... but is no fees feasible?
AS THE Fees Must Fall protests get more disruptive and violent, the stark reality is that these outbursts could continue, as the government has said it cannot afford free higher education for all.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, this month told an investor workshop in New York that free education for the poor was on the table, but with the economy not growing and revenue not increasing, the “fiscal space had become constrained”.
“Nobody can say when ultimately free education for everyone is on the table, but free education for the poor is certainly on the table,” he reportedly said.
Views differ on how feasible this is.
• Dawie Roodt chief economist of The Efficient Group, told POST free tertiary education was affordable, “but only at the expense of other priorities such as housing”. Otherwise, he said, the government did not have the money to pay: “The taxpayer or the private sector will end up paying.
“If you want to use education as a tool to uplift society, you need to start making changes from Grade 1. The quality of South Africa’s education is among the worst in the world, so you need to start where it really matters. If not, there is going to be an extra burden on universities, with the standard of education at this level.
“Free tertiary education is not going to achieve anything if we don’t start correcting education from primary school. You will get more value for money if you get primary education off first.”
• Jay Naidoo, former government minister and chair of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (Gain), said it was important that those who could not afford university were given access to free education.
But he said the education crisis was a reflection of the broader economic and social crisis in the country.
Naidoo said the education crisis had its roots in a failing schooling system that was not building the basic literacy, numeracy and science skills youth needed for the labour market today.
“And it is compounded by hunger and malnutrition that affects a third of South Africans. Without proper nutrition on the first 1 000 days, a child’s mental and physical development is irreversibly harmed.
“If we ended corruption, we would have more than enough money to pay for free education and invest in improving education infrastructure from Early Childhood Development to university.”
Naidoo condemned the violence on campuses.
“Our constitution guarantees freedom of speech and the right to protest within the rule of law. Violence in an environment where political leadership has lost its legitimacy is very dangerous for our democracy. “There are legitimate grievances students have, and we need political will from all sides to sit around the table and resolve these differences in a non-violent manner.”
• Omar Badsha, political and trade union activist and historian, said “Free education should be available to all. The root of our present crisis lies in the fact that more and more students qualify to attend university but the government subsidy to universities has fallen in real terms. This has led to universities increasing fees to make up the shortfall.
“The government has put in millions into NSFAS (the National Student Financial Aid Scheme) but this fund does not cover the total cost of what poor students from working class communities require.
“The government is arguing that it does not have the funds to provide free and quality education because of the sharp downturn in the economy, and that it is also facing demands from workers and the poor for basic services at local level, and so it is between a rock and hard place.
“The argument from students, parents and the voters is that the government must cut back on the cost of bloated, wasteful and corrupt bureaucracies.”
Badsha suggested that the government streamline its ministries. “Government must cut down its own expenditure right from the top, but we know there is no political will to act against corruption and inefficiency. The same can be said about the massive corruption and inefficiencies in higher education institutions.”
He said the outbreak of violence was a result of universities calling in the police and security, taking out interdicts against students and criminalising protests.
“Many campuses have been peaceful except when management can’t deal with the situation and bring in police, who seemingly don’t have adequate training to deal with protests. Excessive force against the protesters has led to the crisis.
“What we have is a crisis that if not carefully handled would lead to many students having to lose a year. We need more of the creative interventions coming from religious and civil society leaders to avoid a total shut down.”
• Prema Naidoo, a fellow activist, supported the call for free education. “The reality is free education is not affordable for government now,” he said. “We need to sit down and talk about how we can raise the money and this cannot be done overnight. Our economy is in a depressed state... and we need to tighten our belts. Hopefully, once we do that, in a few years we will be able to afford free tertiary education.”
Naidoo said it was “unfortunate” students and the police had resorted to violence. He said when his two sons were at university, as a working class parent it was difficult to find the money for their fees, transport and books.
“We had to make sacrifices. Even when they got bursaries, it was a partial bursary. I can sympathise with parents whose children’s academic year has been disrupted.”
• Saths Cooper, former principal and vice- chancellor of the University of Durban-Westville, said the issue of free education was supposed to be government policy.
“There is a white paper statement that does talk to free education,” he said.
Cooper, now the director at Kenako Consulting, said the cost of education had spiralled astronomically over the past few years and the government must prioritise where it wants to deploy its resources – into a bottomless pit, or invest it in youth.
If there is no youth investment, Cooper said the future of young people would be destroyed without quality returns.
He said a chunk of the government budget went to education but was wastefully used. “If you compare what we throw into education to other countries, it’s chalk and cheese. In Zimbabwe, the education system still has some remnants of quality. This is why our universities and corporate industries attract the best brains from neighbouring countries.”
Cooper said violence was never a solution.
HURRICANE Matthew has wreaked havoc across the seas. A hurricane of a different but similarly devastating dimension is decimating the higher education sector in South Africa.
It’s almost a year since the #FeesMustFall campaign began to take shape. The protesting students have a legitimate cause to crusade for.
Access to quality education ought not to be the preserve of a privileged few. Anyone who displays the necessary attributes and the potential to succeed cannot be denied the opportunity to study towards a particular qualification of his or her choosing.
The freedom of choice is entrenched in our democratic dispensation. Likewise, the right to protest is enjoyed by every individual. The right afforded to protesters is not without a duty.
The corresponding obligation is to engage in protest action in a peaceful and non-destructive manner. In so doing, protesters take the high road and send out a loud enough message to the whole world.
This is where the shape of the current wave of protests across the country is horribly skewed and out of sync.
The violence and arson attacks that have become a feature of protests at universities have degenerated to a deplorable level. In the process, the actual issue of fees is sidetracked.
Activists are, over and above, lobbying for the decolonisation of the curriculum, release of students facing criminal charges and restorative justice.
The unfolding events at institutions of higher learning raise several pressing questions: Will not fee-free education benefit only the middle and highincome families who, in the main, are better placed to access higher education opportunities?
Inequality
Will not inequality be further exacerbated? Who will ultimately pay for the destruction of university property? Are all the individuals at the forefront of protests bona fide students of the respective institutions? Is it true that some leaders of the protests are allegedly being hired, and accordingly, being paid for their services?
Why are protesting students not respecting the rights of their colleagues who want to return to the classroom? Are we on the cusp of seeing more students and academics seeking homes at universities abroad? Have university authorities properly engaged with private security companies, which are in effect militarising affected campuses?
As strongly pointed out by a former student leader during the impasse, protesters should be persuasive and not coercive in their actions. They should formulate, not force, a framework of consensus between themselves and the authorities.
Seemingly, the call has not been heeded. It is phenomenally ironic that those in the best position to understand and appreciate the value of education are undermining its very essence by holding the 2016 academic project to ransom.
Leaders at universities find themselves between a rock and a hard place. They are being targeted to pronounce that students should be relieved from paying fees, while the decision should not be made by the institutions but by government.
Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan is on record as saying that it is currently not possible to waive fees. Government, though, can make it a real possibility.
The money leaving our shores illegally should be kept in check. We should scrutinise state-owned enterprises.
Huge sums of money can be saved through revised procurement processes, curbing state expenditure on commodities that seem not for the good of the country, but for the wealth accumulation of an elite few, and focusing on delivery not on political expediency.
And the environment must be created for corporate South Africa to get integrally involved.
Universities throughout the land are working around the clock to ensure that the academic project gets back on track as soon as possible. The effects of a lost academic year are far too frightening to contemplate.
Not only will each university feel the negative impact, but South Africa as a whole will long be mired in misery. The economy will take a serious beating.
The education, health and construction industries, among others, will be heavily hampered by the lack of graduates entering the market.
Investments will plummet with the loss of business confidence. It is estimated about 80 000 graduate from higher institutions each year. If this does not come to fruition by the end of 2016, the country’s tax base will be irrecoverably impaired.
And let’s spare a thought for an individual who is unable to complete his or her studies in the current academic year.
The student could well have had studies funded from the proceeds of a pension payout. How does the parent or grandparent recover from such a huge loss?
The student could have taken a private loan. How does that get paid back? The income that the graduate could have earned from the commencement of 2017 has already been earmarked to pay for other contingencies, especially in poor households.
It is not uncommon for a single salary to help sustain not only the immediate family but the extended one too. Sadly, potential graduates are sometimes first-time graduates in their homes.
Such delays are immeasurably deflating. Parents and guardians of students about to sit for their matric examinations must be on edge not knowing the impact on the 2017 intake at universities.
Fee-free education can be a reality in South Africa. But that time is not now. Much work needs to be done before the petrol bombs of despair translate into the bonfires of joy!