The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) will be distributing allowances directly to Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) students’ bank accounts.
NSFAS administrator Freeman Nomvalo confirmed that these payments would take effect from the end of May.
This follows an urgent meeting with the leadership of the South African Technical Vocational Education and Training Student Association (Satvetsa) last week which dealt with the students’ increased unhappiness with the delays in the payment or non-payment of allowances.
University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) students had protested in Pietermaritzburg, expressing fears of eviction from student accommodation as they were unable to pay due to not receiving their allowances.
Similarly, in Thekwini TVET College Asherville Campus, students protested about funding challenges and the non-payment of allowances.
In a statement on Friday, NSFAS said that in last week’s meeting the students expressed serious concerns about the efficacy of the current mode of disbursing allowances.
“NSFAS has devised a payment mechanism to address these ongoing challenges with the assistance of its banker which will be implemented for the payments that are due at the end of May 2024.
“In terms of the mechanism, NSFAS will distribute allowances directly to students’ bank accounts.
“All TVET students who do not have bank accounts are encouraged to open bank accounts with banks of their own choice. The scheme will communicate to all NSFAS beneficiaries requesting them to update their details to enable the smooth implementation of this direct payment mechanism.”
NSFAS said it was aware of the persistent challenges experienced by some students on the April allowances which have already been disbursed.
“The scheme has deployed senior officials and servicing administrators to all affected institutions to address these challenges,” NSFAS said, adding they were attending to the challenges of students who may have not received their allowances so that the new mechanism was not burdened by legacy issues.
“NSFAS is equally mindful of challenges experienced by university students; however, this direct payment mechanism will currently be applicable to TVET college students.
University students will continue to receive their allowance through their institutions until the end of July 2024. Students who were paid on the direct payment platform until April should continue to use those funds. The new arrangement is only from May onwards, more communication will be sent on the off-boarding process,” said NSFAS.
Cape Times