THE South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) and the European Union (EU) recently launched the EU’s R88-million contribution to SAQA for the development of South Africa’s education system and the review of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). The high-profile occasion was attended by Minister of Education Kader Asmal and was held at Alexandra Technical College.
Asmal said that through the funding from the EU, SAQA will contribute significantly to the reconstruction and development of South Africa’s education and training system. SAQA was established by an Act of Parliament in 1995. Its mission is to ensure the development and implementation of the NQF, which supports both a path of life-long learning for the individual and the development of the South African economy as a whole.
Asmal was quick to point out that both SAQA and the NQF should not become complacent as South Africa faces a severe shortage of professionals as well as craft and related trade workers. According to Asmal, out of a population of 37-million people, three million are skilled and highly skilled, seven million are unskilled and four million are unemployed in the economically active sector. This skills shortage, said Asmal, constrains economic growth.
Over 10-million people over the age of 15 need basic adult education and training in literacy and numeracy. Asmal announced that his department and the Department of Labour will soon convene a review team to look at the activities of the NQF and to review “our experiences with the intention to implement changes or improvements that may be necessary. Where there is confusion and a lack of clarity we hope to ensure that the NQF is more broadly understood and better interpreted.”
The review team, said Asmal, will also look at the purpose of matriculation examinations. The team will focus on integrated learning and urban and rural development programmes aimed at poverty alleviation. The team needs to answer the question: How is the NQF being refocused behind the government’s development initiatives?
The team will also be asked clarify to what extent the NQF remains outside of an inner circle of education and job opportunity, given the government’s commitment to the NQF as a vehicle for the promotion of equality in educational opportunities.
In his keynote address, Asmal said that he is optimistic that the next three years of funding by the EU to SAQA will cement the relationship between South Africa and the EU. Asmal said this relationship would enhance the promotion of democratic values which are of pressing global concern.
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, June 21, 2000.