The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is rapidly becoming a major line item in our national budget, following the commitment made by the government to advance free tertiary education to all prospective students.
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In the 2019 budget, more than R32-bn was committed to fund over 750 000 students at universities and TVET colleges.
Funding
In 2018, Minister of Higher Education, Naledi Pandor reported that the scheme had to date funded more than three million students since its inception, with more than R60-bn invested.
I must confess that I take issue with her use of the word ‘invested’, as a meaningful return on this vast sum of public funds applied is hard to discern.
Unemployment
My concern is the high level of graduate unemployment, and the endemic shortage of essential skills the economy is crying out for is pointing to an absolute lack of strategic direction in the granting of funding to tertiary students.
More pointedly, there appears to be:
No channelling of prospective students into fields that will produce graduates with skills in high demand
Limited monitoring and support to ensure that students perform at peak performance levels and complete courses in allocated time periods
Ill defined ‘quality control’ to ensure that students achieve superior pass marks (particularly in the technical fields).
The notion of higher education (particularly university degrees) as a right must be challenged.
It is imperative that the best and the brightest are chosen to leverage this huge ‘investment’ – Minister Pandor’s words – into a return that can benefit the entire populace.
It would be irresponsible of the ruling party to not ensure that this vast allocation of limited national resources becomes more than a ‘vote catching‘ exercise.
This huge opportunity to make a meaningful positive impact on economy of the country and the crisis of unemployment should not be missed.
After matriculating, Vijay Naidoo studied Economics in the UK. Upon his return, he joined the family construction business as MD for 10 years.
He subsequently joined his sister in their furniture manufacturing business as director for quality assurance and operations. He was responsible for all quality aspects of their products, and led the project to the business achieving an ISO 9000 quality accreditation. As an export focused business, this was important for our international competitiveness.
Mr Naidoo has an abiding interest in quality management and productivity improvement, particularly in manufacturing.
More recently, he has focused a lot of his time on giving back to the community by way of mentorship of small businesses and sitting on the executive of the South Coast Chamber of Commerce. He also sits on the Board of the Ugu South Coast Development Agency.
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