The nine further education and training (FET) colleges in KwaZulu-Natal are to go from “glorified high schools” without chief financial officers to becoming the tertiary institutions of choice for school-leavers.
This was according to Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande after meeting Education MEC Senzo Mchunu and the councils and management of the province’s FET colleges on Thursday.
The meeting was called to ascertain what would need to be done when they were handed to the national department, following approval of the FET Amendment Bill of 2011.
“We need a new kind of principal – it can’t be business as usual,” Nzimande said.
Department director-general Gwebs Qonde said the plan was not to axe anyone, but to “re-tool” the colleges’ existing heads through training. All 50 colleges in the country would be subjected to individual audits of staff and finances, to start in the next few months.
Nzimande said none of the nine colleges in KZN had chief financial officers, which was a “disaster”, and especially risky since National Student Financial Aid Scheme allocations ran into billions.
The department has approached the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants to recommend retired chartered accountants to temporarily act as financial officers and to establish “proper financial procedures” at the colleges.
Nzimande also intends to address the qualifications of lecturers. Qonde said a large chunk of the investment in the refurbishment of colleges and the building of additional campuses would be directed to KZN, as enrolment demands were higher here.
No comments:
Post a Comment