Varsities 'must answer to parly'

The National Health and Allied Workers Union tabled a resolution at the Cosatu congress that higher education institutions should be accountable to parliament.

"Public institutions to which government allocates funding annually in pursuit of national development goals must be accountable and required to report to parliament," the union's resolution read.

At the moment, each university is accountable to its own council, while the higher eduction minister is responsible for policy.

The South African Democratic Teachers Union and the National Union of Mineworkers said the public education sector should promote indigenous languages, and history.

The unions both believed that making history a compulsory subject would serve the national interest.

They also called for libraries to be u sed as a means of overcoming language barriers. -