Opinion
Behind My Pipe Smoke
By Fanzo Skhovha
07/10/2016
There are four problems that have become a competent supplier of strength to the #FeesMustFall movement. Before we deal with each, let me mention that at the centre of this impasse is that government and universities on the one side and students on the other, do not seem to realise that they are not discussing the same issue. Students, or some of them as it is beginning to thinly emerge, are talking about fee free education for all whereas government is prepared to offer financial assistance to poor, deserving students. You see, students need a zero fee whereas government and universities are talking defined education fees. In the science of Mathematics, there is huge difference between figure zero and one.
The first problem is that of a political nature. In fact, it is a two-toned political problem. You see, speaking as a politician and as a technocrat will not be the same. Often, as a politician you say what your audience love to hear. As a technocrat or head of government or department, you say what is right to hear. Politically, students whose parents are poor or the working class were supposed to have received free education progressively implemented from 2014. That is the ANC resolution-cum-policy on higher education funding. At the same time, students whose parents are in the lower to higher levels of the middle class should have been favourably considered along the same principle of affordability. Much of this did not happen. Don’t blame politicians but the technocrats. Technocrats found out the hard way that what they said as politicians is not easy to implement as technocrats.
The second problem is the students themselves. Students seek to have what is possible but at an impossible time. Much as fee free education is feasible, it requires some planning especially regards securing and distributing resources. There is a full range of trade-offs that should happen before free education is attained. At the moment, no one is ready. Some people have not done their job and that must be accepted as fact. Facts do not change. Students have not told us how free education will be appreciated by way of performance for it cannot be an open-ended free education policy. People will have to be responsible and pass! Students have failed to communicate their position because if they did, they would have received free education or at least the right answer by now. Another problematic element is expressing their views and demands along political affiliations. It is messy for one student body to have a section of themselves that accuses the ANC government and another section that accuses the government. Is it two governments we have or is it two student bodies? Once it gets political, it gets messy and noisy then we lose the student voice in all that.
Universities, like all formal establishments, need resources to dispense quality education. Top quality lecturers are attracted to sound functioning universities. Without financial resources universities cannot provide administrative, academic, transport and residential infrastructure to list but a few examples. They will not be able to recruit staff in all core areas of their business. They are justified to seek revenue in order to function well. The problem with universities (through their management) is that they demand money. Money or should we say lack thereof is tonic of our problem right now. So if you ask for what is not there, you are essentially asking for trouble. Students say they do not have because their parents do not have it. Government say they do not have it because Treasury do not have it. So where do universities expect it to come from because their two target sources do not have it? I suppose this is the reason we have a boiling situation. All parties have the same problem of not having the same thing that they all badly and urgently need. Perhaps, after all, fees must fall for real because that is a common source of this conflict.
The final problem is that of mutual misunderstanding between government and universities on one hand and students on the other. Students have been unambiguous from the beginning. They consistently demand free education and nothing less or more. Government is offering financial assistance to some but not all students. Surely this is wrong response isn’t it? No one asked for that but for a blanket free education. Students too, are demanding what government say they do not have. Isn’t that silly? Why do you ask for what is not there? Something that is not there is something you cannot get because it is not there.
The four problems of #FeesMustFall are independent of each other yet they depend on each other. It is a situation complex enough to reach the proportions it has right now. We should thank our stars that parents have not yet taken centre stage because it would be an exceedingly explosive mix. Parents are a dependent independent problem I intentionally elected to ignore when discussing each problem. Remember, they are an interesting core element of this cobweb because it is in fact them who cannot afford the fees not the government or students. I intentionally avoided drawing them into this discussion as problem five because parents are overburdened by the cost of living already. Majority of especially black parents cannot afford the cost of university education. If they were able to afford fees, you would not be finishing reading this piece right now.