The Inkatha Freedom Party says it is ”shocked” by the government’s call on universities to reduce student numbers, and refuse readmission to those who fail their first year.
”The policy of reducing student numbers runs against everything the government has been promising people from disadvantaged backgrounds for years,” IFP KwaZulu-Natal MPL and provincial education spokesperson Sibusiso Ngidi said in a statement.
Earlier this week, the government identified — in a document titled Student Enrolment Planning in Higher Education — the high drop-out rate among first-year students as a big financial drain on universities and other higher-learning institutions.
It proposed that students be obliged to pass their first year, or be expelled.
About half the students who register at higher-learning institutions in South Africa fail to complete or pass their first year.
Ngidi said the IFP had been under the impression it was a long-term government priority to increase student numbers at tertiary institutions.
”Now it seems that the government intends to reduce the student population at universities by implementing stringent criteria for admission. Those admitted will be obliged to pass their first year or face expulsion.
”This is in a bid to reduce the huge financial losses caused by the high drop-out rates that tertiary institutions have to contend with,” he said.
However, the government should not only increase funding, but also allocate the existing money more efficiently, Ngidi said.
”Considerably more resources should be directed at providing support structure for students most likely to drop out in the first year of study. In other words, the government should attempt to cure the underlying disease, not the symptoms.”
The IFP contended that the students most likely to drop out ”do invariably come from the previously disadvantaged backgrounds”.
”A large majority of these young people lack cultural capital to cope with the pressures and demands of academic life. If granted appropriate support structures, most of these students would pass,” Ngidi said. — Sapa