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A computer course for adults at the Lawaaicamp settlement in the Western Cape, South
Africa.
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The
teacher is to students what the rain is to the field.
Zaira
Alexandra Rodriguez Guijamo, Mexican pupil (1985-)
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Key figures, South Africa
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Total population (millions, 1999): 42
Adult literacy rate (1998): 84.6%
Gross enrolment ratio (1997):
- Primary education: 133%
- Secondary education: 95%
- Tertiary education: 17%
Students enrolled in
private primary and
secondary schools (1996): 3.3%
Sources: WorldBank,UNPD,OCDE. |
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The government is trying to put
some order into the burgeoning private higher education sector and clamp down on
dodgy foreign outfits
 Lebo Sekoto is an upwardly mobile young woman, a 28-year-old
senior human resources consultant at a large mining corporation in Pretoria. She
is now internationally mobile too, she says, thanks to the arrival of Britain’s De
Montfort University. It is one of hundreds of further and higher education institutions—local
and foreign—that have set up shop in South Africa.
Now nearing the end of a part-time MBA, Lebo offers good reasons for choosing De
Montfort. “I want to expand my horizons and work for a multinational corporation
and gain experience in the United Kingdom. So I thought it fitting to obtain a globally
portable U.K. qualification.” In fact Lebo, born in the sprawling black township
of Soweto, has been studying most of her life.
After leaving school she obtained a business diploma at a polytechnic. Then came
a part-time degree in industrial psychology and business management through the distance
University of South Africa, and now the MBA, which combines part-time and on-line
study. “Companies see you as a young black female first,” she says, “irrespective
of your qualifications. If I want to move up the ladder to become a chief executive,
I have to be three times more qualified and experienced than male colleagues.”
De Montfort (450 students in South Africa of whom 65 percent are black) is one of
several foreign institutions now operating in South Africa’s private sector. It is
unusual in being non-profit and aiming to build management skills in this developing
country: most others, local and foreign, are straight businesses. It was also the
first private institution to be registered in South Africa under new laws aimed at
regulating the growth and quality of private higher education, which is burgeoning
here as it is in many other countries—to the point of threatening the viability of
many public institutions.
“Our public sector is immature, so we are implementing new policies to develop it,”
says Professor Nasima Badsha, the government’s deputy director-general in charge
of higher education. “Much of the private sector is for-profit and market-driven,
and does not share our commitment to access, equity, quality and human resource development.
Such concerns are shared by a number of countries in the south.” Fees for private
institutions tend to be 30 to 50 percent higher than those for state institutions.
After the dismantling of apartheid,the
foreign influx begins
It is not known exactly how many private
tertiary institutions are currently operating. In higher education, 100 of more than
200 institutions that applied for accreditation have been or are well on the way
to being registered. The private higher education institutions have more than 20,000
full-time students in South Africa, which last year had 564,000 students in the public
sector. Hundreds of thousands are enrolled in private part-time higher education
courses and a vast number of further education courses ranging from literacy to art,
computing and business.
The influx of foreign institutions began after the nation’s first democratic elections
in 1994. With the dismantling of apartheid, black students shifted away from poorly
resourced “black” institutions to well-endowed formerly “white” ones, while many
mostly middle-class white students moved to private institutions, due to perceptions—hotly
denied—of declining quality, disruption and lack of safety in the state sector.
With an unemployment rate near 30 percent and the formal economy absorbing only 56
percent of students from top universities—and 25 percent from less respected ones—students
seek “marketable” qualifications that vocationally oriented polytechnics and private
institutions are seen to offer. Many people see foreign degrees as more prestigious
and portable than local ones, while others view them as an emigration ticket to a
richer country.
Most of the private institutions are genuine, but fly-by-night operators are a problem.
The 1997 Higher Education Act is supposed to weed them out by requiring that all
private institutions seek course accreditation from the South African Qualifications
Authority. They must also register with the education department, which has two criteria
for acceptance: financial viability and quality.
“Foreign institutions posed a particular threat to public universities,” says Professor
Badsha. “They mostly operate in a narrow range of areas, especially IT, business
and commerce, ‘cherry picking’ financially lucrative courses without the obligation
of offering the full range of disciplines. Public universities found themselves losing
income-earning courses they use to cross-subsidize expensive disciplines such as
music and art, medicine and engineering, which are critical to South Africa’s cultural,
social and economic development.”
Foreign institutions also attract good staff from public universities by paying higher
salaries, and charge fees that only the wealthy can afford, resulting in a new form
of apartheid, says Badsha. “We are trying to move away from race and class to create
truly South African institutions.”
As a result, the government is amending the act to make it more difficult for foreign
institutions to set up in South Africa. For example, before granting permits, the
registrar will judge whether the applicant is useful to the public system and broadens
the scope of courses offered. Even though South Africa’s constitution prohibits discrimination
against foreign institutions, some of them have threatened to take the issue to the
World Trade Organization. Indeed many foreign institutions have already left.
Education Minister Kader Asmel strongly rejects claims that the clampdown is motivated
by “narrow protectionist agendas or national chauvinism.” The goal, he says, is simply
to assure the accountable and efficient use of public resources. “We do not wish
to turn a blind eye to supra-national developments, or build new walls around ourselves.
But we cannot stand by and watch the erosion of our system.”
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