by funding cuts
Jim Day
THE view from her back door is of acres and acres of corrugated steel roofs, weighted down by cement blocks and broken furniture. Thin columns of smoke rise from fires burning in steel drums. All around her, the streets are teeming with people, cars and a small herd of goats.
The environment, says Nompumelelo, a 28- year-old Wits University student who asked that her surname not be used, is “not conducive to studying”. But it is where she will return next week when she leaves her student residence hall in Parktown. Earlier this month, Nompumelelo lost a bursary from the Institute for Race Relations after changing her course of study to a field not covered by the institute’s bursary program. She had depended upon it for three years to pay for tuition and accommodation.
With two semesters to go to a degree in industrial sociology, Nompumelelo has learned first-hand what thousands of South Africa students know: without financial support, university is prohibitively expensive.
Even the R28 it costs weekly to travel from Alexandra to Wits is more than her mother can afford on a R400 per month pension. The thousands of rands per semester she needs for residence and tuition is out of the question.
She has been fighting all her life for a brighter future for herself and her 10- year-old daughter. She learned five languages. She worked a string of jobs from clerk to field worker. With the encouragement of teachers and her mother she kept plugging away.
She still has options. She could try to find another bursary, or work to pay her fees. In the past Nompumelelo also could have counted on a government-funded student loan. But with large-scale cuts in funding for higher education looming, that may not be possible. It is a situation that thousands of needy students face.
The Finance Ministry’s 1997 preliminary budget figures call for cuts in student loans from R300-million to R250-million. Education officials hope they can find more money before the budget is finalised, but as the figures stand, the number of students who receive assistance could drop from 60 000 this year to 45 000 next year, said Roy Jackson, the chief executive officer of the Tertiary Education Fund of South Africa, which administers the loans.
The South African Students Congress (Sasco) has announced plans for nationwide demonstrations in the coming weeks, partly in response to the funding crisis. Sasco leaders say the government is discriminating against poor students.
The cuts will have the greatest affect on institutions that traditionally served disadvantaged students, most of whom depended on some degree of financial aid. For example, Peninsular Technikon in Cape Town will see the largest cuts in the country. It received R12,4-million in 1996 for student loans; should the preliminary 1997 figures hold, Pentech will receive R7,9-million, a 36% reduction.
Meanwhile, institutions which used to have a predominantly white student body expect fewer cuts as more previously disadvantaged students enrol. At Wits, more than 2 000 undergraduate students received about R13- million in government loans in the 1996 budget year. Preliminary figures showed that amount could be cut to R9,2-million in the 1997 budget year, which would make for a 29% cut.
“Always in the past, if a student proves to us he is needy, we could provide the money,” said Liz Fick, the senior assistant registrar for financial aid and scholarships at Wits. “Now, unless the government comes up with more money, we may not be able to meet the needs of all students.”
Lincoln Mali, spokesman for Education Minister Sibusiso Bengu, said the minister was “optimistic” that greater funding could be secured, but Mali offered no information on negotiations under way. “There is a phase in which these matters must remain confidential,” he said. “We can only engage the public when these figures are finalised.” Figures for 1997 education funding could be released next week, said Mali.
From her home in crowded Alexandra Nompumelelo will be anxiously awaiting their decision.