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By Johnathan Paoli
Higher Education and Training Minister Nobuhle Nkabane has admitted that there are dismal failures and challenges within the post-education and training sector, saying her ministry is prepared to tackle them head-on in an attempt to turn the situation around.
Nkabane, who was joined by top officials from the education sector, held the first of a series of meetings to discuss the reality facing the post-school educational landscape in Ekurhuleni on Friday.
South African Union of Students secretary general Lukhanyo Daweti raised several concerns that students faced in relation to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
He said NSFAS remained a critical problem for the department and it needed to be prioritised.
“NSFAS is the biggest elephant in the room. We cannot and will never allow it to fail, but it remains unfortunate that people view it as a gravy zone,” he said.
Another issue he raised was the utter failure of ICT systems within the sector, despite the injection of R116 million funding from the National Treasury in order to facilitate upgrades and development.
Daweti also said student accommodation was a problem. Despite receiving funding of up to R12 billion, students were still sleeping in libraries and there was a shortage of approximately 500,000 beds within institutions of higher learning.
In light of the recent escalation of crimes specifically against women students, he said the government’s failure in adequately ensuring secure and safe accommodation had reached a point of crisis.
“Our students are dying and it’s painful. Student safety is one of the issues that we need to prioritise and more effective work needs to be done in ensuring their protection,” he said.
Daweti further discussed the issue of transitioning between learners from TVET colleges to universities, and the failures of the latter to recognise the qualifications from the former.
He called for an alignment of curriculum between the two in order to facilitate a smoother transfer of students who were seeking to improve their qualifications.
Meanwhile, Nkabane recognised that there were issues that needed attention.
She highlighted the inability of NSAFS to oversee the payment of student allowances timeously in a way that could effectively assist students in their daily lives and experiences.
The minister said that the systems were not only dysfunctional, but that backlogs continued to compromise how quickly appeals from students were addressed.
Nkabane said that these institutions were themselves under-performing and regressive. Also, corruption needed to be dealt with.
She admitted that despite previous initiatives and funding, the ICT infrastructure remained outdated and was clearly no longer serving the people.
The meeting concluded with a reiteration of its purpose as an initial account of the issues, with the minister promising that more meetings will follow.
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