Higher education sector struggling to achieve skills development & training goals: AG

The department of higher education and its entities are not achieving their core objectives which are related to skills development and training.

Out of 1,443 targets planned for the financial year which ended in March 2024, 234 were not met, the majority of which were related to the core objectives of the sector, including skills training and infrastructure projects.

Among the department’s entities are the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), Sector Education and Training Authorities (Setas) universities, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and community colleges.

The auditor-general’s office told parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education that the targets have a direct impact on citizens, and when they are not being met, those responsible should be held accountable and face the consequences of missed targets.

Only 53% of the department’s targets had been met, 89% for the Setas and 66% for other entities.

The AG’s Zamahlangu Mditshwa said prolonged approval processes disrupt the scheduling and rollout of training programmes which leads to gaps in skill development.

The delays caused by implementing partners result in inefficient execution of projects, affecting the overall effectiveness of the post-school education and training system and that inadequate co-ordination results in missed opportunities to address critical skill shortages and inefficient use of resources.

While Setas and colleges spent their allocated funds, Mditshwa said the AG could not find proof that work was done. This was due to lack of co-ordination between finance and projects, she said.

MPs heard that the entities and institutions incurred R50m in fruitless and wasteful expenditure, up from R6.1m in 2022/23. Setas were the key contributors to this.

The main reasons for fruitless and wasteful expenditure included international travel and S&T expenditure incurred by employees not related to the mandate, payments made to deceased students, cancellation of contracts after paying and where no services were provided by the supplier and payments relating to cancelled contracts where no training took place.

The entities/institutions were also found to have paid salaries into incorrect accounts, stipends not paid to students, grants paid for students not employed by stakeholders, overstatement of claim amounts for training intervention and payments made to service providers for goods/services not received.

The entities’ irregular expenditure amounted to R243m, and the AG expected it to be even higher as entities such as NSFAS and some Setas’ figures were not included as their audits were not finalised.

Irregular expenditure is a result of noncompliance with legislation, Setas' questionable budgeting processes and failure to follow proper supply chain management processes were the top contributors to the expenditure.

While higher education and training deputy minister Buti Manamela acknowledged that considering the expected returns on investment, the performance of his department and the sector it oversees could have been better, he also explained that the department presided over 100 entities and institutions, and more than 90% of the budget appropriated to the department is transferred to these institutions.

It was therefore not abdication of responsibility by the department, but while the department had its internal targets, there were targets whose responsibility lay with the entities including TVET colleges, Setas and universities.

Manamela said the government was finalising the 2024-29 Medium Term Development Plan.

“Like any department, my department is working hard to ensuring alignment of its work with the strategic priorities identified by the government of national unity (GNU), which are:

• ensuring inclusive growth & job creation;
• reducing poverty and tackling the high cost of living; and
• building a capable, ethical and developmental state.”

He said that, considering the country's socioeconomic challenges, inclusive growth and job creation are an apex priority.

“We have started the preparatory work to position the department and the entire PSET sector to deliver on this task. Last month, we engaged with key stakeholder including student formations, governance and leadership structures of our universities, TVET and CET colleges, to reflect on the challenges facing the sector as a whole.

Some of the critical areas that the government will be giving attention include a review of the size and shape of the sector.

“We note for instance that the TVET sector has experienced significant successes over the years with improved quality of education and training, including the promotion of entrepreneurship and job creation among key achievements,” he said.

However, the fiscus baseline is not sufficient to provide adequate funding to enable to achievement of the National Development Plan (NDP) target of 2.5-million enrolments.

If the NDP target was to be achieved, an additional R356bn would be needed for the TVET sector.

To improve the quality of provision, Manamela said the department will strengthen the governance and administration of the entire post-school education landscape.

“It is undesirable that three universities — Vaal University of Technology, University of Fort Hare and Mangosuthu University of Technology — were placed under administration in the past five years.

NSFAS was also put under a second administrative intervention within five years of the conclusion of the previous intervention.

“It is for this reason that I intend to implement a targeted programme to improve the governance of all our institutions and entities in the sector.”

The department had spent 99.9% of its R130.3bn in the 2023/24 financial year. Its annual appropriation for the 2024/25 financial year is R137.5bn.