Cape Town - Parliament has heard that about 97 national qualifications and 95 foreign qualifications were misrepresented or found to be fraudulent from October to November 2018, bringing the number to 1564 from 2009.
On Wednesday the Department of Higher Education and Training met with Parliament’s Select Committee on Education and Recreation to make submissions on the National Qualifications Framework Amendment Bill.
The bill aims to “name and shame” those holding and using false qualifications.
The department’s director of the National Qualifications Framework, Shirley Lloyd, told Parliament that it was necessary to pass the bill, as numbers for fraudulent qualifications were on the rise.
“For the period October to November 2018, 97 national qualifications were found to be fraudulent and misrepresented, and 95 foreign qualifications were found to have been misrepresented.
“The biggest misrepresentation comes from India with 25, Nigeria with 9, Pakistan 23 and DRC with 15. We have China 1, Zimbabwe 5, Bangladesh 8 and Cameroon 3.”
According to the National Qualifications Framework Amendment Bill, qualifications presented for study, employment or appointment will be referred to SAQA for verification or evaluation.