1. The White Paper for Post School Education and Training, published by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) in 2013, calls for the establishment of community colleges to cater for second-chance learning opportunities for out-ofschool youth and adults.
2. Draft National Policy on Community Colleges (see Government Notice No. 868), developed in terms of Section 41B of the Further Education and Training Colleges Act, 2006 (Act 16 of 2006), was published for comment in the Government Gazette No. 38158, Vol. 595, dated 7 November 2014.
3. This draft policy provides for, among other things, the framework for the establishment of community colleges.
4. Accordingly, existing public adult learning centres (PALCs) will be absorbed into community colleges through a conversion and merger process.
5. In order to prepare for this process, the Minister intends consulting (see Government Notice No. 869) centre governing bodies (CGBs) of public adult education and training (AET) centres as required in terms of Sections 41A(b) and 41C(a)(m) of the Further Education and Training Colleges Act, 2006 (Act 16 of 2006) and also in terms of Section 5 of the Adult Education and Training Act, 2000 (Act 52 of 2000).
6. Members of the CGBs and interested persons are given an opportunity to make representations in writing to the Minister within 90 calendar days after the publication of Government Notice No. 869.
7. Comments should be directed to:

The Director General
(Attention: Mr D Diale)
Department of Higher Education and Training
Private Bag X174
Pretoria
0001

Fax: 086 298 9707
E-mail: diale.d@dhet.gov.za

8. Kindly bring the content of this minute to the attention of all concerned.


SIGNED: J H LYNERS
DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL: INSTITUTION DEVELOPMENT & CO-ORDINATION
DATE: 2015:01:16

Government Notice No. 868  (size: 508 KB)
Government Notice No. 869  (size: 382 KB)
Adult Education and Training Act, 2000  (size: 477 KB)