Cape Town - The government is tightening the law to help thousands of students who fall through the cracks in the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to be absorbed into the scheme.
Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training Mduduzi Manana told delegates in a speech, delivered on his behalf by a senior official in the department in Cape Town on Monday, the demand for funding had forced the government to look at other ways.
Manana said the department was working with the National Treasury and other departments on how to increase funding for students.
This would result in a new law on student funding in 2017.
The deputy minister admitted that the demand for NSFAS funding far outstripped the money available in the budget.
Manana was addressing the NSFAS funding conference in Cape Town.
The number of students on NSFAS had increased from 7 200 in 1991, when the government started the programme, to more than 200 000 this year.
This has been a phenomenal growth, with the funding standing at R441 million in 1999, R3.2 billion in 2010 and a staggering R9.5bn this year.
Manana called for co-operation among all stakeholders to ensure effective management of the NSFAS programme.
More than 1.5 million students have benefited from the scheme since the fund’s inception in 1991, and the demand for this funding continues to grow every year, he said.
One of the key elements of the country’s blueprint, the National Development Plan, was that students who qualify for the NSFAS must get funding, Manana said.
“The reality is that there are insufficient funds to provide for all students,” he added.
The policy discussions between his department, NSFAS and the Treasury would result in a law, by 2017, on the funding of students.
The law would ensure that students who fall through the cracks in the system have access to funds for their studies.
Funding had increased substantially since 1999, which was at R441m that year, increasing to R6.5bn in 2011, rising to R7.7bn in 2012, then R8.2bn in 2013, R8.7bn in 2014 and R9.5bn this year.
Demand for higher education in South Africa was growing every year.
This is in line with the government’s target of having 1.5 million students at tertiary institutions by 2030.
There were close to 900 000 students attending all tertiary institutions in the country.
The number of students who demand to get into higher education every year has been embroiled in controversy, with overcrowding and stampedes at registration sites, prompting a centralised application system, to prevent stampedes.
Political Bureau