Continuing Education and Training Act, 2006 (Act No. 16 of 2006)

Notices

National Norms and Standards for Funding Technical and Vocational Education and Training Colleges

H. The Annual Joint DHET-College Planning Process

114 - 124. The annual cycle and medium-term of public resourcing
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114.The following paragraphs establish the reporting and planning obligations of the DHET and TVET Colleges in terms of the annual cycle.

 

115.By the last day of September of each year, final annual reports of TVET Colleges must be submitted to the DHET. These reports, which are referred to in section 25(3) of the CET Act, must include audited financial statements and any additional information required by the Minister in terms of the Act.

 

116.By 31 March of each year, the DHET must release agreed upon national targets and priorities relating to number of students and types of training required in future years, in terms of paragraph 88. This step may involve the confirmation of targets set in previous years, as opposed to the setting of new targets.

 

117.By 30 April of each year, DHET and TVET Colleges must have begun the medium-term DHET-college planning process, described elsewhere in this policy. This process always begins with a review of past trends, in particular as regards formula funding, enrolments, representativity and capital investments.

 

118.By 31 July of each year, the DHET must have finalised the funding rate applicable for the next college year, as described in paragraph 86. Moreover, funding weights and the assumed fee levels for new programmes, if any, on the register of nationally approved TVET College programmes should be confirmed by this date.

 

119.Also by 31 July of each year, means test data collected during the current year on the socio-economic status of students must have been processed by the DHET to determine the bursary needs for each college.

 

120.By 31 October of each year, the medium-term DHET-college planning process must have been completed. By this date, medium to long term strategic plans of colleges, which must include the formula funding grids for the following three years, agreed to in accordance with paragraph 113 must be submitted to the DHET by colleges.

 

121.By 30 November of each year, the DHET must provide colleges with a schedule of payments to be made to colleges for services to be rendered in the medium-term. This schedule must agree with the budgets and plans applicable to the medium-term. Payments to colleges should occur in line with this schedule, except where corrective measures such as clawback must implemented. The schedule must be compiled based on the cash flow drawings as advised by National Treasury for payment of tranches to the TVET Colleges for the academic year. Any correction or adjustments such as clawback must be made from the second last two tranches at this time. Any clawback action must be made after due consultation with the affected college.

 

122.At the time of the adjustments budget, the DHET will apply to Parliament to have any corrections made to the CoE for TVET Colleges, should the need arise to make such changes, given that CoE is specifically and exclusively allocated in the Appropriation Act.

 

(a)In terms of the CET Act, the staff of public colleges consists of persons appointed by the Minister in posts that the Minister establishes for the respective colleges and council established posts. The Minister is required to remunerate staff appointed by the Minister from funds allocated to the respective colleges in accordance with these norms and standards.

 

(b)In terms of Section 22 of the CET Act, the Minister must from money appropriated for this purpose by Parliament fund public colleges on a fair, equitable and transparent basis and the Minister may, subject to the norms and standards, impose any condition in respect of an allocation of funding and different conditions in respect of different public colleges, different technical and vocational education and training programmes or different allocations, if there is a reasonable basis for such differentiation. Also subject to the requirements in these minimum norms and standards, the Minister must determine further appropriate measures for the redress of past inequalities.

 

(c)In terms of Section 24 of the CET Act, the funds of a public college consist of funds allocated by the state and other sources of funding, such as donations or contributions received, money raised by the college, money raised by loans, subject to Ministerial approval as guided by conditions referred to in paragraph 83, income from investment, income from services rendered, student fees, student and employee accommodation and any other source.

 

(d)In terms of Section 25 of the CET Act, the public college must, keep complete accounting records of all assets, liabilities, income and expenses and any other financial transactions, adhere to standards not inferior to the requirements of the Public Finance Management Act.

 

(e)In terms of Section 26 of the CET Act, if the management staff (or council) of a public college fails to comply with any provision of this Act under which an allocation from money appropriated by Parliament is paid to the college, or with any condition subject to which any allocation is paid to the public college, the Minister may call upon the management staff (or council) to comply with the provision or condition within a specified period. Ifthe management staff (or council) thereafter fails to comply with the provision or condition timeously, the Minister may withhold payment of any portion of any allocation appropriated by Parliament in respect of the public college concerned.

 

123.The Department will retain funds, annually, from the subsidy allocation to public TVET Colleges, in order to remunerate the employees in posts established by the Minister for the TVET Colleges. The portion of the subsidy allocation to be retained by DHET will be set at 63% of the FULL cost of the funded programmes or as per the Post Provision Norms (PPN). Some identified TVET colleges may spend to a maximum of 70% on CoE of their total college allocation as per PPN staff requirements. The full cost of the funded programmes consists of 80% of government subsidy allocation and 20% of assumed college fee level as explained in paragraph 10.

 

124.In terms of the CET Act, the Minister must, on an annual basis, provide sufficient information to public colleges regarding the funding referred to in paragraph 122(b) to enable the colleges to prepare their budgets for the next financial year.