1. Its been a hectic week & I haven’t really had the opportunity to respond to those who have requested my views on the univ. crises. So here goes: The core issue is funding – if higher education was properly funded, many issues would disappear, including that of accommodation.
2. Why do we have a funding problem? Following the #FMF protests, 2 options emerged on solving the crisis. The first, proposed by the Heher Commission was to offer a loan plan via the banks, with the state putting up the collateral. This would’ve covered all students in univs.
3. There was a downside to the proposal. It would have resulted in a debt for students that had to be paid when they were employed and reached a certain income threshold. Both the student leadership and the ANC’s state capture crowd opposed it. They demanded a grant & not a loan.
4. This grant was the 2nd option. But SA could not afford a comprehensive grant option. It would have cost R150-R200 billion extra p.a. to cover all students. The decision: a full grant (tuition, accommodation. & subsistence) for those with a family income of less than 350k p.a.
5. The advantage was students had no debt. The downside: it covered only 50% of students. This left out the missing middle students. They were too rich for NSFAS, but too poor to pay their own way. Each option had positives and negatives that required hard decisions & trade-offs.
6. Zuma, the pol. opportunist opted for the grant solution.He wanted to skew the elections for the ANC presidency.He did not succeed but Ramaphosa stuck with the decision.The result: missing middle are unfunded, accom. crisis persists,protests continue & pol. instability endures.
7. If we had gone for the loan scheme, the entire system would’ve been funded and we would’ve had stability. Yes,students would’ve had debt but we would’ve had the space of 5- 7 years to enable growth & free parts of the system.But we wanted everything at once without trade-offs.
8. Another problem is students who continue to fail. NSFAS’s funding rule is N+1 which allows for only one failure. If you fail 2 or more times you lose your bursary & can no longer cover your costs.The accomm. crisis at Wits is as a result of those who failed 2 or more times.
9. The solution to this problem is for univs to implement the N+1 rule. But SAUS & the broader student leadership oppose this, demanding the funding of students who repeatedly fail. But is it fair to society for a student who repeatedly fails to be supported by public funds?
10. Should we not demand accountability from students who repeatedly fail? Should they not dedicate themselves to their studies and pass? Is it not selfish to demand to stay in the system whilst continuously failing? For every student that doesn’t leave, another cannot come in.
11. One final matter – the reason our campuses are burning is also because the SAPS do not do their jobs properly. The police are reluctant to make arrests, focus on protecting the rights of protestors, & never the rights of ordinary citizens who are often threatened & violated.
12. How can there be so much arson at our univs without anyone being arrested? The crisis of violence in society is a direct result of the incompetence of the police service. Even democracies require good policing. When police fail to do their job, the poor in society suffer.
13. In summary, the crisis we now confront is a collective failure. It is our pol. failure to make the right choices, the lack of accountability of both failing students & anarchist student leaders, & the failure of SAPS to protect students whose rights are continuously violated.
14. Our student leaders need to heed the simple lesson of Amilcar Cabral, a revolutionary they fond of quoting:
“Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories...”
“Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories...”
