Johnathan Paoli
The DA Shadow Minister of Higher Education, Chantel King, revealed the party’s alternative student funding model on Thursday in an attempt to solve problems associated with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) as well as providing an update on the Private Protector’s investigation of the NSFAS direct payment contracts.
King said that the current higher education funding model is not only highly unsustainable considering declining levels of economic growth, a shrinking tax base and poor fiscal management; but that the problem seems to be exacerbated by the centralised NSFAS operations model and ICT interface differences between institutions and the scheme.
This inevitably detrimentally affects payments and students being unable to register on time for the new academic year.
King said that the proposed funding model will be a tiered system for loans and grants, with a primary focus on providing substantial financial support to students from low-income households.
The shadow minister said the differentiated loan scheme will be based on income bands which will be regularly evaluated and updated and would give students access to a variety of government loans with favourable repayment conditions.
The loans would be converted to bursaries based on academic performance to incentivise a better throughput rate at institutions.
“This system provides a funding solution for the ‘missing middle’ who can afford to pay a portion of their expenses without excluding poorer students,” King said.
Kind said with more funds available, budgets for accommodation allowances could be broadened and blanket accommodation caps replaced with individualised accommodation funding.
The party is also preparing the conduction of an updated national survey on the state of higher education in the country, which will include an investigation into projected student accommodation demands in order to affect the policy approach and ensure affordable and quality accommodation for students.
Kind set out the proposed path of the PP’s investigation into possible transgressions of tender processes and policies, including a secondary focus on the four specific companies that had dubiously secured contracts, namely Coinvest Africa, Ezaga Holdings, Norraco Corporation and Tenet Technology.
In addition, the party called on the bid evaluation committee (BEC) to account on every part of the process including the actions of suspended NSFAS CEO Andile Nongogo as well as a possible questioning of Minister of Higher Education, Dr Blade Nzimande.
This follows on an escalation throughout the year of logistical and sustainability problems with the national funding scheme, as well as reports of corruption and maladministration in relation to the direct payment of student allowances.
INSIDE EDUCATIONÂ Â
