Though heavily criticised, Blade Nzimande has not been resting on his laurels but has been busy searching for solutions, writes Sonwabile Ngxiza.
Johannesburg - The tertiary education landscape has been a site of contestation about improving access, inclusion, quality and ultimately increasing life chances of our youth. The fissures remain stark.
Despite increasing access since 1994, however, meaningful integration remains illusive due to certain exclusionary devices rooted in the edifice of colonialism and apartheid.
Education is about transmitting knowledge, building skills and improving life-chances to participate in the economy and end intergenerational poverty. In the South African situation, the system meant to achieve these objectives was not designed to serve the entire population.
A series of articles by Professor Tim Crowe chronicles how settler colonialist Cecil Rhodes and his ilk established the University of Cape Town as a bastion of colonialism, racism and sexism. These features remain within the edifice of many universities and this is discernible in the epistemic content transmitted, composition of teaching staff and other systemic and procedural inequities.
Various devices of alienation and exclusion are enacted and institutional autonomy is invoked to resist intervention for more fundamental change.
Eurocentrism remains a dominant feature of these devices which produces graduates that are alien to their communities.
In the recent past, exclusion has come under sharp focus.
Exclusion is expressed in admission policies, language policies and, of course, financial exclusion.
It is the latter that has resonated with many students across the country under the battle cry #FeesMustFall.
The #FeesMustFall has plunged the tertiary education system into a serious quandary.
The actions of the Fallists have not been inconsequential. University properties have been destroyed and billions in damages have been incurred.
Academic programmes were interrupted, meaning thousands will not progress academically and many more will not graduate to enter the labour market, including doctors.
The 2016 matric class will scramble for fewer places.
The consequences are far-reaching and the future is bleak. The government’s response has been to condemn the unnecessary and retrograde destruction of university property and interruption of academic programme while students decry “militarisation” of campuses.
Further, the government has capped fee increases at a maximum of 8 percent for next year.
Wits University has announced an increase of 8 percent, and many others are likely to follow suit - which which will undoubtedly incense #FeesMustFall activists and aggravate hostilities ahead of next year.
To mitigate the financial burden, Minister of Higher Education Dr Blade Nzimande committed himself to increased funding for the poor and “missing middle” (euphemism for children of teachers, police, nurses, etc) to guarantee access to higher education.
Forbes Africa publication states that R300 billion was allocated to Education in 2016, making up 20 percent of the budget.
During his medium-term budget policy statement, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan allocated an additional R17.6 billion over three years to subsidise poor students.
Notwithstanding these allocations, the Fees Commission notes that South Africa’s spending on education as a percentage of GDP is markedly low compared with other countries.
While the commission is exploring the question of fee-free higher education, the 2017 academic year will commence in earnest.
If the preliminary report of the commission is anything to go by, then free tertiary education is not yet in sight.
As the report suggests, the government must ensure progressive realisation of access to education by improving the capacity and scale of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and mobilising private sector support.
Meanwhile, it’s important to note that Nzimande has not been resting on his laurels but has been busy searching for solutions, hence the piloting of the blueprint called Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme (Isfap).
This model follows a recommendation by the ministerial task team and combines NSFAS and private-sector funding to provide free higher education for undergraduate students from poor backgrounds.
The model also provides supplementary support to improve success.
Herein lies the salience of this intervention because recent reports indicate high drop-out rates, about 43 percent, for NSFAS-funded students.
While certainly not a panacea for the intractable problems besetting education, this intervention is promising.
Nzimande’s detractors, particularly the ANCYL, have launched factional attacks not directed at resolving fundamental issues in education but as proxy battles inside the ANC towards the 2017 elective conference.
They have neither offered a comprehensive resolution nor have they engaged with emerging innovations and modalities of progressively providing free higher education for the poor and academically deserving.
Nzimande has also endured criticism from some on the left of the ideological spectrum for allegedly asserting that free education is not possible in a capitalist society fraught with persistent high-level inequalities such as in South Africa.
They opine that decommodification of education is a socialist ideal and in any case socialism is built in the womb of capitalism.
This logic suffers from some deficiencies.
Critics need to internalise Marx’s observation that free higher educational programmes only mean in fact “defraying the cost of the education of the upper classes from the general tax recipients”. Currently, universities mainly depend on tuition and government subsidies as sources of funding.
The necessity to increase the education budget as a percentage of GDP cannot be over-emphasised.
However, the priority must be to widen participation for poor students and increase the opportunity to end intergenerational poverty.
A poignant point is to widen access and success, particularly for the poor - hence the Ikusasa student financial aid programme merits support. Its novelty is comprehensive support, which is designed to reinforce the capability and aptitude of students to succeed at university and colleges.
Importantly, the college system that Nzimande revived needs strengthening to be on par with the university system, rather than play second fiddle.
* Ngxiza is the SACP Brian Bunting (Cape Metro) deputy secretary. He writes in his personal capacity.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.