REORATILE MPUTLE
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is a financial aid that is provided by the government to poor South African students eligible to study at institutions of higher learning (public universities and TVET colleges).
The NSFAS transitioned from being a student loan to a bursary scheme in 2018. The government provisioned the NSFAS under free education, allowing qualifying students to further their studies at either TVET colleges or public universities.
The NSFAS covers the beneficiary’s tuition fees, book allowance, meal allowance, and private accommodation or residence fees.
After its ascendancy to power in 1994, the ANC has prioritised education as a tool to address the triple challenges such as poverty, unemployment and inequality. The NSFAS became a hope for many students from disadvantaged backgrounds who could not afford to pay tuition fees as well as accommodation and buy groceries for themselves.
However, the realities on the ground suggest that the institution which was once a hope for underprivileged students is becoming a source of their frustration and discouragement. In recent times, the institution has been in the spotlight over allegations of corruption. South Africans are questioning the credibility of the NSFAS to provide financial aid to students.
With its CEO Andile Nongongo facing allegations of corruption and the recently adopted direct payment method being ineffective, the NSFAS is facing a lot of criticism.
As a result, the 2023 academic year has faced a lot of uncertainties as the teaching and learning activities were interrupted by aggrieved students. Students representative councils (SRC) in tertiary institutions such as the University of Limpopo organised protests and held meetings with the NSFAS officials. The situation is set to deteriorate further due to the recent NSFAS announcement to cut its budget in 2024.
It is estimated that the budget cut could leave 87 000 students without funding.
For a country whose underdevelopment is attributed to a lack of skills, the ANC-led government should increase the NSFAS budget. It can be deduced from the above that the ANC government fails to translate the commitment to promoting a better life for all. In this context, students from poor backgrounds are inadvertently denied access to education though which many of them could change the living conditions of their families.
In this regard, a better life for the few privileged is promoted because the underprivileged struggle to get the much-needed financial aid to further their studies.
The underprivileged are at the receiving end of injustice emanating from financial and academic exclusion. The foregoing developments could worsen the unemployment rate and turn the majority of youth into social grant recipients.
For a government whose welfare programmes is often exploited by politicians to enrich themselves, the ANC should continue with the old system of disbursing funds to higher institutions of learning. The said system has proven to be very effective as students in various universities across the country were receiving their money timeously.
Beyond that, the NSFAS should dispatch staff members to different institutions to facilitate effective data management and allocation of allowances.
The NSFAS workers dispatched to institutions should use a head count approach where beneficiaries sign a registration form quarterly or yearly to prevent the existence of ghost students. As part of corruption preventive measures, students ought to renew their funding statuses on an annual basis.
This will help to draw the data of registered students. This process can happen via biometric measures where they upload their pictures on a newly formed NSFAS app which is directly linked to the institution in which a student is enrolled.
The opposition parties and civil society organisations should coalesce to exercise oversight and scrutiny on the executive of the NSFAS to uproot corruption that violates access to education for poor students. The said co-operation will enforce checks and balances within the institution.
Reoratile Mputle is from the North-West University, Mahikeng Campus.
Daily News