NEHAWU WELCOMES THE ONE{1} BILLION RAND INCREASE TO THE NATIONAL STUDENT FINANCIAL AID SCHEME{NSFAS}
NEHAWU commends the department of Higher Education for granting a further R1billion to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), in response to the protests by the students. This will go a long way to ensure that working class children are not denied access to education. This contribution should act as a foundation in the vision of building people's education for people's power.
Whilst we are happy with this timely intervention from the department ;we are perturbed by the poor stakeholder engagement by the department. We cannot afford to have a scenario where people have to take to the streets first for the department to do the right thing.
The department should ensure that there is seamlessness in the way it implements its mandate. This incoherent approach of reacting to events is unacceptable and unsustainable. Education is one of the priorities that have been identified by the ANC as evidenced by the amount of money that the ANC led government spends on it. What we need is a more coherent and indefectible management of the sector.
Episodes like the seven weeks strike at Walter Sisulu University show that there is an urgent need to improve the management and communication by the department. There is a need for improved dialogue and a relationship building exercise between the department and stakeholders if we are to avoid these unnecessary strikes and pickets.
We are disturbed that the NSFAS funds are only sent to institutions for distribution to deserving students and very little oversight is provided to check if universities are managing these processes with the warranted efficiency. NEHAWU is concerned by the defective manner that most institutions approach the NSFAS challenges. They are inconsistent and delayed manner in which they respond to the applications of students is the cause of most problems associated with NSFAS.
The other problem is the unjustified fee increases by most universities. We have noticed with dismay that as the NSFAS funding increases most universities also increase their fees. While the money allocated to NSFAS has increased significantly over the years, the concurrent universities' fee increases have made it difficult for the number of NSFAS beneficiaries to increase.
We condemn the manner in which some universities have dealt with students protest emanating from financial exclusion of deserving students. It is unacceptable for universities to instruct residence students to vacate residences when they fail to manage problems they should have anticipated. Most of these institutions are not proactive as is required and they use punitive measures when they are caught off guard. Students at TUT and DUT were left stranded after they were instructed by the management of these two universities to vacate their place of residences. This is unacceptable coming from signatories of 2010 Stakeholder Summit Declaration clearly committing to develop mechanisms to promote student‐centeredness and caring universities.
We support SASCO in their call for a more responsive government and also in its call for the elimination of financial exclusion. We salute them for their vigilance and dedication to the cause of the student community and urge them to continue raising issues that cause governance/management crises in specific institutions. We fully support their "Right to Learn Campaign" and other key demands on transformation including their opposition to the corporatization of education as part of our drive towards rebuilding a broader movement of People's Education for People's Power
Statement issued by the NEHAWU Secretariat Office, February 5 2014
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