Volume II - The Northern Cape Provincial Spatial Development ...

Northern Cape PSDF
Volume 2
Office of the Premier &
Department of Rural Development & Land Reform
91
December 2011
Mpumalanga 28.5% 16.2% 6.1% 25.9% 16.5% 5.6%
Limpopo 32.8% 14.0% 5.6% 25.6% 14.1% 6.6%
The table below gives the Percentage of the adult education levels on district levels for the
Northern Cape in 2007. It is evident that Pixley ka Seme had the lowest adult education
attainment levels in the Northern Cape with 27.3% of the adult population having no form of
schooling, whilst John Taolo Gaetsewe is second with 25.4% having no schooling. The highest
number of the adult population with tertiary education (6.4%) is located in Frances Baard.
Table E.20: Adult Education on district level, 2007(Source: Quantec Research, 2009 as cited in the
LED Strategy).
DISTRICT
MUNICIPALITY
NO
SCHOOLING
SOME
PRIMARY
COMPLETE
PRIMARY
(GRADE 7)
SOME
SECONDARY
COMPLETE
SECONDARY
(GRADE 12)
HIGHER
(TERTIARY)
John Taolo Gaetsewe 25.4% 25.8% 6.4% 24.5% 13.0% 4.9%
Namaqua 11.5% 21.7% 11.6% 35.3% 14.2% 5.7%
Pixley ka Seme 27.3% 23.5% 7.6% 24.5% 11.8% 5.4%
Siyanda 17.0% 24.3% 9.1% 29.1% 14.85 4.6%
Frances Baard 18.2% 18.4% 7.1% 31.7% 16.9% 6.4%
According to the LED Strategy, the province moved from second position in 2000, to the first
position in 2001 (84.3%), 2002 (90%) and 2003 (90.9%), achieving the top matriculation results
amongst all nine provinces. There has been a decline in matric pass rates between 2004 and 2008
(i.e. 83.4% to 72.6%), however, the overall number of candidates that wrote full examination
annually since 1996, increased gradually and reached a peak in 2003 with 90.7% and declined to
70.3% in 2007. Since 2001, access to higher education in the province has been supported and
encouraged through the awarding of the Premier’s bursary fund. In 2007, the number of students
and the allocated budget more than doubled to 736 (in 2006 it were 322 students) and R16.9
million (in 2006 it was R5.6 million).
E.2.7 SKILL LEVELS
The LED Strategy provides estimates of the different skills levels of the formal employees on
national and provincial level. A ‘skill’ is a necessary competency that can be expertly applied in a
particular context for a defined ‘purpose’ and ‘competence’ and has three elements (LED
Strategy):
• Practical competence: The ability to perform a set of tasks.
• Foundational competence: The ability to understand what we ourselves or others are
doing and why.
• Reflexive competence: The ability to integrate or connect our performance with an
understanding of the performance of others, so that we can learn from our actions and are
able to adapt to changes and unforeseen circumstances.
The table below illustrate the skills level from high to semi/unskilled of South Africa and the
various provinces. The Northern Cape has the smallest portion (11.1%) of highly skilled formal
employees in South Africa and Gauteng has the highest (14.3%). Furthermore, the Northern Cape
has the second largest portion of semi and unskilled formal employees in the country. It can be
concluded that the Northern Cape Province has a low skills base. A lack of skilled people may
directly result in firms, sectors and the country being unable to implement planned growth
Dennis Moss Partnership