The government is finally addressing the tertiary education crisis brought on by students unable to pay fees, reports Philippa Garson
THE government will contribute a record sum of around R260-million towards a new loans fund to aid needy students next year — ; a sum five times greater than the R55-million set aside by the government for students this year.
The news will be met with relief by university administrations and students alike, whose anxiety at the education department’s delay in kickstarting a new national student financial aid scheme for 1996 has been mounting.
The education ministry refused to confirm the extent of its contribution to the national loan scheme, but the Mail & Guardian has been reliably informed it has pledged to make this amount available.
Lincoln Mali, spokesman for Minister Sibusiso Bengu, said Bengu would make an official announcement on the sum of money and on the mechanisms of the new loans scheme when he returns from a trip overseas at the end of the month.
Another departmental source said the ministry was waiting for Cabinet approval on the loan before going public on the issue but the M&G has been informed this is a mere formality.
The financial exclusion of students unable to pay their fees has been the source of ongoing tension on campuses countrywide, with students waging intensive campaigns against administrations intent on keeping non-paying students out.
The fund is expected to assist 70 000 needy students in universities and technikons next year, compared to the 40 000 who received assistance last year.
Although the National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE) was mandated to come up with urgent proposals on a new scheme by the end of July, their recommendations have been sitting with the education department for months and have only recently been approved and implemented.
These include the setting up of two committees, a committee of prominent people — composed of high-profile businessmen, vice-chancellors and academic experts, and chaired by New Africa Investments head Nthato Motlana — to raise funds and invest them to make the loans fund sustainable. An advisory committee will assist the Tertiary Education Fund of South Africa (Tefsa) in administering the fund.
The advisory committee will comprise nominees from student political organisations, student representative councils, the Committee of University Principals and the Committee of Technikon Principals, the education department and Tefsa.
The government contribution will make up close to half the envisaged R600-million to start off phase one of the new national loans scheme. The balance will be raised from foreign and local donors by the “prominent persons” fund-raising committee.
In its report, the NCHE estimated that 70 000 students were in need of financial aid and said R750-million was a “conservative estimation” of the sum needed for next year, adding that “neither the magnitude of the problem nor the urgency of its resolution is sufficiently realised”. The report said unless an effective national student financial aid scheme was implemented, new policy goals for higher education would not be
Motlana said his committee was “still at the exploratory stage” of setting up a mechanism for funding higher education in the country. “We are thinking of an education bank — ; similar to the housing bank — which would become sustainable. But all this is in the discussion stage.” A prerequisite will be that students repay their loans once they are employed.
Re-educating the youth to accept that tertiary education is not free would be crucial to the successful functioning of the system, said Motlana.
“The notion of entitlement must be dispelled. We come from an era where white students have had access to tertiary education and as a result disadvantaged black students feel entitled to higher education. But no government can afford to pay for higher
Teboho Moja, executive director of the NCHE, said there was “no need for universities to panic any more. It took time to get the fund off the ground, but now things are happening at high speed. The government has committed a sum of money for next year, when the first phase of the scheme will be implemented.”
Banks have not as yet been brought into the scheme, largely because they have “taken a hard line” in insisting on commercial interest rates on loans and on not being involved in their recovery, but Moja said negotiations with the banks would hopefully be reopened.
The South African Students’ Congress believes the NCHE has vastly underestimated the number of students in need of financial aid, but has nevertheless welcomed the implementation of the loan scheme.
The establishment of the scheme was a “victory for the student movement”, said Maxwell Fuzani, general secretary of the South African University SRCs. He expressed concern, however, that the concept of a bursaries fund for poor students unable to pay back loans did not seem to feature.
Outgoing president of the South African Technikon Students Union Sipho Mbatha said the move was an indication of the government’s determination to solve the funding crisis. He added, however, that the number of needy technikon students would probably mushroom next year as rationalisation in teaching colleges would send more students to the doors of technikons. The intake at teaching colleges is to be drastically reduced to prevent the training of surplus