The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) was established in 2009 when the former Department of Education was divided into two sections: Basic Education and Higher Education and Training.
DHET Mandate
The mandate of the new Department included aspects of skills development which had previously resided in the Department of Labour.
The new Department was specifically established to focus on post-school education and training holistically and has extended its scope of operations extensively.
DHET Vision
Leading Post-School Education and Training for growth.
DHET Mission
To provide national strategic leadership in support of the Post-School Education and Training system for improved quality of life of South Africans.
DHET Values
The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) is committed to:
- Integrity.
- Accountability.
- Committed.
- Responsiveness.
- Proactive behaviour.
- Continuous learning.
- Rationality.
- Team work.
- Emotional intelligence.
DHET Mandate
DHET Constitutional Mandate
Higher Education and Training derives its mandate from the supreme law of the Republic, the Constitution, within the purport of Section 29, read with schedule 4, which lists education at all levels, including tertiary education as a functional area of concurrent national and provincial legislative competence.
Education’s Section 29 rights
Section 29 states:
1. Everyone has a right:
- To a basic education, including adult basic education
- Further education, which the state, through reasonable measures, must make progressively available and accessible.
2. Everyone has the right to receive education in the official language or language of their choice in public educational institutions where that education is reasonably practicable. In order to ensure effective access to, and implementation of this right, the state must consider all reasonable educational alternatives, including single medium institutions, taking into account:
- Equity
- Practicability
- The need to redress the results of past racially-discriminatory laws and practices.
3. Everyone has the right to establish and maintain, at their own expense, independent educational institutions that:
- Do not discriminate on the basis of race
- Are registered with the state
- Maintain standards that are not inferior to standards at comparable public educational institutions.
4. Subsection 3 does not preclude state subsidies for independent educational institutions.
DHET Legislative Mandate
The Higher Education Act provides for a unified and nationally planned system of higher education and for the statutory Council on Higher Education (CHE) (link www.che.org.za).
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS Act) provides for the granting of loans and bursaries to eligible students at universities as well as for the administration of such loans and bursaries.
The Further Education and Training Act (AET Act) provides for the establishment of public and private adult learning centres.
The Further Education and Training Act (FET Act) provides for the governance and funding of FET Colleges and matters related in providing an FET college education.
The Continuing Education and Training Act, 2006, (Act No 16 of 2006 (SET Act, 2006).
The National Qualification Framework Act (NQF Act) provides for the management of the NQF via level dispensations and related matters, as well as for qualifications and quality assurance of qualification required on the sub-frameworks of the NQF.
The Skills Development Levies Act provides for the imposition of skills development levies and matters related thereto.
The Skills Development Act provides for the creation of a National Skills Agency, the establishment of the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations and regulation of apprenticeships and learnerships and matters related to skills development.
North West
North West Provincial of Education
Dr Albert Luthuli Drive
Mafikeng
Tel + 27 18 388 2563