Free education for all could collapse the system‚ fees commission hears

29 September 2016 - 21:42 By Sipho Mabena

A student organisation told the fees commission on Thursday that free education for all has the potential to collapse the higher education sector as it will result in the flooding of the sector students that are not academically deserving. The South African Further Education and Training Student Association (Safetsa)‚ an independent student body championing the interest of Technical and Vocational Education and Training college students‚ submitted that higher education cannot be free for all but only for those who are financially needy and academically deserving. The organisations' president‚ Yonke Twani‚ told the commission - sitting in Pretoria - that students who were not academically or financially deserving were benefiting from the current National Student Financial Aids Scheme (NSFAS). “The question is‚ does government get its investment return in the current student financial aid scheme? No. There is a low certification rate in TVET colleges‚ which are seen as a dumping ground for those who are not academically gifted‚” he said.He submitted that the NSFAS means test system needs to be ramped up to ensure only those who qualify benefit from free higher education‚ make the scheme full proof to avoid the financially able cheating the system at the expense of the poor.“Put systems in place to ensure that government gets value on its investment in students. That is‚ deal with the challenge of unqualified lecturers employed through nepotism in the sector‚” he told The Times after his submission.He said they had already engaged the Higher Education and Training on the issue of unqualified lecturers employed by their relatives or friends in management.“You get a graduate who passed a particular subject with a distinction‚ who is then employed as a lecturer but that person is not trained in teaching and does not qualify‚” he said.Central to the organisation's submission is that free education had been tried in several developed countries and has proven difficult to sustain.Twani said in the African context‚ free education was tried at Uganda's Makerere University but said it could not be sustained as the economic climate was not ready for such a drastic step.He said Germany‚ Finland and Denmark successfully implemented free education but the economies of these countries were totally different from those of African countries“Fee free is a difficult option but worth being explored. There is a need for the government to be seen as playing a leading role in prioritising student affairs in particular the issue of free fees‚” he said.The organisation‚ formed in 2013‚ recommends that for free undergraduate and college studies be made possible for the poor‚ state and business work together to develop mechanisms to raise necessary capital and regulate the economic landscape to fund free higher education.It also recommended that successful graduates be made to plough back into the sector through financial contributions but these be distributed throughout the sector so that richer universities and colleges do not overshadow poorer ones.The commission‚ appointed by President Jacob Zuma in January in the wake of the 'Fees Must Fall' protests‚ is expected to submit a preliminary report to Zuma by November 15.It is chaired by retired Supreme Court of Appeal judge‚ Jonathan Heher‚ and is tasked with probing the feasibility of fee-free higher education and training in South Africa and making recommendations...

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