Cape Town - THE Higher Education and Training Department revealed that National Treasury has indicated that no additional funds would be allocated for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
The department’s director general, Gwebinkundla Qonde, made the revelation during the meeting of the higher education and training portfolio committee on Wednesday.
Briefing the committee, Qonde said National Treasury had informed them that there was no additional money in the kitty to fund the budget shortfall. He said there were intense engagements from last week and that they were assigned to work out funding options that could be thought of under the current circumstances.
“What is coming out is that there is no new money that will come out in the end. Money will be taken from existing allocated funds,” Qonde said.
His comments came while the Cabinet was discussing funding options for NSFAS after the bursary fund had a R6.8 billion allocation for loans and bursaries cut.
NSFAS was allocated R35bn in the new financial year.
During his budget speech, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said government remained committed to ensuring that deserving students are supported through higher education, and that policy and funding options would be detailed in the adjustment budget.
Qonde said apart from reprioritising their budget, another option was to cut across “the system” or look at contingency reserves which stood at R12bn.
He stated that another option was to look within the system.
“It means some of the programmes currently allocated funds, be it infrastructure, money will be taken to fund the students who are qualifying for NSFAS bursaries.
“It is a huge challenge confronting us. We will hear about the outcomes but I want to emphasise that there is no new money … It is causing a lot of strain in the system,” Qonde said.
Philly Mapulane, chairperson of the portfolio committee, questioned why Mboweni had made an announcement in connection with the adjustment budget if there was no additional coming.
“Why put it in the Budget speech? You create an expectation that money will be available,” Mapulane said.
He insisted that any announcement in the State of the Nation Address and Budget should be followed by commitment.
“It was a hollow announcement. It should not have been made,” Mapulane.
Earlier, he said it would be a sad day for deserving and qualifying students not be funded as a result National Treasury allocating insufficient funds.
“We can’t blame the department because allocations are made by Treasury. We should be prioritising education,” Mapulane said. “We would wait for whatever is finalised by the democratic government. I am sure the leadership would give priority to the needy students,” he added.
NSFAS chairperson Ernest Khosa said they had welcomed Mboweni’s announcement suggesting additional allocation.
“We were on tenterhooks. We did foresee that if something is not done about the situation, the kind of protests we witness today would definitely be unavoidable.
“We knew if there was nothing done, there was a perfect storm,” Khosa said.
CEO Andile Nongogo told MPs that they were projecting to fund a total of 320 7348 TVET students this year, up from 275 186 assisted last year.
“We still not received the actual registration data but used assumption to arrive at this number,” he said.
Nongogo said they had projected that funding would increase by R1.8bn compared to last year.
He also said the increased numbers of students as result of the impact of Covid-19 and the demand for access to university led to shortfall as it spent R2.5bn from its reserves to fund allowances for the extended academic period.
“We are waiting for Cabinet to make a funding decision. The numbers we work on are projected,” he said, adding that the final numbers would determine when the students registered.
The total number of university students was projected at 574 419, which grew from last year 486 682.
The breakdown of the figures showed that there were 387 664 continuing students, 137 549 new students and senior students 49 206.
Nongogo said there was an increase in the number who could be funded themselves in the past but could not do so due to Covid-19 now look for NSFAS assistance. The number has grown from 28 426 to 49 206.
Political Bureau