Andy Duffy
The Department of Education is pushing for a hefty increase in government funding to poor students next year.
At a meeting earlier this week, department officials surprised campus stakeholders with a proposal to raise the government’s funding to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme far above the R200-million pumped in for 1997.
The increase is being kept under wraps until Cabinet has cleared the proposal, but it is understood it easily outstrips inflation.
Plans to attract donor funding for the aid scheme have still to be finalised. Last year, the government committed itself to raising R100-million from donors. In the end, R131-million was raised from funders such as the European Union.
The education department is hoping to better that performance this year, but questions linger about whether international donors will again come to the party.
Widening the aid scheme is crucial in the government’s drive to bring more students from disadvantaged communities on to campuses.
The Tertiary Education Fund of South Africa (Tefsa), which administers low-interest loans and bursaries under the scheme, says close to 60 000 students benefited from the programme this year.
However, actual demand is believed to be closer to 80 000 students a year. The average loan of R5 062 barely covers tuition and accommodation fees.
Many institutions offer their own loan schemes to supplement support provided by Tefsa, but these have been knocked by recent falls in government subsidies – the institutions’ primary source of income.
Student fees are also expected to climb an average 9% to 10% this year, as institutions seek to compensate for lower government funding. The financial aid scheme is due for a major reorganisation, following a review by the education department and outside experts carried out over the past few months.
The department’s recommendations are expected to go before Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu before the end of the year. The department wants to reshape the scheme so that it becomes self-sustaining, and to revise methods to raise funds among donors.
A former high-profile fund-raising effort – a team of academics and businessmen dubbed the Eminent Persons Group – has attracted little if any cash since it was formed in June 1995. Bengu, however, has requested that the group be retained until the report on reshaping the aid scheme is finalised.
Tefsa is also keen to be more involved in fund-raising – a proposal that enjoys some favour in the education department.
Tefsa director Roy Jackson says it will be a tight squeeze if the organisation has to begin raising donor funds in time for the scheme’s new financial year next April.
However, deputy director general for higher education Nasima Badsha says that fund- raising is a constant process. “Clearly the department would co-operate with Tefsa and work with them to raise resources. We certainly hope [the amount raised from donors] will be higher than this year.”
The department is also in the process of finalising its proposed subsidy allocation to universities and technikons for 1998.
Many campuses are budgeting for less money, but the department says it hopes to maintain funding at current levels.