CHAPTER 5: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
5.3 The nature of Post-Secondary Correctional Education at the Brandvlei Correctional
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Figure 5.4. The classification of the respondents who had been convicted before at the Brandvlei Correctional Centre
Figure 5.4 discloses that the highest percentage of the respondents were not convicted before, while 37.5% of the respondents were in the justice system before. This means that the majority of the respondents were in the justice system for the first time and the respondents appreciate the opportunity of obtaining PSCE to ensure that they do not recommit the crime.
The next section of this dissertation will focus on presenting the data connected to the four broad research questions of this study.
5.3 The nature of Post-Secondary Correctional Education at the Brandvlei Correctional
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Correctional Centres, including two Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and 46 Management Regions. The Department has nine female correctional centres, 14 for youth and 129 are for men (2013/14 DCS Annual Report). Brandvlei Correctional Centre is in the Western Cape and currently is the flagship in the region that operates as the only correctional centre that offers PSCE (Education & Training awards presentation, 2017). The section will focus on describing the nature of PSCE at the Brandvlei Correctional Centre, aimed at portraying the manner in which this centre operates.
5.3.1 The admission and funding application process
The offenders are given a chance to apply by accessing the MyUnisa portal and to then register online. Both documentary and interview data show that the students are registered through distance learning education with UNISA for certificates, diplomas and degrees up to postgraduate level studies. In terms of funding the qualification for which the students apply, the section head of education and training collects manual NSFAS applications forms for students who have applied for university admission. Students are given a chance to complete the application forms, thereafter the section head collects the application forms and posts these to the NSFAS offices. Most students pay for their own studies while others rely on private sponsorships according to the course towards which they are studying.
Table 4: Total number of students currently studying PSCE and the courses
Qualifications Number of students
Certificates 4
Diplomas 2
Degrees 17
Total 23
The sample selected for this study was 70% of the total students that study PSCE at the Brandvlei Correctional Centre. The total number of students that were registered for PSCE through UNISA
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distance learning was 23 and 16 of these students completed the questionnaire. The table above only reflects PSCE qualifications. As shown in the table above, four of the students that study PSCE were studying certificate qualifications, while two of the students were studying diplomas.
Most significant about the figures is that 17 of the 23 students that were studying through UNISA at Brandvlei Correctional Centre were completing degree qualifications. One of the objectives of DCS was to develop the skills of the offenders as part of the potential South African work force so as to improve their quality of life, prospects of work, labour mobility and also to encourage them to open their own businesses, once released.
5.3.2 The formal education department organogram structure at the Brandvlei Correctional Centre
Every organisation or department needs an organisational diagram that shows how the department is structured and how the positions in the department are related to each other. There are three types of organograms which are hierarchical, matrix and flat. The Brandvlei Correctional Centre formal education department has a hierarchical organisational structure, which is shown in Figure 5.5.
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Figure 5.5: The Brandvlei Correctional Centre formal education department has a hierarchical organisational structure
Figure 5.5 presents the departmental structure of the Brandvlei Correctional Centre formal education department. This department is led by a manager that is responsible for coordinating all education and training programmes as well as to monitor the settling in of the UNISA students at the Hub. There are three coordinators that report directly to the manager; the three coordinators are responsible for three different centres which are: youth centre, maximum centre and medium centre. The UNISA Hub coordinator reports directly to the coordinator of the maximum centre development and is responsible for coordinating and implementing appropriate student support and to liaise with UNISA with regard to the needs and concerns of the students. There is one educationists that report under the coordinator of the development of the youth centre, while there is only one educationist that reports under the coordinator of development in the maximum centre and there are two educationists reporting to the coordinator of development in the medium centre.
Having a functional and clear organisational/departmental structure ensures that the departmental goals and objectives are met while also outlining the chain of command and span of control.
Within the above mentioned departmental structure, the IT UNISA Hub specialist is responsible for ensuring that students access the MyUnisa portal to communicate directly online to UNISA.
The DCS then provides computer equipment required to enable students to comply with UNISA requirements for online services. The computers, however, were not operational at that time.
Therefore, students were utilising their own laptops and modems to access the internet until DCS computers were operationalised.