The North West Department of Education this week came clean on the state of adult basic education and training (Abet) in the province — and promised to tackle the problems that beset it.
A report released by a department-appointed commission revealed no proper administrative systems in place, no proper financial records and no regular audits, budgets or business plans. Districts do not have monitoring mechanisms because of a lack of transport. Corruption is rife.
But plans are already under way to change things — the reason the commission was established. Says Pitso Tolo, provincial MEC for Education: “The department took an initiative to institute research and investigation into the operations of the Abet centres with the purpose of strengthening key deliverables and enhancing skills development in the province.”
Technikon South Africa, under Mike Lawrence, conducted the study while PricewaterhouseCoopers audited the finances.
The enrolment figures of Abet learners as well as the number of centres suggest why the MEC was worried: enrolment for last year was 406260, with 2890 tutors in 378 centres — a heavy burden for a financially strapped province.
Although the report notes that “donor funding was used for intended purposes”, there was considerable and noticeable damage on the finance front. Of the R47,3-million budgeted, the department had to inject a further R11,2-million as the budget was overspent, thus pushing the expenditure to R58,5-million.
Duplicates of payments, the report says, amounted to R7,5-million. Payments were also made to people with different names but the same identity documents. Some tutors were paid every month without proper verification, while others were teaching in the mainstream and costing the department more than R22785. On the other hand, 771 tutors did not come to fetch their salary payments; this saved the department R168 972,43.
The report drew views and input from a wide range of regional roleplayers, including the media, traditional leaders, the South African NGO Coalition, universities involved in Abet programmes, business, emergent Further Education and Training centres and educators, and Abet practitioners.
Terms of reference range from locating provincial capability within emergent regionalisation and transformation process plans to providing a directory on the basic skills of all Abet service providers within the province and — perhaps more importantly — ensuring the sustainable legal basis upon which effective delivery could be accelerated and enhanced.
To nip some of the anomalies in the bud, the department has devised criteria that include: a centre should have more than 100 learners with a tutor-learner ratio of 1:20 before it can be registered; centres must have bank accounts and physical addresses; learners must be at least 16 years old; and no teachers from the mainstream may be employed.
However, all was not gloomy. The report named as models worthy of emulation the districts of Mabopane, Klerksdorp, Rustenburg and Potchefstroom.
What steps did the department take to address some of these glaring weaknesses? According to the report, it put the following measures in place:
- Cancelled the flat rate whereby payments for tutors were deposited into their accounts after they had filled in relevant forms;
- Provided 10 officials with cars to carry out monitoring and administration;
- Outsourced the management of the Abet payroll to PricewaterhouseCoopers as an interim measure and will appoint a director whose responsibilities will be to implement recommendations.
The department will also implement internal criminal investigations to deal with allegations of financial mismanagement and other malfeasance. This will include verifying every payment through the use of the Persal system and then identifying those involved and the money owed.
Those discovered to have defrauded the department will face dismissal, while others will be dealt with in terms of specific Acts that govern their employment, for example the Employment Act 76 of 1998 as amended.
Overpayments to tutors will be recovered through legal processes.
For its part, the department has committed itself to “pumping more resources to transform them [Abet centres] into centres of excellence” and that there will be “stricter monitoring and control mechanisms” in place.