TVET policy in South Africa: Caught between neo-liberalism and privatisation?

Seamus Needham

doi:10.14426/jovacet.v2i2.73

Abstract

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) policy in South Africa since 1994 has stressed the vital importance of this sector in contributing to economic growth and alleviating socio-economic inequities. Twenty years after these policies were first set down and replicated in subsequent legislation, South Africa’s TVET sector has not been able to contribute to the key policy priority of reducing unemployment. Moreover, the sector has had a limited impact on achieving the nation’s economic goals. From the perspective of developing human capital, significant state investment in this sector has realised very low economic returns. There is extensive literature on the privatisation of education and the effects this has had on education and training policies and systems. This article draws on theoretical approaches that analyse the internal and external changes to public education and training systems as a result of privatisation. Furthermore, the article argues that both public and private TVET providers have been subjected to differing endogenous and exogenous privatisation approaches as defined by Ball and Youdell (2007). These dual approaches have affected the ability of the TVET college sector to respond effectively to South Africa’s education and training needs for economic growth, despite the prioritisation of this sector in government policy.

Highlights

The privatisation of education is a global phenomenon that is taking place across both developed and developing nations
Ball and Youdell (2007:16) note: Privatisation tendencies are at the centre of the shift from education being seen as a public good that serves the whole community, to education being seen as a private good that serves the interest of the educated individual, the employer and the economy
South Africa’s initial White Paper on Education and Training (RSA, 1995b) clearly separated the supply of initial vocation and training allocated to the public vocational education and training system and a ‘demand-led’ continuing education and training system in the workplace that was dominated by private providers

Summary

Introduction

The privatisation of education is a global phenomenon that is taking place across both developed and developing nations. Kraak (2013) corroborates Allais’s (2012) criticism that South Africa is an example of a market-led model of skills development similar to that of the United Kingdom He asserts that both countries focus excessively on supply-side interventions, where, despite the fact that numbers of students are acquiring vocational qualifications every year, the anticipated increase in skilled personnel who could contribute to increased national productivity has not occurred. As opposed to arguing that privatisation approaches in TVET blindly follow the neoliberal economic stance adopted by democratic South Africa since 1994, this article asserts that endogenous privatisation interventions in the TVET public sector reflect contested policy imperatives in the TVET sector and the state departments responsible for education and training. It favours a focus on the way in which the private TVET sector (including the non-profit and for-profit sectors) have been affected by the policy decisions that have been taken

Methodology

Findings

Conclusion