Higher Education & Training Quarter 4 performance; Certificate backlog: SITA & Umalusi progress report

The Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training met to receive reports from the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) on its 2017/18 fourth quarter performance. It was also briefed by the DHET, the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) and the Umalusi quality council on the status of students’ certification. The DHET provided details on the targets achieved by each of its branches, its budget performance, the major strategic and policy implications for each branch, and the reasons why certain targets had not been met. The Committee asked it about lecturer qualifications; the skills development levy; disruptions that had occurred in institutions due to the additional funding received from government; global collaborations to educate students; teacher education programmes; targets on research, postgraduate enrolment and the supervision of postgraduate students; qualification systems in the DHET; the assessment of certificates; the recruitment process in the Department; the labour force market intelligence programme and the status of the policy on higher education. The status of the certification by the Department, SITA and Umalusi of the National Certificate (Vocational), the General Education and Training Certificate:Adult Basic Education and Training, the National Technical Education and National N Diploma, were highlighted. This included the partnership efforts with college managements to clear the outstanding certificates for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Community Education and Training (CET) colleges to improve overall examination processes. The DHET’s brief also outlined the number of certificates processed and issued; the e-Query information technology (IT) system piloted in seven colleges in Gauteng, and progress on the procurement of the new DHET exam Integrated Information Technology System. The Committee commended the team for its progress on certification, and the fact that the DHET, SITA and Umalusi