Education still the biggest item on Budget

FINANCE Minister Pravin Gordhan has assured all qualifying students that they will be fully funded by the government at universities and technical and vocational education and training colleges this year.

Gordhan announced in his Budget speech in Parliament yesterday that more money would be allocated to higher education.

Gordhan said in addition to R32 billion they allocated to higher education, they have put in an extra R5bn.

This would cover most of the students who did not have money.

Education has remained the single biggest item in the budget.

Gordhan told MPs they would continue to find resources to fund higher education.

Students have over the past two years been protesting about fees. However, an inquiry into the fees has not yet finalised its work. Gordhan said funding higher education was a priority for the government.

He said they did not want students whose family income was below R600 000 a year to be left out of the system.

The government has pushed up the threshold for qualifying students significantly from R122 000 over the years to the new threshold of R600 000 last year to cover the missing middle. This is the group of students whose parents cannot afford to fund their studies and yet don’t qualify for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.

Gordhan also assured that all students who qualify for NSFAS will be given financial assistance this year.

He said the Heher Commission into funding higher education will complete its work in June.

In the Budget Review the Treasury said it was critical to fund post-school education in South Africa.

“Spending in this function is expected to reach R89.8bn by 2019/20, growing at an average annual rate of 9.2% over the medium term,” said the Budget Review. It said universities would be given R7.3bn to cover the fact that fees would not be increased this year.