Weak primary schooling a major obstacle to success in higher education

WHILE the Budget has confirmed fee-free higher education for the poor, concerns have been raised over who will foot the bill for the National Treasury’s fastest growing expense.

The higher education and training allocation was one of the most watched items on the Budget this week. Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba confirmed an allocation of R57 billion would be made available to fund all new first-year students at universities and technical vocational education and training colleges for households with an annual income of R350 000 or less.

The funding would continue in subsequent years until all years of study were covered, the minister said.

In his speech, Gigaba cited changes to the fiscal framework over the next three years if fee-free education and other goals were to be achieved.

“Firstly, new tax measures raise an additional R36bn in 2018/ 19, mainly through a higher VAT rate and below-inflation adjustments to personal income tax brackets,” he said.

“Secondly, the expenditure ceiling has been revised down marginally from what was presented in October,” Gigaba said.

However, activist group Equal Education criticised the financial boost to higher education and training coming at what they believed was the expense of basic education.

“The need of poor, black students has been pitted against that of poor, black learners. Equal Education has been a staunch supporter of the call for fee-free higher education, with the poorest being prioritised.

“This while continuing the many struggles for quality and equal education in our primary schools and high schools,” the organisation said in a statement.

“For very many learners, fees are not the only or primary barrier to higher education – poor quality primary schooling is,” the organisation said.

“Exorbitant fees are not the only reason that tertiary education remains out of reach for the vast majority of learners in our poorest schools – it is also due to the inadequacies in the early years of schooling,” he said.

According to Equal Education, for most South African pupils, passing matric well and potentially obtaining a higher education qualification was already largely unattainable by the time pupils reached the end of Grade 3, which meant that fee-free higher education, as a pro-poor intervention was too late to impact the life trajectory of these pupils.

In his Budget, Gigaba announced a R3.8bn allocation for the school infrastructure backlogs grant. He said the money would be used to replace 82 inappropriate and unsafe schools, and provide water to 325 schools and sanitation to 286 schools.

Equal Education criticised the allocation for being less than what was anticipated.

“Treasury has quietly and consistently downwardly revised the projected spending on basic education,” the organisation said.

This, together with increases in VAT, Equal Education argued, would increase the cost of basic education as the prices of textbooks and materials for building schools rise.

“Education- related goods should therefore also be considered for zero-rating,” it said.