Pretoria - Members of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training have been urged to intervene and help find solutions to the challenges facing several Further Education and Training (FET) colleges across the country.
The management, student leaders and labour unions of more than 15 FETs have pleaded with the committee to help in finding long-lasting solutions to their resource challenges and ongoing conflicts, which compromise the culture of learning and teaching in the institutions.
According to Foster Mohale from the Parliamentary Communication Service, this forms part of the reports presented during the committee’s oversight visit to institutions in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng this week.
Mohale said the committee has raised concerns about reports and allegations of fraud, corruption, nepotism, racism, conflicts between management and staff, financial mismanagement, delays in allocation of government funding and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme of South Africa (NSFAS), leaking of exam question papers and inadequate student accommodation in several institutions of higher learning.
Committee chairperson Adv. Ishmael Malale urged the management of the institutions to disclose their financial positions, including funding from external sources, such as donors, in order for the committee to better understand and make informed recommendations to the relevant authorities.
“We urge them all to reveal their full financial positions, including funding and sponsors they receive from their partners and external donors… We can’t always blame the government for lack of funding and late allocation of funds, while we don’t know their financial reserves,” he said.
The committee has also called for transformation, diversity and zero tolerance for universities and colleges that withhold the academic results of students owing the institutions. - SAnews.gov.za
