 Bill approved for transfer of FET colleges PARLIAMENT’s justice committee yesterday approved the 18th amendment to the South African Constitution, which aims to transfer responsibility for further education and training (FET) colleges from provinces to the Department of Higher Education and Training. The change reflects President Jacob Zuma ’s decision in 2009 to split education between two departments. The committee approved the amendment on the strength of the African National Congress (ANC) parliamentary majority, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) opposing and the African Christian Democratic Party abstaining. It would allow the department to implement its plans to address the skills shortages facing the economy, the department’s director-general, Gwebinkundla Qonde, said yesterday. The change would result in the consolidation, alignment and proper co-ordination of the roles of FET colleges, which were a "crucial" part of the department’s plans to provide scarce skills for business, he said. A primary objective was to align the curricula of the colleges, Mr Qonde said. Martin Prew, director of the Council for Education Policy Development, said yesterday the proposed changes made "perfect sense" due to the difficulties caused by nine provinces overseeing 50 institutions. The centralisation of policy would greatly help the management and governance of the colleges, he said, and allow for greater cross-pollination of management and the transfer of crucial staff to where they were most needed. Mr Prew said the Department of Higher Education and Training should provide the same oversight role for FET colleges as it did with universities, which were capable of organising their own governance and provisions as a "mature" educational sector. The Congress of South African Trade Unions and Business Unity SA met yesterday and decided to work together to intensify artisan development by supporting the performance of FET colleges . During discussion of the Constitution 18th Amendment Bill, Inkatha Freedom Party MP Mario Ambrosini asked if the constitutional principle that the powers of the provinces could not be substantially reduced was not offended . ANC MP John Jeffery said his understanding was that the final constitution had to conform to the constitutional principles of the interim constitution, but that after the adoption of the final version in 1996, these principles fell away. Department of Justice deputy director-general Deon Rudman and DA MP Dene Smuts agreed that this was the case. Education analyst Graeme Bloch said most provinces had been slack in supporting FET colleges, and many found it difficult to fund them . "I expect the provinces will be glad to be rid of them," he said. Department of Justice official Eben Boshoff said the amendment was necessary to ensure that the provinces did not enact legislation that was in conflict with national legislation. Mr Jeffery said the bill was necessary to provide legal certainty and said if some of the provinces were working well "why have all the MECs agreed to this amendment". The committee approved the amendment on the strength of the ANC majority with the DA opposing and the African Christian Democratic Party abstaining. -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . |
