R54 billion government fund in South Africa must be shut down
The R54.3 billion National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is under increased scrutiny, as it still needs to address funding issues in 10,000 cases, with over 4,000 students awaiting resolution.
Many students reliant on NSFAS funding to complete their studies have been left unable to register for the following academic year of their tertiary studies.
NSFAS revealed that it is still awaiting academic information from institutions for 4,138 students whose cases are under investigation.
The state-owned funding scheme said it had processed 2,361 investigations and restored funding to the affected students.
“The Deputy Minister emphasised that he respected the GAP investigations and vetting processes conducted by NSFAS,” said the Department of Higher Education and Training.
The Department said that the vetting process includes verifying student registration, enrollment, accommodations, and academic results to eliminate potential fraud and confirm beneficiaries’ academic eligibility.
However, the minister said it is unacceptable for students to wait up to five months for their GAP investigations to be completed.
The government has placed NSFAS under administration and appointed advisors to help fix the problems and restore some confidence in the system.
Earlier this month, Deputy Minister of Higher Education Yusuf Cassim submitted written complaints and inquiries from students at the University of South Africa (Unisa) to the institution’s management.
These complaints address concerns over delays in the NSFAS Personal Care Allowance payments and the discontinuation of monthly data allowances.
The complaints revealed widespread frustration among students over delayed Personal Care Allowance payments for July and ongoing data and connectivity issues.
These issues are particularly critical for distance-learning students. More than 93,000 Unisa students have been affected by these delays.
In an interview with Talk Radio 702, Cassim explained that the NSFAS system has underlying issues.
“We have an opportunity in the parliamentary legislative review process, with the NSFAS Act up for review; parliament and the country have a role to play to examine what the underlying issues are,” said Cassim.
Cassim explained that there will be a public participation process, where members of the public can examine what the issues may be, including the model, the structure, etc.
“We need to decentralise the model”
“What do we need to be doing differently in order to meet our mandate to fund students from underprivileged backgrounds in order to access the post-schooling education and training sector?” said Cassim.
Cassim, who once held a leadership role while attending university, said he believes the system sets students up to fail.
“You can try and fund as many students as you want to fund, but…the students that you are funding are not being empowered to succeed academically,” said Cassim.
“If they are not being given the information they require up front in order to make responsible choices for their own developmental needs, then the entire system is broken,” he explained.
Cassim said the NSFAS model needs to be reviewed, as the system has tried to centralise the funding, which has caused major setbacks.
“When you try to centralise in the manner in which the funding has been centralised, and try to fix the problems that then flow from there, it hasn’t produced the results that have been intended,” he said.
He said that the system should return to the principle of NSFAS, which is that any South African, irrespective of the circumstances of their birth, should be empowered to access the system and succeed.
This principle, explained Cassim, should therefore evoke questions such as “how do we best fund the individual student in order to succeed academically?”
“You don’t have to have convoluted bureaucracies to be able to do that; you need to be able to start with the experience of the individual,” he said.
Cassim explained that, to do so, the system can decentralise the model and fund students directly.
Loading ...