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Date 11 November 2014
Submission to the Portfolio Committee (DHET)
INTRODUCTION
The AET Sector has been neglected and marginalised for a long time. In 2009 the then Department of Education was split into two Departments; Department of Higher Education and Training and Department of Basic Education. This split made AET a function of the Department of Higher Education. The current status quo in the provisioning of adult education and training across provinces is very diverse and is not contributing to the realisation of the constitutional mandate to provide basic education to adults in South Africa. The standardisation of conditions of service for AET educators in all provinces should be fast tracked to ensure stability in the sector.
It should be further noted that the Adult Educators Progressive Union fully supports the latest developments and strides taken by the department to transform PALCs into Community Learning Centres and the formation of Community Colleges. This will ensure that the following objectives are realised;
· Building of a democratic society
· Shaping and development of the local economy
· Making the adults to understand the world of Science and Technology.
· Provision of relevant skills in local economies.
Challenges and Recommendations during the migration Process
1. Dysfunctional PTTTs
PTTTs were formed in different provinces in 2012 to drive the migration of FET Colleges to DHET. Stakeholders from AET were brought on board in order to be capacitated to be able to deal with their own migration when time comes. These structures were abandoned by various provinces because the focus was much more on FET Colleges. The White Paper on Post School Education and the Report by Ministerial Task Team called for the formation of Community Colleges. It was further recommended that the function should be shifted from Provincial Education Departments to DHET. For the FET Colleges PTTT were actively engaged and disseminated the required information to the stakeholders on time. The present AET Directorate in Provinces seems to undermine the importance of this structure. We recommend the following
· Revival of PTTTs in all Provinces to deal specifically with migration of AET.
· Structures, and stakeholders that have interest in adult education as well as structures that represent adult educators (formally and non- formally) should form part of these PTTTs.
· Piloting Centre managers should be tasked to coordinate these structures since the secondment of Provincial and District staff is not guaranteed.
· Terms of reference of these PTTTs should be clearly defined.
2. Mergers of PALCs to form envisaged Community Colleges
Mergering of centres should be informed by local demographics and local stakeholders should be utilised during mergering process. Each province, district and local area is unique in defining its community.
Mergering process should begin during the opening of the academic year to avoid inconveniences that might be caused by the process.
3. Current Administration in Provinces
The administration of AET and Migration in Provinces and district level is executed with a lot of resistance from officials because of the uncertainties and insecurities .Other Directors and key officials have opted to remain in the DBE and they are silent with their option of choice. In such conditions they are not proactive on migration issues thus causing further delays. Some have abandoned their responsibilities and do not have sufficient time to assist in migration.
We propose the following;
· The Piloting Centre Managers should be tasked to coordinate migration issues in their respective provinces.
· They should intensify and revive PTTT intended for AET migration.
· Facilitate the establishment of local Transitional committees who will be tasked to consult CGBs and other local structures to prepare for migration.
· Consult interdepartmental structures, NGOs and other role players in order to facilitate the establishment of Community Learning Centres as they will be a need for sharing of resources for infrastructural needs in the beginning.
· Coordinate merger of Public Adult Learning Centres in February 2015.
4. Organogram
In some provinces AET does not have designated officials. The districts are poorly resourced and dysfunctional. There is no proper monitoring and support. The vacant funded posts for SES’s and DCES’s are not filled or where filled are used as dump sites for displaced officials within the department. This has a detrimental effect in the carrying or fulfilling of the departmental mandate to eradicate illiteracy and develop skills for South African needy masses.
The department should look at seconding current AET educators who had acquired skills in various disciplines within AET. These range from expertise in Item development, marking and moderation processes, administration of examinations, liaison with different stakeholders at various levels. The deployment of these educators in these positions will not have major budgetary implications as will they will be seconded with their current notches for the time being whilst the conditions of service issues are being dealt with in the bargaining chambers. This temporal secondment should facilitate migration issues at local level, consult CGBs, SGBs and intergovernmental structures in order to lobby resources for temporal accommodation of District based community learning centres whilst the minister is still working with pilot Community Colleges and the issue of infrastructure is not being finalised.
5. Conditions of Service for AET educators
Conditions of Service for AET educators vary from Province to Province. The migration brings about mixed feelings, uncertainty and insecurities to most educators across provinces. Based from these experiences the sector once experienced a massive exodus of educators to the main stream education in search of greener pastures. The current AET Educator fraternity is in possession of qualifications and vast experience necessary to realise the departmental objectives. They have accumulated a lot of experience in Adult Learning and Teaching which will be meaningful in the envisaged Community Learning Centres. They should be redeployed according to their skills in various Community Learning Centres.
The department should consider not employing external personnel to vacant posts but utilise the existing expertise and experience accumulated by educators over the number of years of loyal service to the department and sector.
On- going professional development of AET educators should be considered in order to professionalise the sector. The draft conditions of service for AET and TVET lecturers should be finalised in order to achieve stability within the sector. The current employment conditions of AET educators if utilised will accumulate liability for DHET. In most provinces 37% had not been paid in lieu of benefits as contained in PSCBC Resolution 1of 2007. Most educators do not enjoy any leave entitlements.
6. Funding
The draft policy calls for “The funding norms for Community Colleges will, during the transitional period from PEDs to the DHET, be the funding convention as currently in operation in each Province”. Again on this aspect there are huge variances from Province to Province. AET Centres are not adequately resourced and funded. Funds are always shifted to do other activities not related to Adult education and training. We therefore recommend that the funds allocated for the programme should be ring fenced to avoid shifting.
7. Involvement of Stakeholders at local level
We support the call by Minister of Higher Education and Training, in terms of
sections 41A (b) and 41C (a) (m) of the Further Education and Training Colleges, 2006 (Act No.16 of 2006) intention of consulting Centre Governing Bodies (CGBs) and informal governance structures in fulfilling the function of Centre Governing Bodies on the conversion and merger of Public Adult Learning Centres (PALCs).
We further recommend that local stakeholders should be strongly utilised during the process of establishing these Community Colleges. This will ensure involvement of all the stakeholders concerned in decision making and make education and training a societal issue.
CONCLUSION
We believe that if some of the proposals mentioned above are effected or modified to fit the current changes within the sector will see the turnaround in the Adult Education and Training Centres.