Good evening fellow Steemians! I welcome you again to a piece of my mind! It is 22:15 local time in South Africa and it's my off weekend, so let's have a conversation!
Students at universities across South Africa are currently joined in a nation wide protest, popularly known as #FeesMustFall. The protest started as a result of universities announcing fee increases for 2017, an increase to an amount which many regard as already exhorbitant and completely unaffordable to anybody except the elite in our country. The same protest was held last year during the month of October at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), after a 10.5% increase was announced for 2016. The inflation rate was at 6% then, but the financial officer of the university stated that the high increase was a result of the rand weakening significantly against the dollar and euro, and much of the university's equipment is procured and paid for in these currencies. Another reason was that there was an increase of 7% in the salaries of academics and then there was also the 6% inflation rate to consider as this affected all other expenses at the university.
The protest soon spread to the University of Pretoria, Rhodes University and The University of Cape Town. The protest culminated in students marching to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, expecting to be addressed by president Jacob Zuma. The president announced that there would be no increase for 2016, with taxpayers footing the bill for the shortfall.
In August this year the protests flared up again, when an increase 'in line with inflation' was announced. Students from several universities immediately began to protest, despite Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande stating that no decision had yet been made regarding fee increases. The Council on Higher Education concluded that a 0% increase would be unsustainable and an inflation related increase was essential. President Jacob Zuma instructed Finance Minster Pravin Gordhan to 'find the money' to ensure a 0% increase for 2017, despite National Treasury stating that this cannot be afforded and a 6% increase was necessary to avoid 'collapse'.
But is free education possible? Current government funding of higher education sits at less than 1% of GDP, where international standards are around 2.5%. In addition, statistics show that only about 5% of households in South Africa can comfortably afford to pay university fees. Currently taxpayers pay about R25-billion ($1.8-billion) to fund universities. In order to fund free education a further R71-billion would be required ($5.2-billion). Analysis shows that if budgeting priorities were shifted this is achievable, but this would mean budget cuts in the defense force spending and across the board wage cuts for the state as an example.
However, in my opinion, would this not lead to a massive surge in the amount of students that enter universities? Would any person now be able to demand access to tertiary education, as free education would be a right for all? How then would the system be able to survive? I also feel that if free education is granted, it should begin with students who are absolutely unable to fund themselves, and also not for any line of study but only for public servants like teachers, nurses and social workers. However this could lead to everybody applying to become a teacher and we have no more engineering students or doctors!
Another argument is that free education unjustly benefits the rich, with those already being able to afford fees anyway now not having to pay and placing a huge and unnecessary burden on taxpayers. There are so many factors that come into play, and not just financial ones. South Africa is a grossly unbalanced society, with it's two richest people (Johan Rupert and Nicky Oppenheimer) having equal wealth to the poorest 26.5-million. That is about half of the population. There is also the emotional damage in our society, with the Apartheid years far from forgotten.
There are countries like Sweden, Norway and Germany that have tuition free universities. But these are well balanced societies, unlike in South Africa where universities were not accessible to the vast majority of the country up until about 20 years ago. I see that the whole system would collapse if free education were granted, institutions would simply not be able to handle the influx of new learners should they become fully tax-funded. There would certainly have to be some form of pre-acceptance qualification, perhaps in the form of tests like the LSATs necessary for acceptance to law school. This in its own can lead to further imbalances as the tests would need to cover all aspects of learning to assess each individual's abilties. As current entry requirements stand, statistics show that in households that earn below R600,000 ($45,000) per annum, only 5% of children obtain sufficient grades to enter university. In contrast, in the houselholds earning above the R600,000 mark, 70% of children earn sufficient grades. This stems as a result of the primary education system already being completely out of balance, with private and public schools being worlds apart when it comes to quality of education.
Perhaps the solution is to expand undergraduate universities and colleges, and provide vastly expanded education and training opportunities, albeit not at university level. A new and modern tax could be introduced, rather than what currently seems be a loan system that raids Treasury when needed. I certainly believe that if a person can afford tuition fees already they are immediately exempted from free education.
The whole term 'free education' is actually a farce anyway, universities are incredibly expensive, so it's not a matter of not paying, but who pays.
I think this is a topic that can stir endless debate, I would love to hear the thoughs you have, from all across the world and different societies! Please share this post and let's get the debate going, perhaps the solution is somewhere on this platform!
By the way it is now 00:28 on Saturday! Good night!
Sources:
www.702.co.za
www.wikipedia.org
www.ewn.co.za
www.fin24.com
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