Durban - The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) said it supports the Right to Learn campaign that is being led by student organisations, South African Students Congress (Sasco) and the Young Communist League of South Africa.
Nehawu said in a statement that the Right to Learn Campaign was about ensuring access to education for all students, particularly those from the working class and previously disadvantaged backgrounds. .
“As Nehawu, we fully support the struggles waged by Sasco and YCLSA for young people to have access to higher education and to ensure that they settle in at all institutions of higher learning at the beginning of each academic year. Currently, the country is confronted with a crisis of high levels of unemployment, poverty, and inequality mostly affecting the working class youth,” read the statement.
As registration will begin in many higher education institutions in South Africa after the release of the matric results next week, Nehawu said this was the right time to campaign for the rights of students.
“Education remains an essential instrument to respond to the needs and developmental agenda of our society, hence we rally behind the objectives of the campaign, which include among others assisting students with all problems relating to registration, including access to important student support services and access to general information.
“Equally, the national union will mobilise other progressive forces to join the Education Front under the umbrella of the Left Popular Front to wage a campaign against the government’s neoliberal policy orientation, which has seen a persistently stagnant allocation of subsidies and student funding in the post-schooling system amid rising student enrolments, demand for student housing, infrastructure and fee hikes that have undermined the developmental and transformational agenda of our society,” read the statement.