Education

• Limpopo FET colleges will benefit from an injection of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) money over the next three years

As an indication of the priority given to education in Limpopo, the annual budget of the provincial department charged with its promotion had its budget increased to R16.4-million for the 2009/10 financial year, up from just over R14-billion the previous year.

Providing educational infrastructure remains one of the key goals of educational planners in Limpopo. With significant parts of the province having been formally run by the inefficient homeland governments during the apartheid era, large areas have little or no infrastructure, especially in the field of education.

By the end of December 2008, progress had been reported in a number of projects, resulting in the building of 636 classrooms, 22 laboratories,
161 administration blocks and 982 toilets. In addition, 90 schools had been supplied with water and a further 17 were given access to electricity.

A goal of building 27 brand-new schools was set in 2008. By June 2009, a start had been made on 12 of these, which were designed to take advantage of the latest technology. Each school will have a 1 000-seater hall, a homeeconomics centre, good libraries and laboratories for the study of biology, science and computers.

Other departmental priorities are the extension of no-fee school status to 70% of schools, the reduction of teacher-pupil ratios, the improvement of support material for teachers and a renewed focus on early childhood development. The National School Nutrition Programme was allocated a sum of R419-million for 2009/10.

Limpopo is home to the facilities of three tertiary institutions. The University of Limpopo has two campuses: Turfloop (the old University
of the North) and Medunsa campus (just north of Pretoria). The University of Venda for Science and Technology is situated in Thohoyandou in the far north-eastern part of the province. The University of South Africa (Unisa), which mostly has correspondence students, has a regional support centre in Polokwane and agencies at
Makhado and Giyani.

The Turfloop campus of the University of Limpopo is the largest tertiary education institution in Limpopo. The Materials Modelling Centre has gained an enviable reputation through its work on the development of metal alloys and polymers, especially as applied to platinum, one of the cornerstones of Limpopo’s economy. Medunsa has a Diarrhoeal Pathogens Research unit, which is doing excellent work on the rotavirus.

The University of Venda has, in recent years, increasingly focused on science and technology, particularly as these apply to health, agriculture and rural development. The university has eight schools, with Environmental Sciences, Agriculture and Rural Development and Forestry nicely illustrating the practical emphasis of the institution. PetroSA
(computers) and Nissan SA (mathematics and science resource centre) are among the corporate sponsors which have helped the University of Venda to modernise. A R216-million infrastructure project will continue through 2010, creating new lecture halls and providing more student accommodation.

FET colleges and Abet
Further Education and Training Colleges (FET) offer students an alternative to studying at a university or a university of technology
(formerly known as technikons). The education and training offered at a public FET College is customised and designed to fit in with the needs of industry. This approach is in line with the outcomes-based format of primary and secondary schooling in South Africa, and is considered a way to fix the skills shortages that exist in the workforce. South Africa currently has about 400 000 FET students and the aim is to increase that figure to a million by 2016.

There are seven FET colleges in Limpopo: Capricorn College, Lephalale College, Mopani East College, Mopani South College, Sekhukhune College, Vhembe College and Waterberg College. Capricorn College has
three campuses, each of which has a slightly different focus. The city campus in downtown Polokwane offers business studies, engineering and National Curriculum Vocation (NCV) subjects. Seshego (outer
Polokwane) has an engineering focus, while Senwabarwana is situated in a rural area and concentrates on teaching hospitality and hairdressing.

USAID announced in 2009 that it would fund skills development at 12 colleges in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape to the tune
of R52-million over three years. The programme will be linked to labour-market research, thus giving colleges access to information about the needs of the market for the first time.

Approximately 30 000 adult students are enrolled at Adult Basic Education and Training (Abet) centres run by the provincial Department of Education. Centres offer basic literacy and numeracy skills, as well as targeted work skills. In 2008, the Limpopo Department of Education added 40 new Abet centres around the province and accommodated an additional 800 learners. The ultimate goal is to have 582 Abet centres in the province. This number will allow the province to meet national government’s target of reducing illiteracy to 10% by 2014.

ONLINE RESOURCES
Association for the Development of Education in Africa: www.adeanet.org
Capricorn FET College: www.capricorncollege.co.za
Council of Higher Education: www.che.ac.za
National Department of Basic Education: www.education.gov.za
National Department of Higher Education and Training: www.education.gov.za
University of Limpopo: www.ul.ac.za
University of South Africa: www.unisa.ac.za
University of Venda for Science and Technology: www.univen.ac.za

















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