Free tuition eyed to boost SA skills

Cape Town - The recent cabinet lekgotla agreed on a number of key resolutions aimed at addressing skills shortages, Deputy Basic Education Minister Enver Surty said on Tuesday.

The lekgotla had noted the mismatch between the supply and demand of skills for specific educational categories in terms of the expanded unemployment rate of labour market participants, he told a media briefing at parliament.

The labour market was also plagued by skills shortages that constrained the economy's growth potential, Surty said.

With this in mind, the lekgotla resolved on various key matters, including extending the provision of free education to cover students in other years of study should be examined fully.

Covering the full cost of study for (poor) students in scarce skills areas in all the years of study should be effected, but downgrading social science programme provision should be guarded against.

Surty said post-graduate students should be supported through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to develop a new generation of academics, in addition to National Research Foundation (NRF) initiatives.

Further, efforts to promote research and development in higher education institutions should be intensified.

Those who had completed their studies should pay back their loans so that other students could also be supported, he said.

Accommodation in the post school system needed attention as an area of urgent necessity, as only 18.5% of students was accommodated in university residences.

Government had to ensure that all infrastructure programmes were linked to skills training and workplace experiential learning. There was a need to closely monitor implementation of such skills and plans throughout the duration of these projects.

The Public Service Sector Seta (PSeta) should be strengthened and repositioned to play a more effective role in skills training for public service.

All government departments should pay skills levies, as required by law, and the intake of interns into the public service, municipalities, and state-owned enterprises should be expanded.

Training within the public service as the largest single employer also needed to be fully utilised, Surty said.