College vocational training plan may fail because of lack of money: Nzimande

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The white paper for post-school education and training envisages expanding enrolments at colleges from about 700,000 to 2.5-million by 2030 to ease pressure on universities.

In a reply to a parliamentary question from the DA, Nzimande said that in the absence of an increase in the baseline funding for enrolments, his department would not achieve the targets set in the white paper and would have to adjust its enrolment targets from 2017 onwards to remain within budget.

Nzimande said the budget required to service the TVET college system for the 2017-18 financial year amounted to R19.8bn. There was an estimated shortfall of R10.7bn, based on the current baseline allocation of just more than R9bn. The estimated total shortfall over the 2017 period is about R43bn.

"In order to meet the target of 2.5-million enrolments by 2030, the system would require an additional programme funding allocation amounting to R60bn on top of the projected baseline amount of R13.5bn and an additional amount of R26.3bn on top of the projected baseline amount of R5.3bn for NSFAS [National Student Financial Aid Scheme] ... For both the programme and NSFAS funding, the total projected additional budget required by 2030 amounts to R86.3bn," Nzimande said.

The estimated cost of TVET colleges catering for 2.5-million enrolments by 2030 will require a minimum of 118 additional campuses at R67bn. There are currently 50 colleges operating on more than 264 campuses.

Progress had been made with the construction of 12 new TVET college campuses.

Source: Business Day