Tsiba – pay as you grow

It’s all very well to change the political system, and reform educational policy in theory. But enabling everyone to really compete in our supposedly free and fair economy means giving real business education to those who can’t afford to buy their skills. TSiBA leaps into the gap in 2005, to provide a sustainable source of learning.

“Once you have a business grounding, it doesn’t matter what you want to do. If you want to become an artist when you leave here, you have that space,” says Gia Polovin one of four executive directors of a new Cape Town college of business administration, TSiBA.

Her approach to what TSiBA graduates will do with their diplomas four years from now may appear romantic at first glance, but it matches the holistic approach to education at the core of TSiBA’s educational policy.

TSiBA is inspired by CIDA (Community and Individual Development Association) and offers the CIDA diploma in Business Administration. The CIDA approach is well known in South Africa now, an example of how pragmatic educators and business can both benefit from partnerships.

A billboard at the entrance to Cape Town’s airport says: “So you have an MBA? Big deal.” Sure, it’s only an advert for Donald Trump’s reality show The Apprentice. But every episode has the same valid message buried in all the reality TV nonsense: it’s not just what you know, or even who you know. Who you are really matters too.

So the TSiBA education attempts to educate the whole person, by not just teaching hard skills, but also developing initiative, marketing, people management, and vision.

TSiBA got started when Gia met CIDA CEO Dr Taddy Blecher at a conference, three years ago. “I got terribly excited about the CIDA model, and decided I want to get involved and give something back.” She completed her post graduate degree in Enterprise Management and took a job at CIDA, working on Strategic Projects. She gained the practical knowledge she needed to start TSiBA and has spent this year preparing for the first intake, operating on seed capital donated from the Shuttleworth Foundation. Mark Shuttleworth sees TSiBA as “a new kind of institution” with potential to become “a global phenomenon.”

Gia runs TSiBA with three executives – Adri Marais (Msc, MBA), Graham Lashbrooke (Hons in IT), and Executive Director Leigh Meinert (BA).

Gia found the word “tsiba” in her Xhosa/ English dictionary in December 2003. ‘We were looking for a name to register our Section 21 company under and, inspired by John Gilmour’s LEAP School for Science and Maths I wanted to know what the approximation for the word ‘jump’ was,” She says in an e-mail newsletter. “Only later did we realise that ‘TSiBA’ could be an acronym for the Tertiary School in Business Administration and only much later did we learn that it means ‘to know’ in Sotho.”

TSiBA shares premises with LEAP, a school for gifted, financially underprivileged high school students that may later become a feeder school for TSiBA.

The Syllabus

Of course, you do need hard, specific skills to match your commonsense, imagination, drive and so on. TSiBA tries to address this skills gap, in a way that develops the whole student and not divorce knowledge from human skills. In this way, they provide what Gia calls “Scaffolding” for future learning.

TSiBA teach a “fully creative” approach to business in the management component of the course. Management is not just of a business or project but self management. They try to teach students to understand themselves and their career paths.

In an attempt to flatten the playing field for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, the TSiBA course, like the CIDA course, is four years long instead of three, and includes bridging courses, and skilling up in vital areas like English. As many lecturers are volunteers from companies, TSiBA couldn’t afford to provide home language education even if they wanted to. “You can’t teach someone about accountancy if they don’t know basic English,” Gia says.

Entrepreneurship is another a key component of TSiBA’s approach. “We try to link Entrepreneurship in everywhere,” Gia says. We do a simulations and play business games to simulate a real world environment.” Encouraging Entrepreneurship will include allowing students to start their own businesses, and bringing what Gia calls “entrepreneurial heroes” – successful businesspeople – in to advise them.

Self confidence is built not only through self knowledge, but also through leadership and community development. Students are involved in campus societies, and they also go back to their communities to teach others what they have learned.

TSiBA and CIDA

So how does TSiBA relate to CIDA, what is the reason for the choice of a different name, and what standards are being met?

Headed by four executive directors and run on a businesslike but non-profit basis, TSiBA is a modified model of its inspiration. Students will graduate with a CIDA diploma in Business Administration, newly accredited by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) and the Council for Higher Education (CHE), and provisionally registered by the South African National Department of Education. This CIDA qualification is also benchmarked against University of Cape Town equivalents.

CIDA has been going for five years and is now established as a respected and inspirational example of what education could become in responsible partnership with business sponsors. This year, the first set of 83 students graduated in Johannesburg; 70% them are employed, and CIDA’s employment agency, The Personal Concept, is assisting the remainder to get placed.

While retaining strong ties to CIDA, the TSiBA executive wanted to establish TSiBA separately as a Cape Town institution, with its own identity in the eyes of both the learners and potential sponsors.

TSiBA seek out platinum corporate partners in the way CIDA did before them, asking the corporates to donate money, time or resources. The corporates earn either Silver, Gold or Platinum partnership status, depending how much they contribute annually over a four year period – R625 000 yearly, 5 000 000 yearly, or R10 000 000 yearly.

In return for their contributions, the corporates benefit through tax breaks, access to top interns, scholarships for their employees and their employees’ children, and grassroots access to market their products or brand. British American Tobacco recently signed as a Platinum partner.

TSiBA has also been selected as one of the first “destination institutions” of the Mandela-Rhodes scholarships.

TSiBA need money to support their plans for the first intake of 80 matriculants in 2005. But they also welcome donations of equipment, volunteer lecturers.

Gia says they’ll expand only at the rate they can afford, to avoid some of the teething problems experienced by CIDA, who now are being forced to split their campus to accommodate the rapidly growing numbers of students. “They grew too fast,” she says. Their premises in Waverley Business Park in Mowbray, which they currently share with LEAP, is big enough to allow for expansion. As she walks me through the building, Gia shows me an empty loft “That could become another activity room” and an empty room “We’ll put more computers in there when we get them.”

Thorough testing of students during the selection process ensures students are capable of coping with their studies. This alternative admissions process evaluates ability, not just existing skills. A compulsory foundation year compensates for the shortfalls of South Africa’s ailing new education system, providing essential scaffolding to aid later learning.

Gia explains: “This is all about saying ‘Yes, maybe you didn’t have a maths teacher, but you have the potential, the ability, to learn.”

TSiBA differentiate themselves from CIDA’s model with an innovative new “pay it forward” scheme, whereby students at TSiBA commit to sponsor a student once they graduate and begin earning money.

The teaching of skills is integrated with financial efficiency and practical learning. So the tuck shop in the recreation hall will be used as an entrepreneurial practical project, and students will be encouraged to start up other small businesses on campus. They learn other skills by helping to run the campus – doing administrative work in the offices. More menial tasks like cleaning are also done by the students themselves. Part of “paying forward” also includes teaching skills in their communities.

By encouraging a culture of ownership by the students and responsibility to TSiBA, Gia and her colleagues hope to avoid common campus problems like crime. She says in her experience of CIDA, “Students will do anything to help run the campus, and that’s part of the model” and that although an access card security system is in place, there’s a very low crime rate because there’s just so much goodwill.

Facing Challenges

If it seems too perfect, maybe it isn’t so. TSiBA will face many challenges when it comes to structuring the way it teaches students, and supporting them in their studies.

This goes beyond the obvious issues of funding studies. Many of the problems encountered by CIDA in their first years may be the same ones TSiBA faces once they’re up and running.

CIDA graduate Elihle Nguli, who is now Marketing Manager for the SA Excellence Foundation, sheds some light on what these might be. The most important one being expectations. The word “Campus” in itself conjures up Americanised images of rolling lawns, gracious (or at least big) buildings, and opulence. CIDA’s first building was dingy and small, and even their new Johannesburg premises, donated by Investec, no longer contain them and are far from comparable to those at Wits University..

Students do learn to take pride in this difference though. “When we got there it was the opposite of what we’d expected. But it was fun. The atmosphere of the students then was very united, and we wanted to make something of it,” Elihle says.

Many of Elihle’s fellow students dropped out of the course partly as a result of accommodation problems – students couldn’t afford to stay in town or the suburbs of Johannesburg.

Differing skills levels may also play havoc with the curriculum. Although some of her fellow students were dropping out of college, Elihle says bluntly that some things learned in the bridging year were a “waste of time”.

“The courses that I did at high school meant that many of the things covered in the bridging classes were my major subjects that I did at school.” However, she adds, other “soft” skills she gained, taught in what is now termed the “foundation year”, were very valuable to her.

Soft skills courses are not the only way self confidence is taught – some issues are more about basic self worth. “Women in particular often see themselves as inferior,” Gia says, “So we have to deal with gender issues, which we do partly through the medium of HIV/Aids.” TSiBA also employs a full time counsellor.

Students are also supported in educating their parents as to the value of getting a degree. “Parents say to their children ‘Why don’t you rather go get a job so you can support us.’”

TSiBA will have open days so that the parents can see what their children are involved in. “Once parents know the benefit of getting a degree and a job or being an entrepreneur, it obviously helps,” Gia says.

Apart from all the economic benefits, it also allows young adults who are cut off from opportunity to experience “college”. Looking back, says Elihle “It was the greatest four years of my life. I have learned to be self reliant and learned what I was capable of. I was blessed enough to find that out while I was still young.”

Anyone wishing to donate money, equipment or their skills should contact Gia Polovin 021 4481497.

TSiBA’s Executive

Adri Marais (MSc, MBA) is in charge of the Education division. She’s an experienced educator, having run a private college, and worked in IT training. She’s responsible for handling accreditation, the academic advisory council, educational policies and quality assurance and building a curriculum that integrates all the components of TSiBA’s educational philosophy.

Gia Polovin is head of Business Information Technology. She has a post graduate diploma in Enterprise Management in addition to her experience at CIDA, so she’s also in charge of Marketing and Relationship Management – getting platinum partners, sponsors and strategic partners on board as well as drawing in volunteers from the private and tertiary educational sector. And she handles media relations too.

Graham Lashbrooke has a B.Comm (Hons) in IT and has been professionally involved in entrepreneurial tertiary training and IT since 1981. He’s in charge of operations – finances, the IT systems, business plans and so on. Through Graham’s contacts, Oceana covers the rent for the school’s premises, which TSiBA temporarily shares with a similar project aimed at gifted, financially disadvantaged high school students.

Leigh Meinert is the exective director of TSiBA has a BA in Value and Policy Studies, and has worked for CIDA for two years, focussing on youth development in the non-profit sector. She’s in charge of PR and Student developments, which includes recruiting students and building relationships with “feeder” schools.

Their children’s education is a question that consumes the time and money of many parents to a degree that often astonishes and horrifies non-parents. But even non-parents can usually understand why this parental obsession is so important.

It is no exaggeration to say that education is the key to personal freedom and empowerment. A good education provides the freedom to choose a fulfilling job, the freedom to exploit one’s talents to the full, and the freedom to contribute fully to society.

But the state also usually feels that it has a role to play in teaching the up-and-coming workforce, and across the world the respective role of parents and the state in education is a matter of constant debate. In democratic countries, the right of parents to determine many aspects of education tends to be solidly entrenched.

South African law allows for a fairly high level of parental involvement in public schools through governing bodies. The South African Schools Act requires that governing bodies “promote the best interests of the school and strive to ensure its development through the provision of quality education for all learners at the school”. Among other things, they are entitled to set language policy and admissions policy, set rules on religious observances, determine a code of conduct and select teachers, principals and other staff.

The effect of this law has been mixed, and large discrepancies in the wealth and education of parents have resulted in very different success rates for school governing bodies.

Parents tend to be actively involved with schools when they are highly literate and willing to assert their rights. So in schools where parents are neither of these, parental involvement is often non-existent at best and at its worst, actively destructive. There have, for example, been a few cases where parents have insisted on the appointment of unqualified teachers or the removal of competent ones.

But at the same time, a high level of parental involvement and self-governance is at the core of the success of many of South Africa’s best schools. Parent bodies offer their skills to schools in countless ways, from helping with the accounts, to maintaining buildings, to raising funds. Governing bodies also concern themselves with determining and maintaining the character and ethos of a school.

It is true to say that without this close interaction between parents and the school, many South African schools would find it impossible to continue offering a world-class education.

So a proposed amendment to the South African Schools Act, which will probably come before Parliament next year, is raising the ire of both schools and their governing bodies.

Essentially, it is the skills of teachers and principals that make a school. So the Education Laws Amendment Bill goes straight to the heart of the powers of school governing bodies by threatening to strip them of their free hand in deciding whom to employ.

School governing bodies, opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA) and some teacher organisations are gearing up to fight this amendment tooth and nail, and if it is not resolved to the satisfaction of these organisations in Parliament, many are suggesting that it will end up in court.

Under the current law, teachers apply top the provincial education department for vacant posts. But governing bodies short-list the applicants, carry out interviews and make a final choice to recommend to the Department. The department almost invariably ratifies this recommendation.

In terms of the amendment bill, governing bodies will be obliged to submit a list of five candidates to the provincial superintendent-general. The Bill gives the Head of the Provincial Education Department blanket powers to reject a governing body`s recommendation out of these five, and appoint an alternative applicant, without having to give reasons. The provincial education department, rather than the school and its governing body, will become responsible for teacher appointments.

Deputy director-general of education, Duncan Hindle, says that the bill is aimed at ensuring that teachers are deployed “more widely” and “scarce resources are more fairly distributed”. SADTU articulates its objectives more bluntly. According to Jon Lewis, Sadtu’s media officer, the bill is needed to break down racial barriers. “Some school governing bodies have ignored equity – the staff is still white”.

If the Department of Education is concerned about the quality of teaching in some schools, it is not hard to understand why. The reality of South Africa is that there are simply not enough good teachers to go round. The former model C schools can generally offer more amenable working conditions, and often higher salaries, than township schools. So they are better able to attract the good teachers.

Poor township schools get caught up in a cycle of failure. Capable and enthusiastic teachers who are willing to join schools which are accustomed to low pass rates, poor attendance and apathy are few and far between. But the fate of these schools is unlikely to improve until they can find such teachers.

Although pass rates in schools in townships are better than they were during apartheid, the gap between these schools and the former model C schools is still, with some exceptions, enormous.

Without doubt South Africa needs to bring an end to this depressing scenario. But many are questioning whether such heavy-handed intervention in schools that are working well is not just a recipe for uniform mediocrity.

Many of the bill’s opponents believe that the argument about diversity is hiding another agenda. If a more representative spread of teachers across the country were really the objective, they say, there are other mechanisms could be used to better effect.

Former Western Cape MEC for Education, the DA’s Helen Zille, says that while there may be problems with some governing bodies, “You don’t deal with the problem by introducing measures that undermine functional bodies. Some of these bodies have been responsible for the best public schools in the country”.

If it is passed, she says, it will precipitate a flight of middle class parents from the public school system and “we will end up with a two-tier education system: independent schools for the elite and public schools for the poor”.

Zille suggests that the real objective of the amendment bill is not to ensure racial equity but to “drive the government’s redeployment and transformation process on the basis of ANC policies and ideology that have nothing to do with educational criteria”.

The headmaster of Edgemead High School, Malcom Venter, backs her up. In a letter to the Cape Times last month he asserted that the government’s claim to want to address racial imbalances is simply an excuse to mask their real motive – “to give more power to the state and, accordingly, diminish the power of parents”.

The DA argues that if the government really wanted to improve matric pass rates in poor schools, it would be dealing directly with the substandard quality of teaching they offer. Rather than spreading out the good teachers more widely, it would be making more teachers teach better.

Recent research by the HSRC into science and maths pass rates suggests much the same. The HSRC says that in the past ten years, there has been massive state and private sector-funded investment in teacher development and skills upgrading programmes. South African teachers attend more professional development courses than in most other countries. Yet, it says, we are not seeing the expected changes in classrooms.

The HSRC says that “our gaze should shift to the providers of these programmes. Should we ask them to account for the training provided to teachers?”

The National Professional Teachers Association warns that the effect of this proposed legislation could be an exodus of parents from governing bodies. It would take away a key reward that motivated them to take on the heavy responsibilities of serving on those bodies.

“An important part of the Schools Act is that the community participates in selecting teachers it believes will serve the community best”, it says. “The parent body is vitally involved in identifying the personality and the skills that are needed”.

The deadline for public comment on the bill has now passed. But this doesn’t mean there is no more space for contributions. Opposition parties are gathering submissions from schools and the public, and these will be used to guide their arguments once the bill comes before Parliament next year. There will also be the opportunity for formal submissions by interested parties when the Portfolio Committee on Education examines the bill. So concerned parents, teachers and schools have ample opportunity to have their say.

This bill is showing every sign of becoming the sizzling education issue of 2005 . And as the Department of Education has learned to its cost in the past, the power of parents is not to be underestimated.

As literacy and numeracy projects in SA are gaining momentum and succeeding in changing the lives of thousands of uneducated South Africans, they’re uncovering the unique needs of different communities, forcing the business of adult education to switch gears and become even more pro-active in their pursuit of eradicating debilitating educational backlogs.It was in 1985 – while Nothembi Mkhwebane was still a domestic worker – that she started to feel her own voice rising inside her.

“This is how my problem started. My talent is singing; that is what I do. I wanted to sing and went to the record company to record my music. But I could not read or write. They made me sign there, and I signed with an X. After the record came out, I started to worry. I did not know what was happening. They played my music on the radio but there was no money.”

She told a friend about her growing concern and he pointed her to Jenny Neser’s night school, at St Frances Church in Pretoria. Nothembi grabbed her album, her only tangible outcome of her recordings and gave it to Jenny. “She wanted to see my contract, but I never got a copy.” This is when things started changing for Nothembi.

Legal investigations followed, and her music was registered with SAMRO, so as to at least ensure royalties for the songs played on the radio. But more than that, for the first time in her life, Nothembi went to school. “There I learned how to write my name for the first time.”

It’s almost twenty years later, and the voice on the other side of the telephone line is beaming, happy, confident. Nothembi doesn’t sound even close to her 50 years while she tells me about her career, which includes an impressive line-up of performances in countries like Brazil. Germany, Portugal and Australia. She laughs when she admits she’s not quite sure that she’s really 50, since “those days, we didn’t really know much about these things.”

It seems not to matter much compared to what she’s learned in the meantime. “I learnt about the business of music, and I organise everything myself.” Now a top international singer, known as the “Queen of Ndebele Music”, this lady was Tourism Ambassador for SA in 1998 and received a SAMA award for the best Ndebele music in 1999. And she’s the proud owner of her own record company, impressively turning the tables on her first experience with a record company.

“I am very proud,” she says. “And I am happy because I can now do MY stuff. This is my stuff.”

It’s amazing how contagious momentum can be, especially when it concerns getting an education. While Nothembi went to night school, her daughter was in standard 5, and her mother’s zeal was infectious. Her daughter became a mechanical engineer and her son is a qualified teacher and singer.

And then Nothembi burst into joyful song, giving me a private telephone concert, all the way from Mamelodi. Clear, confident, and beautiful. I listened, but embarrassingly, I could not understand a word.

As the last notes died off, and as if she could read my discomfort, she piped up chirpily: “My dear, that means ‘wake up women, our freedom is now, women of SA lets come together to build this nation’”.

You’re never too old to learn.

Empowering Adults in SA

When it comes to literacy and numeracy in SA, it is impossible to ignore just how great the divide is between those who can “see”, and those who can’t. And because of this divide, it’s even more difficult for those who can to understand how frustrating modern life can be without the tools you need to survive in it.

For what we perceive as even the most basic of jobs, you need some level of literacy. A taxi driver needs to be able to read road signs. A mother needs to be able to read labels to buy groceries – and have some numeracy skills to make sure that she gets the right change.

“Most of us grew up in houses where our mothers wrote lists for things like shopping. It seems like such a small thing, but it’s something that we take for granted. We’re dealing with people who’ve never had a pen or paper in their homes. And if something like a book ever managed to make its way to them, it’s exhibited as an ornament on a top shelf,” says Yvonne Eskell-Klagsbrun, Manager: Fundraising and Communications at Project Literacy.

She adds that some of the most common problems with which illiterate South Africans have to cope, are linked to some of the most crucial social services aimed to help them. Consider for instance obtaining a child grant when you’re illiterate. And an ID document – which you will need to apply for the child grant. What seems like a simple irritating procedure to most of us, can become a nightmare for someone who can’t read the posters and documentation surrounding grants and ID documents, let alone fill out these forms.

And think how daunting it must be to walk into a pharmacy not knowing which pills are which, and not being able to distinguish between the pills in your medicine cabinet. You can’t read the labels, and you can’t read the pamphlet listing all the side-effects and precautions. Scary.

Being Inclusive in a Fragmented Society

There’s no denying it; the challenges are considerable. Apart from the fact that there will always be a need for more funds, to do more work and reach more people, the fact that our society is so deeply fragmented, calls for a variety of projects to address the educational, economic and social needs of different groups of people.

Impossible? It’s happening. In the 30 years of the existence of Project Literacy (the project started out with night schools), they’ve grown to a professional organisation targeting the specific needs of communities, fulfilling the promise in their mission statement:

“Our mission is to deliver a wide range of Adult Basic Education and Training programs to educationally disadvantaged adults by way of adult education centres, teacher training, curriculum development and community outreach.”

Lesedi is a case in point. This Shoshanguve-based project hosts an agricultural program linked to Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET). Learners not only get the opportunity to earn an income from the vegetable garden too, but the funds generated also helps to pay the centre’s rent and water bills.

“We often find that educators in the rural areas see these projects as a vocation. In rural areas, the drive to become literate is linked to the drive to become skilled. The urban motivation is somewhat different. There the drive is for learners to obtain certificates to enable them to go to college etc and obtain further education,” says Yvonne.

Another part of our fragmented society that is often forgotten, is the vast amounts of illiterate inmates in our prisons. In the words of Marti Narey, Britain’s Commissioner for Correctional Services: “If you cannot read and write, you cannot get a job, so you commit crime, are released from prison, and go back to crime because you cannot find a job because you cannot read and write.” Addressing this need, the Department of Correctional Services is providing prisons nationwide with Project Literacy’s ABET learning materials, and has ABET educators in its service to teach inmates.

You have to take heart when you realise that fragmented and diverse as our society might be, so are the forces of goodwill, addressing these diverse needs. Like the ENABLE Programme, run jointly by the Natal ABE Support Agency (NASA) and the Association for the Physically Challenged (APC) in KwaZulu-Natal. They boast four Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) programs in the province, and work closely with local disabled people’s and parents’ organisations.

Family Ties

One of the biggest problems about adult illiteracy, is that it breeds illiteracy. Children growing up in illiterate homes start out with a backlog. This too is something that has been recognised in the sculpting of programmes tailor-made for the specific needs of our communities. The Family Literacy Project has been operating in 16 sites in dire need of help. This program teaches parents/caregivers to read to preschool children, and is done with the help of a refined manual, and a video (available in 5 of SA’s official languages).
This project addresses one of the core challenges of education in SA – how to save the many SA children going to school without the requisite preliteracy skills, in order for them to fully utilise primary education resources.

One of the reasons for the high levels of illiteracy in SA is the perception that reading is primarily linked to education and not something done for pleasure. And with most perceptions, one needs to turn the adults to get the message to the children, making this project a perfect starting block.

Future Perfect

When Jenny Neser realised in 1973 that live-in domestic workers and gardeners in the Brooklyn area should be learning to read and write in their free time, it was the humble start of what is known as Project Literacy today. Over the years more and more subjects were introduced and what started as night schools in churches became a nationwide drive. Of course it wasn’t easy. Teachers often had to teach on a voluntary basis and Jenny and her husband sponsored a lot of the running costs. On top of that, learners had to have passes to be allowed on the suburban streets after certain hours, and a number of learners were arrested on their way home. Another problem was to find teachers for all the classes. And patently – for every learner affected and enriched by this program, there were thousands more (in rural areas especially), in dire need of similar upliftment.

Although so much has been done in the last 30 years, the same problems still persist, just in slightly different guises. Thankfully, passes are a thing of the past, but today, especially in rural areas, transport is a huge problem.

Ensuring that there are enough teachers still requires adequate funds to train and deploy them. Says Yvonne: “We will always need more, so we can reach more people”.

One new project for 2005, is a Family Literacy project in Limpopo province. “This is going to be a wonderful challenge for us, and we want to reach 100 000 homes. We’ve done the research and the reading packs are in the process of being made up. These packs, plus training, will form the core of a project that will benefits adults and kids in one fell swoop.” Yvonne can’t stop raving about the enthusiasm of the people of this province, who are “like sponges, literally soaking up everything, wanting to learn more than anything else.”

Training will happen in public venues like civic centers and libraries, and the courses are being advertised on radio, on posters (with images) and via word of mouth. One major stumbling block in rural areas is transport and communication. Not only is it difficult for many adults to get to the venues, but they also have jobs that might prevent them from attending.

“What do you do when your only mode of transport is walking, and it rains? We’ve had to introduce incentives, and in some of the really poor areas, we provide a meal with the course. We also set up a television set at some venues and air soapies before we start,” says Yvonne. This is all part of locking into a community and becoming aware of their needs. And responding to these and their lack of literacy in one go.

As far as working hours are concerned, Yvonne says they encourage employers to encourage workers to attend the programmes. “They should ideally meet halfway, with employers freeing up time for learners, and learners working overtime too.”

Everyone Can Help

We can talk about political freedom, religious freedom and freedom of speech ad nauseum, but until these freedoms are ratified with the tools to properly use and enjoy them, they can be fairly meaningless.

There are numerous organisations doing exceptional work in an attempt to bridge the divide, enabling all South Africans to do much more than just read and write and do basic calculations.

In an ideal world – and if there is one country that can dream of things and make those dreams come true it is this one – it should be a matter of national conscience and not just the burden and task for these organisations. A mindset, as well as simple, almost obvious steps, should be part of every South African citizen’s life.

Says Yvonne: “Small donations from public welcome but we’ve reached the stage where we need a big funding drive. We’re planning a huge advocacy program to bring more awareness.” Programmes like this will appeal to ordinary South Africans and their social awareness, and also prompt them to get involved – whether it is through donations, sponsoring the education of an adult, or even helping with food at a local initiative.

Start by being more aware and be more involved. Read about the programs, go to website, get on the mailing list. Tell people who could benefit from these programs about the ones in your area, and help them to enroll. If you have someone in your employ who is illiterate, sponsor them, or family members of theirs in rural areas, to attend a course, and work out a study leave incentive to enable them to attend classes.

The program pack for one learner in the Limpopo Programme is a meager R84. And this includes training. One pack will reach an entire family. Contact the rural projects, and offer to donate an old television set, or if you live in the area, help with the provision of meals.

Conclusion

The proverbial iceberg is very much applicable to the state of adult literacy and numeracy in South Africa. Fact is, while many throw up their hands and say ‘it’s too late, let’s focus on the youth and accept that entire generations will never even get to write their own names’, there are many programs out there changing adult lives today. And if the kind of spirit Jenny Neser showed in 1973 prevails, the momentum of adult literacy in SA can be unstoppable.

Get in Touch

For more information about Project Literacy, and programmes like Family Literacy, Lesedi and the Limpopo Province programme, visit the website.
Or contact them on
Tel: 012 323 3447
Fax: 012 324 3800
info@projectliteracy.org.za

NASA:
e-mail

ENABLE
www.eenet.org.uk

Various church groups and tertiary institutions like Rhodes University and the University of Cape Town also offer adult literacy programmes. Get in touch with groups in your area and find out what they are doing and how you can contribute.

Why Students Choose Private Higher Education

It is indisputable that Higher Education is a key issue for South Africa. Not only are we faced with a scarcity of skilled labour, the basic education of many South Africans is still insufficient to ensure their place in higher education institutions. With 70% of school leavers unable to find employment, the need to increase access to higher education is imperative. Private education providers may hold part of the key to this dilemma. Are they up to the task? Can they train a new workforce for South Africa?

Through a survey of registered private higher educations institutions, I will attempt to shed some light on the true nature of the private higher education sector. This information has been gathered from the Department of Education’s official list of registered private higher education institutions, with additional information drawn from institutions’ websites and from the Commission on Higher Education (CHE) report on The State of Private Higher Education Institutions, as well as the research of Glenda Kruss and George Subotzky.

There are over 100 registered or provisionally registered private higher education institutions in South Africa. If we are to conduct a survey of these institutions, what pressing questions are we looking to answer?

* Is there Need for Private Higher Education?
* Do these Institutions Improve Access to Higher Education?
* What Kinds of Training are Offered?
* How Can Quality be Measured?
* How Can Students Finance Private Studies?
* What Should Prospective Students Do?
* Are Private Institutions Reponsive to Socio-Economic Needs?

Is there Need for Private Higher Education?

For many people the notion of tertiary education is inextricably linked to the idea of university or technikon. These well-established institutions with their formidable reputations are broadly considered to deliver quality education. Although highly regarded, these institutions have limited capacity and have been slow to respond to new challenges.

Since the 1990s the private education sector has grown considerably, both locally and internationally. This has led to a heated debate regarding the desirability of profit-based educational institutions. Glenda Kruss in her book “Chasing Credentials and Mobility: Private Higher Education in South Africa” has noted that it is no longer realistic to debate the desirability of private institutions. “We cannot make private provision – and the potential problems it raises – ‘go away’.” Instead, efforts need to (and have) been made to regulate the industry, either to ensure that it complements public higher education (as Dr Kruss suggests) or to simply ensure that these institutions do not exploit students.

Why are students enrolling at private institutions? The CHE suggests that these institutions cater to students who are unable to enrol at traditional universities for practical and financial reasons. Dr Kruss’s research has shown that some private institutions also offer services that claim to be of better quality than their public counter-parts or they offer training that is not available through public institutions. Unsurprisingly, the private institutions’ marketing approach focuses on the added benefits offered by their courses (higher quality and different services) rather than the barriers that students may face in getting into university or technikon.

Often it is in fact the barriers to traditional education that lead students to private institutions rather than the particular merits of the latter. These barriers include academic hurdles, geographical distance, cost and the need to enter the job market quickly.

Entrance to traditional institutions is dependent on matric exemption as degrees and higher diplomas require this. Admittance to universities is further limited to those who have done well in matric, particularly for courses with limited placements.

Additionally, traditional institutions are predominantly situated in large cities. Not only do students from outlying areas have to relocate, they also have to bear the additional living costs associated with leaving home.

Importantly, the qualifications offered at universities and technikons generally require students to study full-time for a number of years. It is extremely difficult to hold-down a job while studying full-time and there is an enormous amount of pressure on school-leavers to start earning. There is thus a growing demand for short courses or flexible part-time programmes.

Financial and academic pressures thus often result in people being unable to go to traditional higher education institutions. Instead they look for alternatives, and the private higher education industry has sprung up to service this need.

The White Paper on Higher Education (1997) has suggested that private institutions can play a complementary role in higher education in South Africa by “expanding access to higher education, in particular, in niche areas, through responding to labour market opportunities and student demand’.

A key question then, is whether these institutions are in fact meeting the need. Are students that cannot afford tradition education able to afford private education? Can students who have not met the rigorous academic requirements of university/technikon get into these private institutions? Are these institutions situated in outlying areas? And are students being equipped to enter the job-market?

Do these Institutions Improve Access to Higher Education?

In 1995, the Commission on Higher Education (CHE) estimated that approximately 150,000 South Africans were enrolled at private higher education institutions. More recent research shows that the number may be closer to 85,000. Who are these students and why have the selected private institutions?

The geographical location of private institutions gives some insight into these questions. Fifty-three percent of private higher education institutions are situated in Gauteng with 25.9% in KwaZulu-Natal and 13.7% in the Western Cape. CHE speculates that institutions cluster in areas with high levels of economic activity. However, they hypothesise that KwaZulu-Natal has a greater number of private institutions than the Western Cape because the matric pass rate in the Cape is high, meaning that learners in this area are more likely to be eligible for entrance to universities and technikons.

Gauteng (5), KwaZulu-Natal (3) and the Western Cape (3) are the three provinces with the most universities, with 11 of the 18 universities in SA. They also have a technikon each, thus a third of the 9 technikons in the country.

Furthermore, of the 103 registered institutions more than 75% are situated in the following four cities: Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Universities, technikons and private institutions thus appear to be clustered around economic centres. There are extremely few options for students living elsewhere. However, some institutions do offer correspondence courses which allow students to engage in distance education. Unfortunately, the data available did not indicate how many institutions offered this option.

Geographical location of private institutions appears to be no different to public institutions and so does not indicate improved access to education for particular groups of people. Assessment of race and gender representation at private institutions is similarly uninformative.

George Subotzy’s 2003 assessment of the sector (Private Higher Education and Training) shows that 62% of students enrolled at private higher education institutions are black, “indicating a fairly deracialised sector and countering assumptions of elitism.” The private higher education sector shows greater enrolment of black students than technikons, but fewer than universities.

Similarly, there is an equal percentage of men and women enrolled. Women, however, are over-represented in certain fields of study (for example, health and language studies) and underrepresented in others (such as technology and business).

There seems to be similar access to private institutions, in terms of geography, race and gender, as there is to public tertiary institutions. The attraction of the private education sector must thus lie elsewhere.

What Kinds of Training are Offered?

Kruss suggests that some private education providers offer services that are not available from public institutions. This differentiated service could either be a function of the types of courses on offer, the level of courses or the mode of delivery.

Private higher education institutions focus predominantly on training in the fields of information technology, business administration, communications, human resource development and theology. “Very few private enrolments [are] in the key scarce skills fields of science, engineering and technology proper, or health and social services,” says George Subotzky.

In addition, CHE has noted concern regarding the failure of private higher education institutions to impart the necessary skills in the fields covered. For example, approximately 13% of courses offered are Information Technology related. The majority of these predominantly train students to use particular software applications and do not provide the programming and development skills that the economy requires.

However, there are some fields which appear to be outside the scope of public institutions, for example theology (which is not emphasised at public institutions) and beauty and alternative therapies.

This differentiation explains some of the appeal of private institutions, but the main draw-card is the fact that many courses offered (almost 40%) are certificate or diploma programmes which do not require matric exemption and are completed within one or two years respectively. The importance of these simple points cannot be overstated and 37% of students at private institutions are enrolled for courses at this level.

The success and growth of the private higher education sector is thus a function of the fact that courses are offered which do not require matric exemption, that these courses are shorter than university and technikon programmes, that in some instances the quality of programmes is very high and that certain types of training are not available elsewhere. These factors influence students of all races and cut across gender.

How Can Quality be Measured?

Concerns about the quality of private higher education have been repeatedly expressed. These concerns vary from fears that courses are not adequately designed, to dissatisfaction with the level of teaching and perceptions that qualifications from private institutions are bought, not earned. For example, the SACP statement on private higher education institutions in South Africa contains the following harsh criticism of the quality of private institutions:

“One of the biggest threats to the creation of a sustainable and quality public higher education system in South Africa is the unregulated proliferation of private higher education institutions. … This proliferation of private institutions also poses a big threat to quality higher education and human resource development as some of them provide very poor quality higher education. ”

These concerns were articulated before mandatory registration, quality assurance and course accreditation were imposed. The fear also appears to be justified. In their assessment of the applications for registration, the CHE found that many of the courses on offer were not consistent with the higher education levels of the NQF (levels 5-8). They report that of the courses submitted, only 15.5% actually belonged to the higher education band.

The CHE report finds that half of institutions that applied for accreditation needed to reconsider their overall programme design (i.e. the content of the courses). Additionally, the report shows that institutions typically market their courses at a level higher than they actually are – 84.5% of institutions offered higher education courses that are actually consistent with a FET level. The report also expresses concern that programmes do not have clear assessment strategies to determine whether students have met the requirements of the course. Only 31% of institutions had adequate assessment strategies in place!

The idea that qualifications obtained from private higher education institutions are bought rather than earned was reinforced to me by a part-time lecturer at a local institution who recounted how the parents of one of his students had repeatedly called to find out why the student had not passed. The student had in fact completely failed to hand in the assessment assignment, despite being given extended deadlines. The parents’ response: “But we paid the fees!”

Another disturbing quality issue is the discrepancy between the list of accredited courses published by the Department of Education and the courses advertised by private higher education institutions. Some of these differences are explained by the fact that many private institutions offer both higher education courses and Further Education and Training (FET) courses. Also, some institutions offer tuition for correspondence courses provided by other institutions (eg UNISA). These courses are accredited in the name of the parent institution.

In fact, two-thirds of students registered at private institutions in 2001 were registered for programmes certified by other institutions.

The most common example of this in South Africa, is the registration of students for UNISA degrees through private institutions. UNISA has a formalised relationship with many of these institutions, whereby UNISA provides the study material, which is self-contained, while the other institution provides tuition on a face-to-face basis. For a list of institutions with whom UNISA has signed a memorandum of agreement, click here.

Prospective students are urged to confirm that both the institution and the course they enrol for are registered and accredited.

The Higher Education Act (1997) requires all private higher educations institutions to be registered, in order to regulate and monitor the quality of education on offer. Only institutions that are financially sound and which are capable of providing training of a suitable standard are allowed to register.

There are three different levels of registration for private institutions:

* Qualifications offered by the provider must be registered on the National Qualifications Framework. This ensures that courses are truly consistent with similar courses provided at public institutions and other private providers.
* Any courses offered and the institution itself must be evaluated by the CHE to ensure that quality standards are maintained.
* The institution itself must be registered with the Department of Education.

The DoE registration certificate gives an institution the licence to operate and lists the higher education programmes which the institution is allowed to offer. A registration cycle is usually given to an institution upon registration after which its accreditation and registration status must be reviewed. This guarantees that standards are maintained over time.

Many stakeholders, including prominent institutions in the industry, have welcomed the regulation of the sector. “This accreditation process has had many positive implications in that private institutions have had to meet prescribed quality improvements – and it has ruled out the many ‘fly-by-night’ operators, who do not meet with legislative requirements,” says Prof Zak Nel chairperson of the Academic Board of the Damelin Education Group.

The Department of Education reports that the number of complaints they have received from students over the last three years has dramatically been reduced as registration requirements have been more strictly enforced.

However, the Department also appeals to all prospective students to check that the institutions they wish to study at are registered. A list of all registered institutions and their accredited course is available from the Department and anyone with questions or concerns can contact the Private Higher Education Institutions Directorate at:
Tel: (012) 312 5253 / (012) 312 5320
Fax: (012) 324 6343.

This Directorate also deals with complaints from the public regarding private higher education institutions.

The quality of courses at private institutions varies enormously but the regulation of the sector has gone some way to ensuring that students receive the training they have paid for. Nevertheless, prospective students must be proactive about checking the reputation and standards of institutions.

How Can Students Finance Private Studies?

It is extremely difficult to compare the costs of courses at private institutions with those provided by public education institutions.

The only comparative study available is the CHE report on The State of the Provision of the MBA in South Africa which found that for Masters degrees in Business Administration (MBA), public universities were more expensive than technikons and local private providers, while transnational providers were considered expensive. It must be noted that on average public institutions’ MBAs scored better on quality criteria than private institutions’ programmes.

The fact that many certificate and diploma programmes are on offer at private institutions, means that students may only need to pay for one or two years’ of tuition. The net cost of studying will thus be likely to be less than at a public institution. But there is no basis for a year-by-year comparison

In terms of access to funding, students at registered private institutions are generally able to get student loans from any of the major banks. Most banks have a range of options available to students which are granted subject to terms and conditions.

Bursary options however appear to be limited. Some private institutions offer bursaries but most do not. Students can also apply for bursaries through the usual channels, but some bursary programmes, like the National Research Foundation (NRF), only providing funding to universities and other traditional institutions. Students can also not get government student loans from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme to study at private institutions.

What Should Prospective Students Do?

If you are contemplating undertaking training at a private higher education institution, you should consider your options carefully.

* Check that the institution you are enrolling at is registered with the Department of Education and that the courses are accredited through the NQF programme. You can contact the Department of Education to confirm that an institution is registered.
* Find out exactly what the course will cost you (including hidden costs such as books, stationary, examination fees etc). Also find out about refunds – if the course is cancelled will your fees be returned?
* Quality teaching is an essential part of learning. CHE noted that 67% of the institutions applying for private higher education institution accreditation had staff whose skills, qualifications and experience were “highly problematic”. Additionally, many private institutions bring in contract or part-time staff to teach their courses and often there are insufficient staff to manage practical work. Do you know who your lecturers will be? It is a good idea to speak to students from previous years about the quality of teaching.
* What facilities are there available to you? Will you have access to computers, a library and practical training facilities? And can you access facilities after hours? Some institutions offer accommodation and recreation facilities to students as well.
* Are you going to be equipped to find work? You need to assess the quality of the training you are undertaking. You also need to ensure that there is a market for the skills that you will be learning. Find out about the institutions’ placement success-rate or ask people in the relevant industry for advice. Also find out what percentage of the course involves practical training.
* How will the course be delivered? Is the course full-time, part-time or by correspondence? You need to choose an option that suits your needs and abilities.
* How is the course assessed? What are the requirements for obtaining certification for the course? Be wary of courses that appear to automatically provide certification for courses that have been “completed” without an assessment of the student’s knowledge, as these are unlikely to be regarded highly by employers.

Are Private Institutions Reponsive to Socio-Economic Needs?

There is no doubt that private higher education institutions have a role to play in South African education. There are distinct needs for tertiary education that are not being fulfilled by the public institutions. Most significant of these, seems to be the need for shorter courses and the need for courses which do not require matric exemption.

Although on some levels, private education institutions are clearly filling this gap, it is as yet not clear whether they are doing so in a meaningful way.

The Commission for Higher Education has concluded that there is not enough evidence to show that private higher education institutions are particularly responsive to the socio-economic climate in South Africa. Furthermore, the failure to offer courses in scarce skills fields indicates that private higher education is not likely to bridge the gap between skills supply and market need.

Nevertheless, students who select their institution and courses carefully, will be able to get appropriate training and will greatly improve their chances of finding employment.

Education: Testing, Testing…

I have been in several educational frameworks over the years: from a verkrampte convent to a liberal farm school, from a snotty Milner outpost in Gauteng to a faceless university and then an arrogant professional society. Some were good, some bad and some downright standard. One thing they all had in common though, was an inexplicable deference to the concept of the examination.

What is it about the exam that holds educators in such thrall?

I remember starting at one school to be told there was a French exam that morning.

‘No problem,’ I said to my new teacher, amiably enough. ‘I have never done French though, so, I’ll just sit in the library then?’

‘Oh no, no, my dear,’ the teacher looked at me smugly, as if she had just managed to prevent me from getting away with something somehow lazy or wicked. ‘This is the perfect way to find out what you know about French. I have your paper all ready.’

‘But I can just tell you what I know about French,’ I protested whilst being dragged to a desk all neatly aligned with others. ‘ Nada. Seriously.’

‘Oh, don’t be such a worrywart,’ sing-songed the teacher. ‘I am sure you’ll do fine. Got a pen? Right? begin!’

I then proceeded to spend two full hours staring down at a bunch of meaningless characters, pondering the question: how long has it been since that woman actually listened to what she was saying? When did the process of testing learners begin to outweigh teaching them?

That was when I was thirteen. At twenty-three I found myself in a six-hour conveyancing exam, staring at a question requiring me to write out an entire six-page mortgage bond document. From memory.

The scariest thing was that I, like everyone else in the room, could make a passable stab at it, simply because we had all sat for hours upon hours, over days and days, parroting such documents aloud to ourselves in a sing-song rote learning fashion. Did this make us smart? I spent a large chunk of those six hours wondering if in fact, it made us the thickest people in the city – to have got ourselves in the position where such bovine memory-nastics were required of us.

I have sat in an exam on ethics, surrounded by people cheating. I have sat in a physics exam, regurgitating formula after formula, not thinking about science at all but rather worrying that the information I was spewing forth would not be purged from my brain by the end of the session, as then there would be no space in my short term memory for the history date absorption scheduled for that night.

I have also made full use of all the exam tricks at my disposal. I have bought Bioplus by the crate. I have spotted myself blue in the face, leaving vast tracts of syllabus entirely untouched. I have written three-page essays on absolutely nothing at all, confident in the knowledge that almost all educators will give at least 30% to an essay of that length, regardless of its content (an important corollary to the spotting technique).

While I didn’t ever technically cheat? I look back on exam techniques like that and ask myself: how are they any different from taking in a handful of notes with you? Why is it so much more honourable to be able to stuff a fistful of knowledge, that you know full well is going to be lost within days, into your brain rather than into your pocket?

Now, at thirty, I find myself with a Matric, two degrees and two professional qualifications behind me. What do I have, intellectually, to show for it? I know that a rhizome is an underground stem. I know that mass times acceleration equals force – but I don’t know what that means. I know Bartholomew Diaz was a sailor who had something to do with spices. I know that Justinian was an important, possibly Roman, jurist and I know that our constitution has a nifty preamble about ubuntu.

Most importantly though, I know that it takes three days and nights, with toilet breaks, to get a lever-arch file of fact-based information into my head, and that at least 65% of that information can stay in my short-term memory for a three-day period.

I do like the fact that I can read and write. I know I have been privileged to have been given access to so much information and I believe that my education has given me a confidence in my ability to think and retain information, which I would not otherwise have – and that confidence is a very useful societal tool.

But now that my studying days are over – and believe me, if there was anything I learnt from regurgitating a bond document in legalese during that conveyancing exam, it was that such a level of absurdity should close one’s formal education – I look back and think, what have I learnt?

I have learnt that money and access to information can buy you power over others. Oh! and I have learnt that exams are silly.