessary clarification.”

The department has since clarified the decision to establish the Giyani campus under Nzimande’s leadership.

“This decision was informed by a number of strategic considerations, including the need to extend access to higher education for the young people of Giyani and surrounding areas. It then becomes utterly ridiculous and mischievous to suggest that the Minister is delaying or frustrating his very own initiative,” the statement read.

According to the department, the team commenced a feasibility study for the establishment of the TUT Giyani campus in May last year when it hit delays of more than five months from the Limpopo Department of Education.

However, according to the department, it is now working with the Limpopo MEC for Education, Lerule Ramakhanya, to address these obstacles.

The department announced that an agreement was reached in October 2023 after the Minister allocated R31.916 million to the project the previous month.

The department said it will carry out renovations and address deferred maintenance once the feasibility study is completed, within the allocated budget.

“TUT will now commence with the refurbishment and deferred maintenance in February this year, which will enable the first intake of students during the 2025 academic year.”

Meanwhile, the department said more funding will be allocated from 2024/25 onwards and over an anticipated six-year period.

“The funding to be allocated during 2024/25 will enable TUT to start with the planning of the major projects during the 2024 calendar year.

“As this work was unfolding, the departmental project team that was appointed by the Minister and is responsible for the implementation of this project has been engaging the relevant community, government and private sector stakeholders in Giyani, regularly.”

In addition, stakeholders have since been provided with regular feedback and together with the departmental project team agreed on a mechanism to resolve any concerns that may arise in implementing this project.

“It is also in the public interest that we should also state that there was a group of individuals who actively prevented the appointed technical team from carrying out its work. As stated, all this seems to be calculated to create confusion, ferment chaos and block the finalisation of this important project.

“Furthermore, it is the department’s experience that this project has regrettably attracted many interest groups, some of which seek to hijack the legitimate concerns of the community of Giyani and use these for their narrow and malicious ends.”

The department said it had also noted a malicious attempt to exploit the legitimate concerns of the community of Giyani to further what seems to be an established campaign to tarnish the name and reputation of the Minister, through lies and misinformation.

The department said it continues to enjoy the full support of TUT, the Limpopo provincial government and Ramakhanya.

“As the Department of Higher Education and Training, we remain committed to completing the establishment of the Tshwane University of Technology campus in Giyani.”

INSIDE EDUCATION

Inside Education Reporter

Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, accompanied by Free State Education MEC, Makalo Mohale, last week, met with Free State education officials at the Fezile Dabi District Office to pinpoint challenges hampering the smooth implementation and integration of ECD into the sector. 

Minister Motshekga said that quality drivers such as resources, infrastructure, training and centre registration remain some of the key areas of focus to build on an inclusive and holistic ECD space within the sector.

The Minister has been engaging with ECD practitioners as part of a mass registration drive since the latter part of 2023 as the Basic Education Sector continues to ramp up its efforts to ensure full-scale integration of ECD. 

In addition, the engagements serve at better capacitating forums and centres on what the landscape of ECD will look like as the five outcomes for ECD in 2024 are being identified and implemented. During the session, challenges hampering the smooth implementation and integration of ECD into the Sector, were discussed to find solutions to common challenges.

According to Dr Janeli Kotze, Acting Director for ECD, the Department has put measures in place to ensure that South African children have access to opportunities for learning through play, and to integrate with other departments to enable all children to have access to good health, adequate nutrition, safety and security, as well as responsive caregiving.

“Our goal as the Department is to coordinate the distribution of health and safety packs and play and learning materials to ensure key resources reach the most under-resourced early learning programmes. 

“Another focus will be on scaling up access to early learning programmes for 3 to 5-year-olds, targeting 170,000 children each year, by building new public private partnerships with social partners. 

“In addition, parental support interventions across departments, to ensure families with young children access support, and reaching 17,000 parents and caregivers in 2024. New mechanisms to drive progress against an agreed ECD Outcomes Framework must be put in place to improve ECD leadership and coordination across departments and spheres of government. 

“Government is using population-based planning to target resources and effort so that families in townships, informal housing and deep rural areas benefit most. Government is also launching a Social Compact for ECD to bring together the best efforts of the ECD sector, donors, business and social partners behind these ambitious goals,” explained Dr Kotze.

“The Department is implementing the mass registration drive, which will target 20,000 unregistered ECD programmes and provide them with conditional registration for one year. 

During this year, the DBE and municipalities will support ECD programmes to become compliant through the provision of pre-registration support packs, after which they will be required to apply for full registration.

“All ECD programmes will need to register according to legislation. This includes independent community-based programmes, private programmes, NPOs and micro-enterprises. A certificate with the DBE’s logo will be provided to ECD programmes to indicate that they have been conditionally/fully registered. However, registration does not equate to funding,” added Dr Kotze.

INSIDE EDUCATION