NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

FOR WRITTEN REPLY

QUESTION 663

DATE OF PUBLICATION OF INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 07/03/2011

(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER 04 OF 2011)

Mr A P van der Westhuizen (DA) to ask the Minister of Higher Education and Training:

1)(a) What was the total cost to his department of its delegation to the Republic of Cuba in early 2011, (b) what was the total size of the delegation and (c) which officials formed part of the delegation;

2) whether any persons, apart from those permanently employed by his department, accompanied the delegation; if so, (a) who are these persons and (b) what costs were incurred by his department for each of the specified persons;

3) what were the positive outcomes of this trip for the South African higher education and training sector?

NW709E

REPLY:

At the invitation of the Cuban Minister of Higher Education, Mr Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, I had paid a working visit to Cuba in January 2011. The context of the visit is South Africa's foreign policy, which emphasises strengthening of South-South relations, as well as the Department's aim of looking for and sharing best practice with countries of both the North and South, which can be used to contribute to the development of our own system.

The newly created Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) needs to be exposed to the best practise for a post school education system and will feed its learning into the green paper process being embarked on. South Africa faces challenges in human resource development, skills and post school education. To address these challenges, South Africa has emulated best practises from countries around the world. Cuba's education system outperforms many education systems in both developing and developed countries and as such it is important for South Africa to begin to understand how Cuba manages to deal with its human resource requirements, as well as provide human capacity to other countries.

1 (a) The total amount that has been paid by the Department to date is R431,125.

(b) The total size of the delegation was five

(c) I was accompanied by three officials from my department, the Head of the Minister's Office; the Chief Director: International Relations; and the Chief Director: Teacher Education.

2 Yes, (a) Also accompanying the delegation was, Mr D Mchunu, Deputy Principal of a rural school and community worker, with a special focus on skills training for young people in the rural areas, and my spouse, Mrs Phumelele Nzimande.

(b) The total amount that has been paid by the Department for the trip as indicated in response to question 1(a) includes R32,405 for Mr Mchunu

(3) The positive outcomes of this visit include the following:

• Meetings with the Cuban Ministry of Higher Education, and visits to a number of universities and research centres.
• Gain an understanding of the university system in Cuba and an opportunity to share some of the SA experiences.
• Explore possible areas of co-operation including the signing of a new agreement of cooperation. It was agreed that the areas of collaboration could include teacher education, the sharing of experiences of the municipal universities model, agricultural studies, Spanish and Latin American Studies.
• I also requested support with the teaching of the Spanish language given the importance of the learning of foreign languages by South African students.
• To forge linkages between Cuban and South African higher education institutions.
• The delegation made the following observations about the Cuban higher education system that would be beneficial for South Africa to learn from.
  • Cuba overcame illiteracy in a fairly short space of time and enabled access to higher studies through a major expansion of its university system - 40% of its school leavers enter university studies each year and access to a (limited) range of programmes is available at each municipality campus for continuing and lifelong university education. 
  • Cooperation and sharing of resources between universities - the system encourages the sharing of best practice in which collaboration is emphasised, rather than competition.
  • The way the Cuban system has organized itself in reaching quality educational provisioning in the face of adversity is something that we could learn from given the constraints of financial resources.
  • A centralised application and selection system that is transparent and fair and ensures access to quality entering students.
  • Close links between the universities and local industry and development.
  • A system that links knowledge production to economic production (for example the research centres all produce products that are commercially viable)
  • A system of university curriculum that ensures standards across the system with a common core curriculum enabling progression and articulation, with some flexibility for local differences and interests.

Statement issued by Parliament, June 7 2011

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