Hundreds walk into college to apply
TVET campuses struggle to accommodate all
A large number of prospective students turned up to seek admission at the Capricorn TVET college in Limpopo despite the institution discouraging walk-in applications. The college ran awareness campaigns from July last year for prospective students to apply online as it wanted to do away with walk-in registrations. Last year, several prospective students were injured during a stampede at its Polokwane campus after they arrived in large numbers trying to secure space as late applicants. Duncan Mokwena, 19, came all the way from Matibidi village near Graskop in Mpumalanga to try his luck at the Seshego campus.
He was one of those who had not applied but wanted to enrol for a course at the college. “I arrived here on Sunday... hoping to get admission. The authorities just keep promising but it does not look like I will win,” said Mokwena. College spokesperson Tumelo Morobe said: “We sent out SMSes to successful and unsuccessful applicants, including those on the waiting list, informing them of their statuses. We did not anticipate such a huge number of students wishing to study at our institution [arriving here] this year.” He said the college could only accommodate 3,742 students on its campuses in Seshego, Polokwane, Senwabarwana and Ramokgopa. Asked what they would do with those who had turned up without applying online, Morobe said they had developed a register to take contact details and the programmes prospective students were interested in pursuing and share the information with other colleges which might still have space. Returnee student Happy Ngulele from GaMokwakwaila village in Bolobedu complained about fees being hiked. Ngulele said he only found out about the fee increases on Tuesday.
“At no stage were we informed about the plan by the institution to increase the fees and this will surely put a strain on the pockets of our parents.” Ngulele said there was no proper communication about tuition fee increases. Morobe said they held meetings with the students’ representative council and hoped the leadership had informed students about the new fee structure. Morobe said they were happy to avoid a stampede this time around.