#FeesMustFall: A call for more educational options

The call for more public technical universities and, simply, more educational institutions is becoming urgent, as #FeesMustFall protests continue.

The call to provide more types of education and more educational facilities since 1994.

In the face of democracy many more students are vying for academic opportunities to better themselves, because academic qualifications are posed as the only, rarely-affordable opportunity to do so.

In 2001 the National Plan for Higher Education implemented the merging of technical universities into academic universities, to provide them with better resources. This reduced the number of educational institutions from 36 to 23. Suddenly, these 23 tertiary institutes were meant to provide for the multitudes who did not have access to this education before.

However, this initiative failed to notice the colonial culture of undervaluing technical professions and skills which resulted in these technical universities being under-maintained, diminishing the opportunities to acquire technical qualifications thereafter, and potentially widening the gap in inequality.

Academic university is not for everyone, and our colonial counterparts have long since acknowledged this. If you are currently searching for job overseas you will notice that the large majority of them are for technically skilled professionals – mechanics, electricians, plumbers and construction industry jobs – where these professions are paid as well as academic professions.

The same cannot be said for South Africa.

Although there are TVETs which accept NSFAS, the culture of undermining these skills, often prevents students from considering these skills as valuable qualifications reducing the number of applicants to these institutes and putting pressure on academic universities to accommodate the masses.

The #FeesMustFall protests started in 2015 to prevent student fees from increasing and to urge the government to increase funding for students, however these protests have been happening since as early as 1994.

Many previously-black universities, such as Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Fort Hare University and the Tshwane University of Technology, had been experiencing these protests since 1994 with little to no attention till 2015, when previously-white universities such as Witwatersrand University, Cape Town University and Rhodes University started experiencing the same unrest.

Now 8 years later students are facing the same issues resulting in annual volatile protests which often lead to extreme damage of property.

NSFAS funds underprivileged students for their undergraduate qualifications at public universities, under the conditions that they pass every course or module in their degrees.

Most of these students protesting may have to repeat some courses or modules, which hinders their NSFAS funding, yet universities are still accepting them and many more to meet the government quota allowing them to receive subsidies.

Universities are accepting increasingly more students, arguably too many, and issues of being unable to accommodate their masses of NSFAS students are becoming apparent. Yet if these student were to return home, it would most likely be to townships with no infrastructure and resources to access further opportunities.

CTU was experiencing severe protests which blocked off the campus to student and lecturers at the beginning of February, during registration, as it had accepted and invited more NSFAS students to campus than there was NSFAS accredited accommodation for them to stay in. Although there have been whispers about expanding accommodation accreditation, not much has happened yet. Furthermore, on-campus residences were also completely full.

This begs the question: will TVET’s start facing similar struggles, as SONA 2023 announced that quota attendance to these institutes will be almost doubled by the end of this year? (17 000 to 30 000 students)

Universities receive money for each student who passes, and this money goes to students who are arriving, however passes have been scarce, and acceptances have been abundant.

Where is the balance that would prevent students and universities from having unrealistic expectations about capacities, preventing protests such as these?

Frankly, the government and universities need to take initiative with these issues being faced in the process of educating our youth, because they are currently doing more harm than good by misinforming themselves and their students.

South African youth deserve more options to empower and educate themselves, in order to contribute to the growth of this country, as academic professionals and as technically-skilled professionals - not only one option that’s only feasible to those privileged enough to afford it.

This being said, I do not condone the actions of students, because all the money used to repair damaged facilities is money that could have been used to further the education of other students.

In many technical industries, graduates are being left behind in favour of attracting foreign talent. Many industries are growing too impatient to train graduates in practical skills. Internships and bursaries seem less because they are accommodating more students and graduates.

It’s time for the government and universities to “get woke”, if they want to avoid consecutive protests for the next 25 years.