Measles vaccination coverage has steadily declined since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the new World Health Organisation (WHO) and United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports revealed.

According to the joint publication, a record high of nearly 40 million children missed a measles vaccine dose, of which 25 million children missed their first dose and an additional 14.7 million children skipped their second dose in 2021.

“This decline is a significant setback in global progress towards achieving and maintaining measles elimination and leaves millions of children susceptible to infection.”

In 2021, according to the WHO and CDC, there were an estimated nine million cases and 128 000 deaths from measles worldwide.

Meanwhile, the research found that 22 countries experienced large and disruptive outbreaks.

Declines in vaccine coverage; weakened measles surveillance; continued interruptions and delays in immunisation activities due to COVID-19; as well as persistent large outbreaks in 2022 mean that measles is an imminent threat in every region of the world.

In South Africa, Limpopo recorded 52 cases since the beginning of the measles outbreak.

This comes after the National Institute For Communicable Diseases of South Africa declared a measles outbreak after three cases from two healthcare facilities were reported in the same district in October.

“The paradox of the pandemic is that while vaccines against COVID-19 were developed in record time and deployed in the largest vaccination campaign in history, routine immunisation programmes were badly disrupted, and millions of kids missed out on life-saving vaccinations against deadly diseases like measles,” said WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“Getting immunisation programmes back on track is critical. Behind every statistic in this report is a child at risk of a preventable disease.”

According to the two organisations, the situation is grave.

Measles is one of the most contagious human viruses but is almost entirely preventable through vaccination.

“Coverage of 95% or greater of two doses of measles-containing vaccine is needed to create herd immunity to protect communities and achieve and maintain measles elimination. The world is well under that, with only 81% of children receiving their first measles-containing vaccine dose, and only 71% of children receiving their second measles-containing vaccine dose.”

These figures, according to the institutions, are the lowest global coverage rates of the first dose of measles vaccination since 2008, although the coverage varies by country.

Meanwhile, no WHO region has achieved and sustained measles elimination.

Since 2016, 10 countries that had previously eliminated measles experienced outbreaks and re-established transmission.

“The record number of children under-immunised and susceptible to measles shows the profound damage immunisation systems have sustained during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said CDC Director, Dr Rochelle Walensky.

Delays increase the risk of measles outbreaks, so the time for public health officials to accelerate vaccination efforts and strengthen surveillance is now.

CDC and WHO urge coordinated and collaborative action from all partners at global, regional, national, and local levels to prioritise efforts to find and immunise all unprotected children, including those who were missed during the last two years.

SA NEWS

Principals in South Africa have warned that children returning to a traditional school setting after being homeschooled are likely to have to repeat a year.

Citing feedback from several principals, Rapport noted that these children would have to be held back because they are far behind their peers.

This has the result of children ultimately repeating a year of schooling, with the principals noting that they may only graduate from high school at the age of 20.

According to the City Press, virtual schools – which gained popularity during the Covid-19 lockdown – are getting an influx of complaints about the quality of education.

The Department of Basic Education has noted that virtual/online schools are seeing high drop-out rates, while traditional school principals report an influx of children wanting to return to classrooms.

On top of academic challenges, the schools said that returning children also face challenges with the ‘hidden curriculum’ of socialisation and interacting with peers.

The principals said that online and virtual schools are better suited to supportive or complementary roles in education.

Homeschooling under scrutiny

Homeschooling is coming into focus, with the government looking to better regulate the sector through the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill.

The bill is currently with parliament, which is hearing oral submissions on aspects of the bill.

While the proposed laws deal with a host of changes to schools in South Africa – including controversial language changes and proposals to allow the sale of alcohol on school premises – the bill also wants to have more say on how homeschooling operates in the country.

This has led to backlash from the homeschooling sector, however.

Thousands of submissions have been made challenging homeschooling clauses, given that South Africa has seen the emergence of “schools” – online, in-person, and done at home – which deal with private tutoring and assistance to learners.

These are not registered institutions, as the new laws would require, but are providing an alternative education to tens of thousands of learners in the country. These groups became increasingly popular during two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, which left traditional schools in chaos and saw a swell in online and remote learning.

They have also become popular because they offer alternative international curricula, which parents are drawn to, having lost faith in the CAPS system used in traditional schools.

While the education department has made its intentions of regulating the sector clear, submissions over the BELA Bill show that parents and stakeholders believe it overreaches and that it should be up to parents to decide how their children are educated – not the state.

Operators in the sector, meanwhile, warned that the South African Schools Act is not appropriate or equipped to regulate homeschooling in the country and that the department has not conducted the necessary research to make effective changes.

BUSINESS TECH

WALTER Sisulu University (WSU) and Samsung South Africa recently launched the WSU-Samsung Innovation Campus in a bid to boost youth employment in the technology sector. WSU and Samsung fostered this twinning agreement through the Centre for Entrepreneurship Rapid Incubator (CfERI) to coach the WSU student community on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) skills.

Since it is the WSU norm to form partnerships with various organisations, through the Directorate For Short learning programmes (DSLP) – WSU forged to embark on this strategic partnership with Samsung.

Dr Thobekani Lose at WSU says: “This partnership came as a result of various engagements, a sealed deal and a signed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between WSU and Samsung. This WSU-Samsung Innovation Campus is one of its kind in South Africa and is a flagship partnership with Samsung to contribute to the national imperative of creating work-ready employable students.”

An initial cohort of 21 students was inducted to kick-start the programme, whose main objective is to target the youth who are within the university and develop their 4IR skills and empower them as future technological entrepreneurs. The WSU-Samsung Innovation Campus will offer basic coding and programming education in the first year of this agreement.

Samsung believes that young people are the leaders of the future. And while the future might be full of challenges and uncertainties, education is what allows youth to realise their full potential and prepare themselves to keep moving forward with confidence.

Well aware of the great importance of education, Samsung works to equip young people with the skills and knowledge they will need to build a better world.

Through its global Samsung Innovation Campus initiative, Samsung is committed to empowering the leaders of tomorrow and equipping them with the tools they will need to realise meaningful change.

Hlubi Shivanda, Director: Business Operations and Innovation and Corporate Affairs at Samsung South Africa says: “As Samsung, we are very firm in our belief that every young person deserves quality education regardless of their background, gender, ability, or personal circumstances. Over the years – through partnerships such as the WSU-Samsung Innovation Campus – we have empowered a countless number of young people to slowly but steadily contribute towards positive change in their societies and the country’s economy at large. This partnership with WSU is therefore no different – our commitment to empowering the youth and contribute to the country’s 4IR and employment goals remains.”

SUPPLIED

With a new outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) reported this year in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – the 14th EVD outbreak in the country – researchers at the University of the Free State (UFS) introduced a new concept that can be used to test whether the spread will have one or several waves. They believe the focus should be to identify the source or the hosts of this virus for it to be a complete eradication.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Ministry of Health in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) declared an outbreak of Ebola in Mbandaka health zone, Equateur Province on April 23, 2022. EVD, formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness affecting humans and other primates. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals (such as fruit bats, porcupines and non-human primates) and then spreads in the human population through direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials (e.g. bedding, clothing) contaminated with these fluids, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Prof Abdon Atangana, Professor of Applied Mathematics in the Institute for Groundwater Studies (IGS), says existing mathematical models are used to first fit collected data and then predict future events. Predictions help lawmakers to take decisions that will help protect their citizens and their environments. The outbreaks of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases have exposed the weakness of these models as they failed to predict the number of waves and in several instances; they failed to predict accurately day-to-day new infections, daily deaths and recoveries.

Solving the challenges of the current models

In the case of COVID-19 in South Africa, it is predicted that the country had far more infections than what was recorded, which is due to challenges faced by the medical facilities, poverty, inequality, and other factors. With Ebola in the DRC, data recorded are not far from reality due to the nature of the virus and its symptoms. However, the predictions show although some measures have been put in place in DRC and other places where the Ebola virus spread, they will still face some challenges in the future, as the virus will continue to spread but may have less impact.

“To solve the challenges with the current models, we suggested a new methodology. We suggested that each class should be divided into two subclasses (Detected and undetected) and we also suggested that rates of infection, recovery, death and vaccination classes should be a function of time not constant as suggested previously. These rates are obtained from what we called daily indicator functions. For example, an infection rate should be obtained from recorded data with the addition of an uncertain function that represents non-recorded data (Here more work is still to be done to get a better approximation).

“I introduced a new concept called strength number that can be used to test whether the spread will have one or several waves. The strength number is an accelerative force that helps to provide speed changes, thus if this number is less than zero we have deceleration, meaning there will be a decline in the number of infections. If the number is positive, we have acceleration, meaning we will have an increase in numbers. If the number is zero, the current situation will remain the same,” according to Prof Atangana.

To provide better prediction, he continues, reliable data are first fitted with the suggested mathematical model. This helps them to know if their mathematical model is replicating the dynamic process of the spread. The next step is to predict future events, to do this, we create three sub-daily indicator functions (minimum, actual, and maximum). These will lead to three systems, the first system represents the worst-case scenario, the second is the actual scenario, and the last is a best-case scenario.

Virus will continue to spread but with less impact

Using this method, Prof Atangana, a highly cited mathematician for the years 2019-2021, says they were able to predict that, although some measures have been put in place in DRC and other places where the Ebola virus spreads, they will still face some challenges in the future as the virus will continue to spread but may have less impact.

To properly achieve the conversion from observed facts into mathematical formulations and to address these limitations, he had to ask fundamental questions such as what is the rate of infection, what is the strength of the infection, what are the crossover patterns presented by the spread, how can day-to-day new infected numbers be predicted and what differential operator should be used to model a dynamic process followed by the spread?

This approach was tested for several infectious diseases where we present the case of Ebola in Congo and Covid-19 in South Africa. 

Source: UFS

Zayd Waghid

BACK in 2018 I joined the millions of people who flocked to cinemas worldwide to watch Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther. The story of an ultra modern African society not shaped by colonialism was celebrated by critics and audiences alike as “revolutionary”. It won three Oscars. Now its sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is dominating box office returns and delighting critics.

While I enjoyed and was entertained by the first film, I was also struck by its potential as a teaching tool. Its Afrofuturistic approach – using the past to imagine futures that differ from existing historical narratives – could, I thought, be a catalyst for dispelling myths about African history, culture and tradition. It might be a way to help my students – trainee teachers at a South African institution – overcome cognitive injustice. This is the idea that some forms of knowledge are more significant than others.

Eurocentrism, which is based on a biased view of western or European knowledge at the expense of knowledge from the global south, leads to cognitive injustice.

As I’ve explored in my research, students at a university in the global south might experience cognitive injustice when the curriculum is dominated by western thought and knowledge.

Overcoming their own sense of cognitive injustice is a powerful way for educators to enable their students to question and transform society’s unbalanced power relations. This is especially urgent in a South African society troubled by gender-based violence, xenophobia, racism and social inequality.

So I conducted a study in which I examined whether seeing Black Panther influenced future teachers to think differently about their identities and relationships with others. I used the film to introduce them to the concept of Afrofuturism. I found that Black Panther made a significant contribution to the students’ awareness by reinforcing the idea that people should be proud of how they look, and that beauty is not tied to a grand, western or global standard, but is, rather, fluid and different for each person.

By understanding the importance of identity and using teaching methods that are sensitive to different cultures, these teachers will be better able to promote diversity in their future classrooms.

Varying messages

Fifty-two trainee teachers were involved in the study. They were asked to see the film in cinemas and we then discussed what they learned from it.

The students identified with several aspects of Black Panther, often depending on their own place in society.

For instance, some of the female students found the film’s message of gender equality to be the most interesting aspect. These students perceived a connection between the many roles portrayed by the black actresses in the film and their capacity for both physical and emotional expression. They further seemed to have had the insight that a society’s power dynamics may be shaken up when women are given equal status within that society.

Most of the female students held the belief that the way women are treated in their communities or society renders them helpless. However, several of them felt inspired by the film to take a stand against the many forms of discrimination that, in today’s culture, make it difficult for roles to be shared equitably.

Several students felt the systems and structures of many modern African communities demonstrated that the continent was still subject to the policies of globalisation rather than developing its own policies, tailored to its requirements.

Challenging norms

A few other students expressed their views on the importance of challenging political norms, as well as resisting orthodox ways of thinking. They were firmly on the side of decolonisation – pulling entirely away from global north influence, theories and knowledge systems.

Others, though, insisted that it was essential to collaborate with others from across the globe rather than to operate in isolation. They argued that western and European knowledge had value but that African knowledge and policies ought to be at the centre of learning and teaching on the continent.

In my opinion, schools in South Africa are lacking a social justice curriculum that would teach students about the concept of cognitive injustice. Students should constantly be immersed in a welcoming learning environment that acknowledges and appreciates their individuality, while also fostering a feeling of community among their peers. Black Panther’s Afrofuturistic perspective, in my opinion, encourages students to reflect on what makes them unique and to be receptive to discussions on the impact of gender stereotypes and racism on their experiences in the classroom and beyond.

Using Black Panther as a way into exploring Afrofuturism led to decolonial ideas. That, in turn, could alter the students’ future classrooms if they take up these ideas in teaching and learning. Those classrooms would be fairer and more inclusive, giving pupils a chance to speak up and challenge society’s norms, values and attitudes.

Zayd Waghid, Associate professor, Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

THE CONVERSATION

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA

IN my address to the second Presidential Summit on Gender-based Violence and Femicide at the beginning of this month, I said that we are a nation at war with itself.

This is borne out by the crime statistics for the last quarter, which were released last week, just ahead of the start of the annual 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children.

Between July and September this year, 989 women were murdered, 1,277 were victims of attempted murder and more than 13,000 were victims of serious assault. In just these three months, more than 10,000 rape cases were opened with the South African Police Service (SAPS).

Not even children, our most vulnerable citizens and most deserving of our care and protection, were spared. In the six months to September 2022, over 500 children were killed.

We are in the grip of terrible crimes in which offenders are known to the victims. Women and children are being violated not only by strangers but by people who are known to them – by their fathers, boyfriends and husbands, by colleagues, teachers and even classmates.

However, as a society, we are not powerless to stop these crimes. We can stop gender-based violence.

Over the last few years, there has been a growing mobilisation of all sectors of society to stop the abuse of women and children. There have been some areas of progress.

The latest crime statistics show some of the successes of the criminal justice system in bringing perpetrators to book. In the reporting period, the SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences units arrested over 4,000 alleged perpetrators of gender-based violence and 410 alleged rapists were traced and arrested.

More than 17,000 trial-ready GBV cases were processed by teams of the SAPS and the National Prosecuting Authority. The courts are also handing down heavier sentences to perpetrators.

While we should be encouraged that many of the perpetrators are not being allowed to get away with their crimes, our foremost task is to prevent men and boys from becoming abusers in the first place.

Men are the perpetrators of gender-based violence and it is therefore men that need to change. It is men – as husbands and partners, as fathers, colleagues, peers and classmates – who need to consider their own attitudes towards women and girls.

To give meaning to 16 Days of Activism we now need to engage the men of South Africa in a dialogue about their responsibility towards women and toxic masculinity. All of society should be mobilised to organise these men’s dialogues.

The government, non-governmental organisations and the private sector should be encouraged to support such dialogues in every workplace, place of worship, school, college and university, and in every community. Every day various entities devote resources to public engagements, conferences and seminars on various pressing social, economic and political issues of the day. These are forums where this engagement should happen.

Eradicating gender-based violence is no less urgent or important. These crimes affect every aspect of our society, including health and well-being, safety and security, and economic growth and productivity.

In these dialogues, we need to examine our understanding of sexual consent. We must challenge the myth that rape is only considered rape if it involves a stranger, or if the victim responded by screaming for help, fighting back or reporting the matter immediately to the police.

By bringing together men of all races, classes and generations to speak frankly about their understanding of masculinity, we can show how some assumptions and practices that many people consider ‘normal’ are harmful to women and children.

We must change beliefs that men are strong and women are weak, that men have to be in charge, or that men can do as they please with women. Men need to understand that they can and should express their pain and frustrations without inflicting harm on others.

As President, I stand ready to participate in men’s dialogues. I call on Ministers, Premiers, religious, political and community leaders, sports people, artists, celebrities and business people to do the same.

The men of South Africa owe it to the women and children of this country to take up the struggle against gender-based violence.

These men’s dialogues can be platforms for men to challenge each other to become better men, more responsible, more understanding and more caring.

From the desk of the President

WENDY MOTHATA

The Gauteng Education Department has placed 87.71% of Grade 1 and 8 learners who had applied for admission through the online admissions placement process.

Education MEC Matome Chiloane was briefing the media on the progress of 2023 online admissions and learner placement on Sunday at Parktown Boys, in Johannesburg

He said that parents who failed to accept placement offers for their children were delaying the process.

“One of the things that is clogging the system is that we got 5,485 applicants who have received offers but whose parents have not accepted them, and this delays the process. You find that a learner has been offered space in two or three different schools, and until they can accept that offer, the system will cover those spaces as filled.”

Chiloane said so far, 87.71% of applicants had been placed while 12.29% were not yet placed.

“We need parents to assist us by accepting offers in one of the places so they can free up the system and we can continue placing other learners. This has been one of the problems we are facing.”

“We had received 332477 unique applications for both grade 8 and 1 of those 157 697 were grade 1, and 174 780 were for grade 8. We have managed to please 87.7% of those learners so far.”

“Currently we are sitting with 35 897 (12.24%) for both grade 1 and grade 8 pupils awaiting to be placed which is 9 897 for grade 1 and 26 000 for grade 8, and we are still in the process to place them.”

Chiloane assured parents that they should not be worried that their children have not been placed.

“Parents should not be worried that they have not been placed as the time towards the end of the placement period is coming closer.”

The department said that those who will be appealing regarding where their children are placed, they will be considered.

“Those who will be eligible to object are those who will be transferred to schools that they would not have applied for. Those are appeals that will be considered. All objections will be judged on their merit.”

“The merit varies. You’ll find that we’ve placed your child in a school far from you, and there is no scholar transport or any other measure in place for your child to go to that school. Those are some of the merits we’ll be looking at. So they vary, it’s multiple factors…so we’ll be looking at every single objection with its own merit.”

“So with this process, we are looking to avail around 599 additional classrooms for primary schools and 698 additional classrooms for secondary schools. This isn’t only for high pressure schools that you see here, also other schools that might not necessarily be streamlined.”

INSIDE EDUCATION

Scholar transport accident claims life of a Grade 3 Yusuf Dadoo pupil, two in critical condition

A private scholar transport vehicle carrying primary and secondary school learners was involved in an accident claiming the life of a Grade 3 learner and leaving two learners in critical condition.

The incident occurred in the morning on Thursday in Azaadville, West Rand. A nine-year old Grade 3 boy learner from Dr. Yusuf Dadoo Primary School suffered severe injuries and was airlifted to a hospital.

Unfortunately, he succumbed to his injuries and passed on while receiving medical attention, the department said. 

Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane said he is saddened about the incident.

“We are saddened by this unfortunate incident which claimed the life of one of our learners. We wish to convey sincerest condolences to the family and the school community. The Department pleads with scholar transport drivers to exercise the utmost vigilance on our roads when transporting our learners, said Chiloane.

There are currently two learners who are in critical condition being treated at a medical facility. 

The department said investigations are underway to determine the cause of the accident. 

Affected schools and families will be receiving trauma support and counselling. 

Learners from Dr. Yusuf Dadoo Primary School and Ahmed Secondary School were onboard, according to the official report.  

-INSIDE EDUCATION

GAUTENG education department will be using anti-Apartheid activist Matthew Goniwe’s legacy to inspire efforts to improve the quality of education to benefit the poor, MEC Matome Chiloane told guests at the annual memorial lecture in Birchwood hotel on Wednesday evening. 

Goniwe dedicated his life to fighting inequalities in the education system. 

“The most fitting honour to his memory and legacy will be a solemn commitment to continue the fight for quality education for all irrespective of where the school may be located in the province,” he said.  

Goniwe was a qualified teacher who believed in quality education for all and as a community leader. 

He went on to establish a feeding scheme, a school choir, a debating society as well as boxing, rugby and soccer clubs to keep the youth in his community actively and productively engaged.

Today, the MEC said Goniwe would be proud to hear the Gauteng success story and progress in improving the quality of education using path breaking initiatives such as the  ‘reorganisation of schools’ programme. 

In the interest of advancing the quality of education for the most marginalised, Chiloane said the department has been able to change the education landscape and accelerate quality learning through the ‘twinning our schools for resource optimization’.

The programme will see the pairing of an under-resourced school (usually located in a township or rural area) with a well-resourced school (usually located in a suburb).  

He told guests that he intends establishing a Section 17 Governing Body that will develop a constitution and plans to improve social cohesion and share resources which will in turn, he said, impact on learner outcomes. 

Section 17 of the South African Schools Act of 1996 gives a member of the executive council the power to determine, for example, that the governance of two or more public schools should be in a single governing body only if it is in the best interest of education.

Using this approach, he said resources are being shared and learner performance is above 90% in both schools. 

Through ‘Schools of Specialisation’, sector specific skills to learners will be provided with the aim to address the skills shortages. The specialty of these schools covers Maths, Science and IT, Commerce and Entrepreneurship, Performing and Creative Arts, Engineering and Sports. 

Chiloane said learners from Soshanguve Technical High School have built a one-of-a-kind solar powered train.

“It is such inventions that will come from such schools that will assist the country as we deal with the effects of the energy crisis and rising fuel costs. Through the Gauteng Townships Informal Settlements and Hostels (TISH) program, we will be establishing most of these schools in our townships,” he said.

The Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance will play a critical role in ensuring the success of initiatives aimed at improving the quality of education. Through the school’s programmes aimed at ensuring optimal teaching and learning, Chiloane said the school must continue capacitating school leadership and management.

Chiloane applauded Mathew Goniwe school for continuing to educate and empower many teachers, principals and school leadership in general.

Adv Thembeka Ngcukaitobi was the guest speaker at the event. Delegates heard that Matthew Goniwe was no arm-chair revolutionary nor critic but truly immersed in the development of his community, Cradock.

To this day, it remains a befitting decision because the mere mention of his name is a call to action for us all and a reminder of his exemplary life that espoused values such as black excellence, servanthood, humility and ethical leadership. 

The Gauteng education department is celebrating the 20th anniversary Celebrations of the Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and governance. 

INSIDE EDUCATION

WENDY MOTHATA ||

ALL National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) beneficiaries at University and TVET colleges will start receiving allowances and transacting via the NSFAS bankcard in 2023 academic year.

The financial aid scheme said the new payment solution will alleviate challenges experienced through the current allowance payment method as well as appropriately cater for the ever-increasing number of beneficiaries and large amounts of funds to be disbursed.

The scheme said that the new payment system is secure and will protect beneficiaries from the increasing number of fraudulent activities that result in allowances not reaching the intended recipients.

The President of the South African Union of Students, Lubabalo Ndzoyiya, has affirmed the students’ full support of the new direct payment system, indicating that it is long overdue.

“We have been long requesting that NSFAS removes the middleman in its processes and offerings to simplify students’ lives. And this is a step in the right direction,” said Ndzoyiya.

It has become so easy to access your allowances, you can now withdraw money using the cardless withdrawal option by dialling the*134*7772# USSD code. #NSFASMasterCard#NSFAS2023 pic.twitter.com/jRamzCtWs0

— NSFAS (@myNSFAS) November 23, 2022

NSFAS CEO Andile Nongogo officially introduced the new allowance payment system for NSFAS beneficiaries which will see them get paid through a NSFAS bank account.

“With the current payment system, students are at times confined to certain transactions and purchases; the new system will give them financial freedom, such as withdrawals at ATMs and till points at retail stores as well as access to virtual transactions,” said Nongogo.

Nongogo said that the new system will eliminate the middleman and enable NSFAS to take accountability in cases where payments are not made to beneficiaries on time.

“We are not saying that NSFAS will transform into our ideal scheme overnight, however NSFAS is taking the necessary steps to ensure that the Student-Centered Model is realised,” said Nongogo.

The President of the South African Technical Vocational Education and Training Student Association, Sphiwe Khumalo said that he hopes the new system will be able to empower the students through its alignment with the 4th industrial revolution.

“We will not distance ourselves from this system as it has always been our wish for students to get their allowances directly and that they should be able to transact online, this will eliminate the risks of students losing cash or getting robbed,” said Khumalo.

NSFAS said it is in contact with various retail stores and other state entities to create a platform for students to walk in at their facilities.

“The new payment system is secure and will protect beneficiaries from the increasing number of fraudulent activities that result in allowances not reaching the intended recipients.”

Wits Masters student Andile Nkambule said that the new payment method will be convenient for most of the students.  

“The new payment system will be convenient to most of the students. The good thing about it is that you get allowances directly into the bank account. What is exciting is that you can make online transactions and purchases,” Nkambule said.  

However, University of Johannesburg student Martha Themba said she has read about the new card but still needs clarity on questions she has.

“I tried reading up about it. There are things I don’t understand. With this card it looks like not all students will be eligible to have it.”

-INSIDE EDUCATION