15 January 2024
Johannesburg, Braamfontein
The Young Communist League of South Africa welcomes the intervention by the Department of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation. It is our strong held view that this is a progressive policy intervention in that it seeks to make additional funds available amid the austerity measures-imposed budget cuts. The government’s commitment in this regard will certainly go a long way to broaden access in higher education and save many students from dropping out in this academic year due to financial exclusion. The policy articulation and intervention are also consistent with the Freedom Charter which makes an instructive proclamation that “Education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children; Higher education and technical training shall be opened to all by means of state allowances and scholarships awarded on the basis of merit”
The YCLSA believes that the introduction of the Comprehensive Student Funding Model, will support all the categories of students including those who are currently not funded by the National Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) bursary and funding policy. This policy articulation will also ensure that students who fall within the so called missing middle bracket are also supported by the National Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). These students of the missing middle are those who come from households who have a joint family income of more than R350,000 but less than R600,000. This characterization of a threshold is over half a decade old now, we therefore propose to the DHET to look into adjusting this threshold in the near future as the living standards of workers- our parents have deteriorated immensely with the interest rates skyrocketing and hyperinflation.
The YCLSA reiterates the position of the Party that “the disbursement of the NSFAS funds has got to be exclusively the preserve of the state ideally through a state bank or a public development finance institution…”. We are therefore concerned and take a deem view of the purported future private sector involvement on this one. We further want to point out that the student debt in the Universities is currently sitting over R15 billion and while this loan approach will allay our challenges of access and success in the immediate, by halving the debts of those
who achieve beyond 70% mark on average academic performance, it continues to set-up students for indebtedness in the near future. This have a bearing on graduate unemployment in that most Universities withholds qualifications which were supposed to serve as proof of academic achievement to the potential employers for employability.
We acknowledge the fact that South Africa’s contribution to education in an endeavour to skill the nation is unparalled and above the UNESCO set benchmarks against both the national budget and GDP. While this is the case, the figures of those who are Not in Education, Employment and Training continue to rise and so are those of youth unemployment. This is more justification for us to protract our clarion call for a free, compulsory, universal and equal education for all. We call for all Universities to scrap the Student Debt as a way of removing the bottlenecks of access to the sector.
Issued by YCLSA
National Secretary– Mzwandile Thakhudi Email: mzwandilethakhudi@gmail.com
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