Training authority, students clash over stipends
Students feel the training authority has failed them.
ANGRY students of Khonkolo Training Centre in New Germany demanded a meeting with the Sector Education Training Authority SETA) management after not getting the stipends they were promised when they started their learnership programme.
The General Education and Training programme (GET) which teaches people to read and write started on 3 February.
The bricklaying and plastering programme began on 28 February this year. Both these programmes are funded and accredited by (SETA). The students said that they feel like they have wasted their time attending these classes because SETA is not taking their grievances seriously.
“We are very disappointed with this issue, we thought this programme would make a huge difference in our lives as some of us are bread winners in our homes,” said one of the students.
On Friday 25 April, a representative from SETA held a meeting with the students to explain the procedures and protocols that they follow before students get their stipends.
The students were not satisfied with SETA’s explanation as they claimed that they were not told about all these protocols when they started the programme.
After the meeting, one of the lectures, Thulasizwe Ntunja, said it is hard to continue teaching as they had also not been paid. Owner of the training centre, Richard Mahlaba, told the Highway Mail journalist to forward her questions to SETA.
“All the parties that were involved came to an agreement of solving the matter peacefully and complaints were noted by SETA representatives, the authorities will then give feedback to the students,” said Mahlaba.
