New Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has announced that her government will introduce free higher education at state universities and technical colleges starting next year.

Nandi-Ndaitwah, who was sworn in as Namibia’s first female leader last month, made the announcement while delivering her State of the Nation speech to Parliament.

“I am pleased to announce that from the next academic year, commencing 2026, tertiary education will become 100% subsidized by the government,” she said.

Namibia already provides free education in public elementary and high schools, though parents still typically have to pay for school uniforms, stationery, books and hostel fees.

The new policy would remove tuition and registration fees at universities and colleges. There have been calls for years for all levels of education to be subsidized by the government in the country of around 3 million people in southern Africa.

“We have heard your cries,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said. She said the policy was aimed at improving opportunities for young people amid problems of youth unemployment and poverty. Around 2.1 million Namibians are under the age of 35, according to official figures.

Two of Namibia’s seven universities are state run and will offer free education under the policy. All of its seven vocational training centers are government-run and will also no longer charge tuition fees.

AP

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The irregular expenditure incurred by government in the last financial year, could have funded the phasing in of free education over the next few years, according to a researcher.

Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu yesterday revealed a massive R51 billion in irregular expenditure in his audit results for the 2017-18 financial year. This excluded R28.4 billion in non-compliant spending by state-owned entities Transnet and Eskom.

“If you look at it from the outside, you will realise what is required to fund free education for the poor was a drop in the ocean; it is absolutely nothing,” said Mukovhe Masutha of the The Centre for Emerging Researchers.

“For this year, we estimated the cost of funding the phasing in of free education for first year tertiary students to be about R7.3 billion. For the next three years, it would cost about R40 billion.”

The provision of free education for first years could have been covered for nearly seven years, going by the above figures, says Masutha.

A total of R35 billion is the exact amount of money owed to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme in historical student debt, according to the agency.

Masutha said government did not have a financial, but a governance crisis as the money required for such initiatives as free tertiary education was used to fund mismanagement and corruption.

“The annual pile of wasteful expenditure, as revealed by the auditor-general, illuminates the bogus logic that informed the anti-free higher education brigade,” Masutha said.

“The medium- to long-term benefits of extending fully subsidised free higher education for the poor and the working class are there for everyone to see. Not only does it increase the base of our economically active population, but it also reduces the country’s social welfare monstrosity.”

According to Makwetu, unauthorised expenditure rose by 38% to R2.1 billion, while fruitless and wasteful expenditure was up more than 200% to R2.5 billion.

The auditor-general, however, sent out a warning to government entities that the enactment of the Public Audit Amendment Bill would give him more powers, and non-compliant officials would face punitive measures.

This week, the Act was gazetted after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed it into law. It gives the office powers to recover money lost through irregular expenditure from accounting officers – including directors general, municipal managers and the boards of state-owned companies.

The standing committee on the auditor-general has urged Makwetu’s office to move with speed towards completing the development of regulations.

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Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has singled out former President Jacob Zuma’s sudden introduction of fee-free higher education as one of the main reasons for the decision to increase Value Added Tax (VAT).

Zuma made the announcement just ahead of the African National Congress (ANC)’s elective conference in December last year.

Mboweni was replying to debate on a tax bill that gives effect to the rise from 14 to 15% in VAT which kicked in earlier this year.

The ANC was forced to back the bill in the face of stinging criticism from opposition parties.

They blamed the ruling party for mismanaging the economy and for allowing state capture to siphon billions from the fiscus, while the South African Revenue Service suffered under the leadership of former commissioner Tom Moyane.

Mboweni gave MPs a basic economics lesson: if you want to spend on big-ticket items, you need the money to pay for them.

“There have been some major adjustments to the expenditure side of the budget which need to be financed – in particular, the free higher education. So, when you introduce such a large expenditure item, you have to find the revenue to fund that.

“If you don’t understand that inter-relationship, then we’re in a difficult conversation, where you might argue that you want less taxation, but you want higher expenditure. The two don’t go together.”

Having to find the money to fund fee-free higher education came as the economy remained mired in low growth and government debt ballooned, along with increasing demands on the public purse.

A seemingly subdued Mboweni – absent recently from question-time and some key debates – told the House the VAT hike’s effectiveness would be reviewed in three years’ time, with a report-back due by June 2021.

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Ghana is raising $500m in loans to help finance President Nana Akufo-Addo’s pledge to provide free secondary education at public schools.

The Ghana Education Trust Fund, also known as the GETFund and governed by the Ministry of Education, will use the financing to build new schools and upgrade facilities after admissions soared since the implementation of the policy more than a year ago, said Mark Assibey-Yeboah, chairperson of the parliament’s finance portfolio committee.

“The policy has increased enrollment at all educational levels, requiring that more school buildings be put up nationwide, all the way down from kindergarten to tertiary,” Assibey-Yeboah said Thursday in an interview in the capital, Accra. “We know there are infrastructure challenges.”

CAL Bank is leading a consortium of local banks that will offer the loan at a rate of 19%, subject to parliamentary approval, Assibey-Yeboah said. The government will use 2.5 percentage points from value-added tax receipts to repay the loans, he said.

Budget increase

Ghana budgeted 9.3 billion cedis ($1.9bn) for all levels of education in 2018, an increase of more than two-fifths since 2016, the year before Akufo-Addo and his New Patriotic Party came to power. The West African nation is in the final year of an almost $1bn debt bailout program with the International Monetary Fund.

The finance will not add to Ghana’s sovereign debt burden as the GETFund borrowings are not backed by state guarantees, said Assibey-Yeboah. As much as 40% of the income of the fund, which was allocated 928 million cedis this year, will be used to service the loans, he said.

The GeTFUND may raise a further $1bn over the next five years to expand the building program.

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WeThinkCode, a tuition-free training institution with campuses in the Johannesburg and Cape Town, is recruiting new students for 2019.

Founded three years ago, WeThinkCode has large corporate sponsors like Standard Bank, Investec, FNB, Dimension Data, Telkom and Outsurance, which offer employment opportunities in their IT departments to some WeThinkCode graduates.

This is what it takes to get into WeThinkCode’s free coding programme:

Age and availability

You have to be between the ages of 17 and 35, and be able to study full-time for two years. While the course is free, students from outside of South Africa are responsible for the cost of their study visas.

Prior education and experience

No prior education or coding experience is required.

Online application and test

Applicants provide basic information as part of the online registration process and then have to play online application games at apply.wethinkcode.co.za

The games test applicants’ abilities to solve problems.

Those without computers can make use of WeThinkCode’s computers by going to one of the campuses in person during regular testing days.

Bootcamp

Those who’ve passed the online application will be invited to participate in a month-long bootcamp, which will then decide who is suitable for the full-time course.

WeThinkCode is revolutionising learning with no teachers or classes. Students are, instead, given coding and development problems to solve among their peers.

Naledi Matutoane, final-year student at WeThinkCode and representative of the institution at the recent E-kasi Tech and Gaming festival, told Business Insider that “although there aren’t teachers, campus managers monitor how we work.”

Matutoane, who’s always been interested in computer science but didn’t meet the stringent requirements for maths and science set by universities, started the programme straight after matric after passing WeThinkCode’s recruitment bootcamp.

There are students who’ve come as far as Zimbabwe and Ghana to enrol for the free two-year coding programme.

WeThinkCode wants to open five new campuses across Africa by 2024.

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Malawi government has ordered head teachers in public secondary schools to delay the collection of school fees as the schools open Monday after a two-month summer holiday.

But Secretary for Education, Science and Technology, Justin Saidi, in a circular to all head teachers in the country, has not given reasons why there should be a delay in the collection of fees.

“As you are aware, the 2018/19 academic year starts from 10th September, 2018. I write to advise that you should delay the collection and receipt of tuition fees from students for the 2018/19 academic year.

“You will receive further instructions on the same in due course,” says the letter in part.

Saidi says the instruction only applies to payments of tuition fees and does not apply to the collection and receipt of the other fees such as text book, revolving fund, general purpose fund or boarding fees where applicable.

“I would like to appeal to all education division managers to make sure that the content of this circular letter is urgently brought to the attention of all headmasters for information and implementation,” says the further.

Sources in the Ministry of Education said that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are using this as campaign tool to offer free secondary education.

Governance and rights activist Makhumbo Munthali said the Ministry of Education communique seems to suggest that government is considering introducing free Secondary School education.

” While the idea to introduce such a policy is ambitious and good in as far as increasing access to education for those learners who would not manage to pay fees, the question of the timing of when such a policy should be implemented should be seriously looked into,” he said.

Munthali argued that already the country is failing to successfully manage primary education despite introducing free primary education with the burden to cover the deficits now transfered to parents under the so-called development funds and others.

“No wonder many have repeatedly said Primary School is not free – a complete diversion from the Education Act of 2013. It is against such a background that many would still raise serious doubts on the feasibility of government implementing free primary education,” he said.

Munthali added: “Just like Primary Education experience, government may simply transfer the burden of financing the likely huge deficit that may be incurred in financing free tuition secondary education to parents and learners under the non-tuition fees like PTA/Development funds at school level.”

He said informed by the free Primary School experience, it would therefore be important for government to clearly spell out the mechanisms it has put in place in order to successfully implement the new free secondary school policy.

“Politically, it is clear that this decision may have been made bythe DPP government in order to strengthen its chances of winning the 2019 Tripartite elections. It may hence be seen as one of those desperate attempts by the ruling party to outsmart its strong competitors in MCP and UTM in the election.

“However, the only problem with ‘politically-motivated’ policies is that they are often not sustainable, and they in the short or long term put huge burden on the tax-payer. In summary, its important that government addresses the shortfalls with the implementation of free primary education before extending such a policy to secondary school,” Munthali said.

In Africa, Ghana is already offering free secondary education which started out this month under President Nana Akufo- Addo. In 2015 Gambia removed fees for all public primary and secondary schools, while in 2016 Tanzania removed lower secondary school fees.
Nyasa Times

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The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) suspended its executive officer Steven Zwane with immediate effect on Monday evening.

“The suspension follows allegations of maladministration against Zwane. To ensure fairness and allow the process to proceed uninhibited‚ Zwane has been relieved from his duties pending the outcome of the investigation‚” NSFAS spokesperson Kagisho Mamabolo said.

The student funding scheme said Zwane’s suspension was to ensure “fairness” of the investigation into the allegations.

“The NSFAS administrator, Dr Randall Carolissen, is in the process of reviewing governance at Nsfas. This is in line with the ministerial mandate to oversee the management, governance, and administration of the entity. This includes all necessary forensic and other investigations currently under way,” the entity said in a statement.

Early this month, the South African Students’ Congress (Sasco) called on Higher Education and Training Minister Naledi Pandor to fire Zwane over “inefficiencies and lack of leadership” after Nsfas halted 2019 applications that were expected to commence on August 1 due to payment backlogs from 2017 and 2018.

Last month, the National Health and Education Workers’ Union also called for Zwane’s head as well as that of Sizwe Nxasana, who resigned as Nsfas chairperson on August 9.

Nxasana admitted that the NSFAS payments system had come under extreme strain after then president Jacob Zuma announced last December that students from poor families would receive free higher education.

These events surface at a time when the scheme is under a lot of pressure.

Earlier this month, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) said Zwane — a former chief operating officer at Barclays Africa — was hired illegitimately, accusing him of nepotism and demanded his resignation.

The statement added that administrator Randall Carolissen was currently reviewing governance at NSFAS.

“This is in line with the Ministerial mandate to oversee the management‚ governance‚ and administration of the entity. This includes all necessary forensic and other investigations currently underway.”

NSFAS came under fire recently after Pandor instructed the institution to halt funding for 2019 students because a backlog in disbursing aid for 2017 and 2018 had not been cleared. NSFAS has an annual budget of R30bn. Pandor reportedly wrote a letter to the board asking it not to open applications for next year until all 2018 processes were properly concluded.

In an radio interview, Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training Buti Manamela said the implementation of fee-free higher education policy found NSFAS trying to come to terms with some of the challenges that it has faced before. And it had to readjust its system in order to ensure all were in place.

He said the adjustment meant that some students could not receive their allowances. Some believe that their allowances are insufficient.

Pressure mounted for Pandor to fire the chief executive of NSFAS and disband its board following the ongoing challenges in disbursing money for students who were promised free education.

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Liberia’s Vice President Chief /Dr. Jewel Howard-Taylor has received in audience the Charge’ D’Affairs of the Embassy of the Republic of Cuba Carmen Maury Toledo.

The meeting which was held Monday, June 11, 2018 at the Office of the Vice President, centered on strengthening bilateral relations between Liberia and Cuba in the areas of Education and Health.

The Charge’ D’Affairs recounted that Liberia and Cuba has established bilateral relations since 1974, and over the last 20 years, Cuba has offered more than 30 scholarships to Liberia for medical students.

 According to a release from the VP’s office, Toledo indicated that Cuba has provided annual scholarships to five Liberians in the Medical field, which is being reduced to two due to financial difficulties experienced by the Cuban government.

The Charge’ D’Affairs further revealed that Cuba currently has 6,000 doctors in 29 African Countries providing training and health care delivery assistance.

He intimated that the Cuban government has a draft agreement with the previous government to provide employment for 16 Cuban doctors at the JFK Medical Center and other medical facilities across the country including the rural areas.

The Agreement has been forwarded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pending discussions and signing.

Toledo also disclosed that Cuba has a private arrangement with the Island Clinic in Liberia to provide eight medical doctors who will arrive in Liberia anytime soon.

‘On the Educational front, Mr. Toledo also expressed the Cuban government’s willingness to support Liberia’s literacy program. This initiative has been implemented in 26 Countries and has impacted more than 9 million people.

The literacy program seeks to provide reading and writing skills to youth and adults who are disadvantaged or live in rural communities where there is no access to formal education.

These teachings can also be done in local vernaculars” the Charge’ D’Affairs averred.

Speaking earlier, the Vice President expressed delight about the role Cuba has played and continues to play in the Health and Educational sectors of Liberia.

Madam Howard-Taylor explained the Government of Liberia’s Pro-Poor Agenda and how Cuba can be a major partner in the actualization of the Agenda.

She committed herself to follow-up with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the draft agreement and the possibility of formalizing it, which will bring in Cuban Doctors to help Liberia’s Health sector through training and provision of services.

The Vice President on behalf of President George Weah extended profound gratitude to the Government and people of Cuba for their continuous support to Liberia.

Read original article here.

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Without their allowances, many students on tertiary campuses across the country are left destitute and hungry, Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training heard on Wednesday.

Student organisations, the South African Further Education and Training Student Association (Safetsa) and the South African Union of Students (Saus), told the committee of a range of logistical problems which hampered students who were dependent on Nsfas to fulfil their academic potential, with the failure to pay out allowances being a major concern.

This was fueling a lot of frustration on campuses, which sometimes resulted in the burning or destruction of property, Safetsa president Yonke Twani said.

“You’re not justifying the destruction of property?” asked Higher Education and Training Minister Naledi Pandor.

“Because this is no justification.”

She said destroying property did not bring allowances or facilities.

Twani agreed and said they always told their members not to destroy property.

Nsfas chairperson Sizwe Nxasana admitted there were still problems.

‘We understand universities and colleges are not banks’

Referring to former president Jacob Zuma’s decision on December 16 last year to expand free higher education to students from poor and working class families, Nxasana said the financial aid scheme “literally had a few weeks to put systems in place” to distribute the funds.

“We are doing everything from our side.

“Yes, we had very limited time, from when the announcement was made, until the implementation,” he said.

For the 2018 academic year, Nsfas has received more than 417 000 applications. Thus far, they have made funding decisions for about 358 000 of those.

Nxasana said the biggest problem was integrating Nsfas’ system with the different systems of the universities and colleges.

He said many institutions did not have the systems to administer allowances.

“Yes, we understand universities and colleges are not banks,” he added.

Thus far this year, Nsfas had paid out close to R6.5 billion to institutions. All institutions had received what was due to them, Nxasana said.

Addressing the problem was like “fixing a plane while it is flying”, he added.

Universities South Africa’s CEO Ahmed Bawa said it was not in the interests of universities to keep the money. He said universities were subject to the same financial regulations as other state entities. He agreed that a “breakdown in systems” seemed to be the problem.

“The last thing universities want is demonstrations – it is the worst thing for universities,” Bawa said.

‘Hasty, crowd-pleasing promises made to the poor’

After the meeting, committee chairperson Connie September, in a statement, called on Nsfas to kick-start the process of redesigning the student-centred funding model, so that all other stakeholders could make an input.

“The system is designed to benefit students, and we expect no less. The delays in payments being made to institutions should be dealt with expeditiously, we cannot have students waiting for meal and book allowances for longer than five months,” she said.

“These challenges are not insurmountable, they just need a collective effort. The committee welcomes the willingness of the stakeholders to collectively support a process to ensure that students are not disadvantaged in furthering the much-needed education.”

DA MP Belinda Bozzoli said, during the committee meeting, that “ex-president Zuma and the party that supported him brought Nsfas to its knees”.

After the meeting, she said in a statement that the DA was calling for an “emergency fund to be set up to assist students in dire need and for extraordinary efforts to be made to bring this crisis to an end”.

“Once again the hasty, crowd-pleasing promises made to the poor by the ANC-led government and the actual reality of what is delivered at the grassroots are poles apart. This is shameful, the result of a mismatch between the populist instincts of the ANC and its capacity to deliver,” said Bozzoli. – News24

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The father of a private primary school pupil, who was prevented from writing exams because of unpaid school fees, has challenged the constitutionality of this policy.

On his side are two Durban-based advocates, appointed to represent the boy who was aged 10 and in Grade five at the time, who say the effect of the policy is “calculated simply to pressure parents” and punish the child.

“Independent schools can sue parents for fees, rather than victimise and humiliate learners,” advocates Laurence Broster SC and Camilla Du Toit said in their written argument handed in to court.

While other courts have acknowledged the “contractual rights” of private schools and ruled that pupils can be excluded for non-payment of fees, the matter before Judge Mokgere Masipa in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban is believed to be the first to focus on the rights of the affected children.

If Judge Masipa rules in favour of the father – a teacher at a government high school who cannot be named to protect the identity of his son – it will affect all 760 private schools in South Africa.

When the matter was set down for argument recently, lawyers acting for John Wesley Primary School in Pinetown argued that it was “moot”, because the fees had eventually been paid and the child had written the exams a few weeks later.

Evidence was that the family had short-term financial problems at the time and were in arrears of about R3 800. Their offer to pay off what they owed in installments was rejected by the school.

After the boy was excluded from writing exams in May 2016 – and forced to sit by himself in the art centre – they cashed in a funeral policy and settled what they owed.

‘Breathtakingly offensive’

But the dad, who represented himself, insisted that he wanted the matter heard “on an issue of principle”.

The judge asked that the advocates come on board as “friends of the court” to represent the child.

At the heart of the application, they say, is the best interests of the child, and “his parents’ trauma at not being able to pay his school fees on time should not under any circumstances be visited on him”.

“The conduct of the school, on its own version, influenced by Independent Schools Association of South Africa (Isasa), was appalling and it cannot pass constitutional muster.”

They labelled the Isasa’s policy as “breathtakingly offensive”.

The advocates said the fact that the policy affected so many schools, and about 160 000 pupils, was reason for the matter to be properly ventilated and, if necessary, curtailed.

“Judging from the jurisprudence thus far on the difference between public and independent schools, the effect of the contractual arrangements between the school and the parent have not been properly examined. Only the interests of the school, and not the child, are taken into account.

“Isolating the child in the art room while he should be writing an exam is not only victimising, but also extremely humiliating. His co-learners would be curious to know why he did not write the exam… confessing that his parents had not paid the fees must be excruciatingly humiliating.

“In this case, the child had done absolutely nothing wrong. He was a well behaved diligent learner.”

‘No one is obliged to remain at a private school’

In his written argument, advocate Warren Shapiro, for the school, questioned how a private school, whose sole source of income is school fees, could be expected to educate “on risk”, and wait for a litigation process to unfold.

“This ignores that the parents elected to have the child educated as a private school and undertook contractually to pay the fees, and accepted the consequences of failure to do so.

“If this court finds those contractual limitations are unconstitutional, the court removes a significant and recognised difference between private schools and public schools.

“To add to this, is the consequence of an inability of the school to fund its operations, which is prejudicial to all of its learners and staff.

“No one is obliged to remain at a private school.”

He questioned what rights of the child had actually infringed and what harm had been caused.

“There is nothing on the papers to suggest that the temporary exclusion was anything but that. It was no more than a proportionate means of securing payments for amounts agreed to be due.”

Arguing that the issue remained moot, he said the court should not be determining “these weighty issues” when there was no need to do so.

Judgment has been reserved. News24

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Former President Jacob Zuma gave a lecture in Umlazi, KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday where he took the opportunity to slam South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress, for taking 24 years to implement free higher education for poor and working-class students.

Zuma said his main concern was that he made the decision to introduce free education “three years too late”.

“Why did we take three years to implement it? Free education has been guaranteed in the Freedom Charter decades earlier,” said Zuma.

In 2015, South African students marched the streets demanding free education; the decolonisation of South Africa’s institutions of higher learning; the underfunding and administrative inefficiencies of the NSFAS; lack of adequate student accommodation and hunger on campuses.

The protests turned violent. Students at different universities were arrested with some still in jail and others attending trial.

In 2016, Zuma established a commission of inquiry into higher education and training to look into higher education and training challenges.

The Commission was chaired by the Honourable Justice Jonathan Arthur Heher, assisted by Adv. Gregory Aly and Ms Leah Thabisile Khumalo. The terms of reference of the Commission was to enquire into, make findings, report on and make recommendations on feasibility of making higher education and training fee-free in South Africa.

Zuma’s decision to implement free education went against the Heher Commission recommendations.

At the Umlazi lecture on Thursday, Zuma said he had been unimpressed with The Commission’s final report. He said the commission focused too heavily on viewing education as a business transaction and not as a social good or a force for transformation.

This is why he introduced the implementation of free higher education in December 2017.

The former president made the announcement that free higher education would be provided to all new first year students from families that earn less than R350,000 per year starting from the 2018 academic year.

To explain his decision, Zuma said the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) ‘s definition of “poor and working-class students” was outdated. He said this definition had remained stagnant despite higher education full cost of study and living becoming significantly higher in past decade and half.

“This leaves thousands of poor and working-class students unfunded,” said Zuma at the time.

Analysts do not seem to agree on the feasibility of free education.

Senior Lecturer in Economics and Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) Seán Mfundza Muller called Zuma’s proposal for free higher education “the worst kind of populism”.

Muller, who participated in the 20-year review of South African higher education in 2013 and advised parliamentarians on different funding proposals in 2015, believes free education has been sold as a radically progressive policy that can be achieved with no negative consequences.

“But it will actually do very little for the neediest South Africans. And it could have negative consequences for the stability and progressiveness of public expenditure,” said Muller.

Others disagree.

Director of the Centre for Emerging Researchers Mukovhe Morris Masutha, explains that free education is not a cost to the state but necessary for a developmental state.

He makes the argument that the feasibility of free higher education goes beyond affordability.

“Free education is something that should not be interpreted through a narrow budgetary lens. When free education is invested in youth coming out of marginalised communities, it becomes an investment with well-known economic, social, cultural and even political returns,” said Masutha.

This consideration was at the core of Zuma’s lecture.

The former president said his decision to implement free education was aimed at breaking the cycle of deserving black matriculations unable to continue their study at universities or colleges due to lack of funding.

He said the introduction of free education would work in reversing the apartheid ideology of “keeping black people as subservient providers of manual labour alone”.

The post ‘Why did we take over 20 years?’ – Zuma on free education appeared first on Inside Education..

On December 16, 2017, former president Jacob Zuma announced that government would be phasing in fully subsidised higher education and training for poor and working-class South Africans over a five-year period.

This statement left many South Africans hopeful and eager to see an important change in our education system.

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The Minister of Higher Education and Training Naledi Pandor says government will cough up more money for Nsfas, including an additional R7.1 billion to fund bursaries for poor and missing middle students.

Pandor made the announcement during a press briefing in Cape Town where she gave progress made so far in implementing free education.

The department together with National Students Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) were taken by surprise late last year when former president Jacob Zuma announced in December that higher education was to be free for students from poor and working-class families as of 2018.

Pandor said: “Additional government funding of R7.1 billion in 2018 has been allocated to fund bursaries for children of poor and working-class families entering universities and TVET colleges, with R4.5 billion set aside for qualifying university students and R2.6 billion for TVET college students”.

She said the department would increase the baseline allocation to Nsfas to support poor and working-class university and TVET students from R9.8 billion in the current financial year, to R35.3 billion in 2020/2021.

“This implies a need for improved efficiency and systems development at Nsfas. We will further allocate an additional R105 million over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework to assist Nsfas to increase and strengthen its administrative capacity,” said Pandor.

She raised concerns over delays faced by students who are eligible for grants from the Nsfas, but were not yet allocated funds.She said the department was dealing with the matter.

Students from universities across the country have expressed concerns that they were accepted by Nsfas, and signed necessary documentation, but were not allocated funds.

Pandor has also expressed confidence in the student-centered funding scheme. This scheme will expedite funding through an expanded bursary scheme which replaced the previous loan and partial bursary scheme.

Pandor said under the new scheme, there will be preconditions to be satisfied before students are funded.

“Although first time entering students will not be expected to pay back the costs of their bursaries, they will be expected to meet certain conditions and expectations, including those relating to satisfactory academic performance and service conditions,” said Pandor.

The bursary is available to “poor and working-class South Africans students” from households with a gross combined annual income of R350 000.

The department aims to fund 83 000 students in 2018, while over 400 000 potential students applied for Nsfas this year.

Pandor has called out for cooperation between institutions and Nsfas to ensure the successful implementation of the new scheme.

Read original article here

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South Africa’s just-ousted Minister of Finance committed another R57 billion to higher education and training over the next three years. In his first (and last – he was removed from the portfolio less than a week later) budget speech, Malusi Gigaba followed through on former president Jacob Zuma’s controversial promise in December last year of fee-free higher education.

The minister’s announcement is likely to be well-received by those who have supported the demand by relatively small student groups that “Fees Must Fall”. Yet there is a major fault that is ignored by those who favour free higher education. It fails to provide a justification for increased allocation of resources to higher education on the grounds of equity or social justice.

There are persuasive arguments that free higher education will be unambiguously regressive. This is because it involves a transfer of resources from lower to higher income individuals within a national population.

This has been evident in certain other African and South American countries, as well as in Western Europe. Some countries do offer free tertiary education. Germany and Norway are current examples. But, first, they are rich in per capita income terms. And, second, “free” is ambiguous because it covers only selected components and not the full cost of this level of education.

Free higher education must be judged inherently regressive. It certainly will contribute to South Africa’s already high inequality by international standards.

From a social justice perspective

To understand the social justice dimensions of the question requires that attention be paid to the end of the process of higher education, the outcome, not the beginning when the focus is on costs and who bears them.

The bulk of graduates in every higher education system enter the labour force’s upper echelons. This places graduates well up in the top 10% to 15% brackets of the national distribution of earned income.

Most significant from a social justice perspective, university graduates receive considerably more income than the median taxpayer, or those within the median tax bracket, who inhabit the middle of the array of taxable income levels in every country.

This observation applies to direct taxation: personal income tax, company or corporate tax, wealth taxes and estate duty levied on individuals or corporate entities. But the regressive nature of the income transfer to university graduates is even more striking when attention is directed to indirect taxation. Examples include VAT, fuel levies, import and excise duties and a large set of user charges.

Indirect taxes are not levied directly on liable persons or their income generating entities like companies and corporations. Yet ultimately such taxes are paid by all consumers, irrespective of their levels of income, because they are paid by entities who are not individual consumers. This makes them regressive: everyone in South Africa will pay 15% VAT and a higher fuel levy from now on, in line with the 2018 budget speech.

Regressive transfers financed by the state – taking from taxpayers and giving to students in the form of free higher education – is the main reason why international examples of free higher education are so few and far between. That is why the international literature is generally sceptical – even hostile – to demands for free higher education.

One example widely cited is Australia where free higher education was decisively rejected in recent times. When a student loan scheme was under debate there about 20 years ago, the opponents of free higher education coined the slogan: Why should bus drivers pay for the education of lawyers? Why indeed? Today Australia possesses one of the world’s most successful national student loan schemes.

Social justice matters

In the real world of course, there are individual students who fall through the net and do not graduate. They miss out on becoming high-earning members of a national labour force. Consequently, a number of once enrolled students end up burdened by debt obtained while studying, either from private sector sources like banks or from the state under a tertiary education loan system.

But these individuals, together with entering higher education students from poor households who are eligible for subsidy from state sources in many countries, must be treated as personal cases. They are judged legitimate or not legitimate candidates for free higher education provided by government.

Each individual case has to be decided on its own merits. But when viewed as a group, usually small in number compared to total enrolment, they certainly do not constitute a justification for free higher education throughout a given national system.

Another issue that should be a serious concern is that fiscal authorities in a country short of revenue simply cut the allocation to post-school education – universities and technical and vocational colleges. This has been the case for many years in South Africa, and happens because universities and post-school colleges are not an important constituency in the competition for resources.

This has led to chronic underfunding, a fact which has not been recognised by “Fees Must Fall” and free education activists. This is highly likely to continue as a major problem in the future if higher education is held to be nominally “free” in publicly stated policy.

If there are circumstances specific to South African higher education which might justify a claim for more resources to be devoted to post-school education, then these circumstances must be explained upfront and in detail. Thus far no “Free Education Planning Groups” at universities appear to have done so.

Every university has a responsibility to clarify the values by which it functions. This is a responsibility to all its members, as well as to the concerned public outside. The neglect of social justice in South Africa’s ongoing free higher education debate is highly surprising. It is also undermining of the values that must be explicit in the public sector allocation of resources.
This article was first published on The Conversation Africa

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The management of the country’s 26 universities is working diligently to assist learners who qualify for financial assistance to ensure no one is left out before the academic year kicks off next month.

This is what transpired yesterday at a meeting between the department of higher education and training (DHET), National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and Universities South Africa (USAf). The troika is very crucial in ensuring the coordination of all plans and systems related to the implementation of the fee-free higher education

Among the prominent figures who attended the meeting were NSFAS’s chairperson, Sizwe Nxasana, DHET’s Diane Parker and USAF’s Professor Ahmed Bawa.

According to Bawa, the meeting was fruitful as it helped further clarify the role of each player to make sure every qualifying student receives financial support to realise his or her dream of studying at a university of their choice.

“We discussed in greater detail every aspect related to the funding issue so that we can guide and advise students and the parents how to go about registering without any glitches,” said Bawa.

He said their main priority was to assist students who have applied to universities but have not applied for financial aid.

For instance, NSFAS has revised its old family earnings threshold of R122,000 to R350,000 and it is crucial that this information is made readily available. Students who qualify will have to contact the Financial Aid Office at their university and ask to be considered for an NSFAS bursary.

The other crucial bit of information relates to students who failed to apply to a university. They will have to apply online or apply via the DHET’s Central Application Clearing House (CACH) system which would allow DHET, universities and TVET colleges to work jointly to place them across the system.

Bawa said even though he cannot predict the future with some measure of accuracy, he is optimistic all will go according to plan. “It is not like there is a looming crisis except the attempt to politicise the issue”, said Bawa.

He said the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) call for students to register in person at various tertiary institutions caused them some anxiety. However, Bawa applauded the organisation “for having identified that community of students” who are now being prioritised.  

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Students from poor and working class families with combined income of up to R350 000 per annum are not expected to pay any upfront registration fee at the country’s tertiary institutions as from this year, the Department of Higher Education clarified on Tuesday.

In a statement the department said there would be no upfront registration payment at TVET Colleges and universities for students who qualify for NSFAS funding. Students who do not qualify for NSFAS funding will be expected to pay upfront registration as has been the norm.

This is in line with the free tertiary education plan announced by President Jacob Zuma last December.

According to the department’s estimate, those expected to pay upfront registration fees currently make up to 55% of the country’s student population and come from high income families who can afford to pay for their tertiary education. It is also estimated that these high income households make up less than 3% of the country’s population.

The new free tertiary education plan is aimed at changing the current student population demographics at the country’s tertiary  instutions by ensuring that over 90% of the students from poor and working class families have access to higher education . These are students from families who make the 55% of the country population who, according to a Statistics South Africa 2017 report, live in poverty.

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President Jacob Zuma’s announcement for free higher education has elicited mixed reactions among student activists from various institutions in South Africa.

Speaking to Inside Education, Wits Student Representative Council (SRC) President Oridiretse Masebe said he was sceptical about the real will of the ruling party to implement the free higher education model that they’ve announced.

“We are very sceptical, because of the experience we’ve had with government. The ANC has always said they are for free education but they’ve never really sat down and presented a model on how their going to fund this model,” said Masebe.

Masebe said students weren’t sure who exactly the proposal made by the president would cater for.

“For example, we’re not clear on whether or not this model will cater for all students or it will only cater for first year students who are going to be entering the tertiary system in 2018,” he said.

Masebe also said it was unclear whether this intervention would assist those with historical debt.

In his announcement on Saturday Zuma said that all first-year students from poor and working-class background with a combined annual income of less than R350 000 would qualify for free tertiary education and said that deserving students will be funded and supported through government grants, not loans.

“All poor and working class South African students enrolled at public technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges will be funded through grants not loans,” Zuma said.

Masebe said that despite the uncertainty, the Wits SRC would engage with the university’s management to prepare its systems to allow for a smooth sailing process if and when the model kicks in next year.

“All that we’re doing now is that we are engaging the university, we’re trying to make sure that if and when it happens, the systems that the university have are positioned to best serve that process if it will ever be introduced.”

Zuma’s announcement was also denounced as nothing more but “something that’s been extremely reckless” by SRC President at the University of Cape Town’s (UCT’s) Karabo Khakhau.

“The President’s announcement towards free education is something that’s been extremely reckless, because of it being un-costed.”

Khakhau warned the President to stop making empty promises, and said he feared his plan would not materialise.  

“We’re entering into 2018 and students will be required to register, what happens when the model doesn’t kick in at the right time and how does one make a promise to the South African youth without a proper execution?” Khakhau asked.

Also speaking to Inside Education, the Central SRC President at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal Sandile Zondi said that they welcome the President’s announcement, but also questioned the funding model.

“We welcome the announcement, but the President must provide clarity on a lot of issues regarding his plans for free higher education for students from poor and middle glass backgrounds,” said Zondi.

“For instance, what about students who incurred debt during their first year and those whose results are with-held by the university because they still owing the university?” he said.

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Minister of higher education and training (DHET), Hlengiwe Mkhize is positive the situation at universities will return to normal when the 2018/19 academic year starts in a few months.

Mkhize took over the reins at the DHET amid growing calls from students and university management for the release of the delayed Fees Commission report after it was submitted to President Jacob Zuma in August. The recommendations were finally made public and a special team of technocrats is currently processing them.

“The first day in office is always overwhelming in the sense that you look at the scope of work and wonder as to where you are going to start particularly in my case when I came towards the end of the academic term. Of course one has to prioritise and in this instance, the thing I had to look at is the Judge Heher commission report,” said Mkhize

She said the report has been discussed by cabinet and they are currently analysing it with the help of the Presidential Fiscal and Inter-ministerial Committees chaired by the Minister in the Presidency, Jeff Radebe.

“Looking at the recommendations as a collective helps to move the process forward. We are now moving towards taking clear positions and say this is within our reach in terms of financial constraints or that this and that might be long-term etc. With these recommendations, you can’t say they are right or wrong. Anyone interested in education will agree with some of the things such as for instance, a recommendation that all poor students studying in public and private institutions should be financially supported,” Mkhize said.

According to a report by Business Day, it seems free higher education for the poor will be introduced in next year’s budget. Some students demanded free education for all.

This is in line with what Mkhize told Inside Education. She said the technical team would make choices that are in line with 1994 policies that focus on funding the most financially vulnerable students in the system.

“The main considerations have been accessibility and sustainability. Basically, we feel whatever we finally take to the president must address these two critical factors,” said Mkhize.

Added Mkhize: “This process made me aware that we need to be smarter and avoid making certain pronouncements such as “free education”, rather we must think more about who is paying for what. And the big question has been about the right to education and responsibilities. What conditions can we put in place so that our students can take full responsibility for their studies.”

Why does she feel optimistic the academic year will get off to a smooth start despite threats of student protests?

“We have not been on holidays; we have been working and engaging with the vice-chancellor through their association – Universities South Africa. They seem to be on the same page; sympathetic to students’ cause especially the poor. So we agree on how to take care of those poor students. We have given them in principle decisions; they [vice-chancellors] are fully and better briefed than students because they were busy with examinations,” said Mkhize.

She said she will be meeting with all the academic registrars of the universities very soon to assess their state of readiness for the next academic year.

“So there is a lot of work taking place behind the scenes; we are not just waiting for the president to announce the final government position on the commission’s report. We are all agreed that whatever the final position is announced we should all go out to engage and communicate and avoid ambiguities so that students know for sure what official position is,” Mkhize said.

But, she said, it is important to highlight the point that students who get financial support must understand that the right to education goes with responsibility. “You don’t want a situation where you have high drop-out rates of students who have been fully funded,” added Mkhize.

She said they agreed with the vice-chancellors that since the final announcement has not been made yet, they should be cautious about what they discuss. But we are all agreed that we should come up with a reasonable package and to engage all the stakeholders as well as to be clear about the interventions we put in place.

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ANALYSIS

The release of the Heher Commission report on the funding of tertiary education by President Jacob Zuma yesterday has come late in the day and will still not help university management make adequate financial plans for the next academic season.

At this time of the year university budgets have been cast in stone and loaded to kick in for the 2018 academic year.

While the report affords the public and particularly the university management and students to study it, there is still a long way to go before it can be consolidated into a coherent policy plan that all the main players can buy into.

Analysts say if President Zuma had shared the recommendations a few weeks after he received it, the government would have by now processed it and maybe even pronounced its policy position on it. This would have given the university management sufficient time and something tangible to work with.

But instead, they argue, Zuma hoarded the report for two months without advancing any clear valid reasons behind the delay. It remains to be seen if the inter-ministerial committee will conclude processing the recommendation before the year ends given the ANC conference in few weeks’ time.

Wits University vice-chancellor, Professor Adam Habib, said the commission’s recommendations would not amount to anything substantial until the government has made its own pronouncement.

“At the moment this is Heher Commission’s report. We are still waiting to hear government’s own recommendations, if government accepts these recommendations then we are in a different game,” said Habib.

The Fees Commission represents some move forward, but the elephant in the room is the report that president Zuma is simultaneously considering an alternative funding model. According to media reports President Zuma delayed to release the Fees Commission because he was also mulling another funding plan devised by Morris Masutha, believed to have been romantically linked to his and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s daughter Thuthukile.

It is further alleged that President Zuma defied counsel from his senior advisors including Treasury to steam ahead with the plan. The plan threatens to force an overhaul of the recent mid-term budget for 2017/18 financial year. And given his past brinkmanship decisions and political obstinacy that twice plunged the country into an economic abyss, there is reason for concern. This was given credence by the recent resignation Michael Sachs, a top and experienced Treasury deputy director-general, Michael Sachs, in the budget office. It is believed he resigned in a huff following President Zuma’s meddling in the functions of the Treasury.

According to Times Live, Masutha’s plan proposes government to make available R40-billion for the implementation of free universal tertiary education. Several commentators dismissed the plan as “unrealistic” and that it cannot be immediately implemented particularly in South Africa given its current economic vulnerability. Dr. Blade Nzimande confirmed that he interacted with Masutha’s plan in his capacity as the Minister of Higher Education and Training.

“I did interact with the proposal when I was minister from this young man. And one of the things I advised him to do was to go to the Heher Commission to table it there just like many others who had lots of brilliant ideas on this subject. But I also asked him to go and interact with my officials in the department…it was a good idea but it was an unworkable proposal,” said Nzimande.

But President Zuma ordered functionaries within both the Treasury and the ministry of finance to devise ways of how to secure the money. This means some departments would have to cut back on their budgets. The biggest concern is that with the country’s growing debt and the anaemic economy any unplanned additional financial burden on the fiscus would leave the rating agencies with no choice but to further downgrade the country to junk status.

Political commentators said they were not surprised as President Zuma has always been prone to taking populist positions to garner more political support. Given that his political tenure is coming to an end, his current pre-occupation is to leave an enduring legacy. Based on this, they argue, he will stop at nothing but to ram through this plan, notwithstanding its adverse financial consequences.

Jonathan Jansen recently said in a column: “our president is a man for whom everything is a political calculation.You do not need Jacques Pauw or Thuli Madonsela to tell you that Number One does not make judgments based on what is sensible for the fiscus or in the best interests of the country. Here you have short-term political calculation to benefit the man himself and his political agenda.”

In its reaction to the release of the Fees Commission report, the South African Communist Party (SACP) took a swipe at president Zuma. In a press statement, the party expressed its deepened “concern about how the President handled the process and the circumstances under which he finally released the report”.

The party said they find it odd that the president chose to share the report with his “alleged son-in-law or boyfriend of his daughter, but did not share it with the Minister of Higher Learning and Training, Dr. Blade Nzimande”.

The statement further said that it is aware of the “emergence, existence and operations of parallel state mechanisms which undermine or subordinate democratically established state authorities provided for in our Constitution”.

The SACP said it will release a “comprehensive response” after it had studied the report fully.

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