ISSUES AT STAKE: Free university education not affordable

There is no way the country can afford such a dispensation. In an address at an international conference on the conundrum of free university education, I spelled out contextual realities which make free education an obvious impossibility in South Africa.

We should bear in mind that Section 29 of the Constitution provides only for basic (primary) and further (secondary and TVET) education as a right for every South African citizen. Note that the term ‘basic education’ is currently being misused in our national register.

Regardless of the constitutional provision, the state has not as yet been able to provide all school requisites. It would take a measure of honesty and candour for academics to dismiss free university education as a ruse in our time.We have, by all accounts, become an expensive geo-political entity.

Our country has a fairly expanded and multi-faceted judicial system; a massive administrative apparatus; a convoluted legislative mechanism, and a sizable executive structure – provincially and nationally.

Within a population size which hovers around 52 million, our national legislature (House of Assembly and Council of Provinces) totals a membership of 490.This figure almost equals that of the American Congress (100 senators and 400 parliamentarians), for a population of 325 million.

Supplementary to our Parliament are nine provincial legislatures, largely responsible for regionalising the spirit and tenor of the national legislative framework.There is an additional range of state organs for engineering and promoting our democratic fabric.

We have a very high rate of unemployment, alongside yawning skills shortages and a less than moderate number of economically active participants. Our social security network covers every population sector, including children of teenage mothers.

The country is saddled with a staggering international debt. Structurally our ‘basic’ education system is well provided for, but in terms of functionality there are more questions than answers. The old symbol G (30%), which used to be a pitiably failing grade, has been adopted as a new pass mark, assigned an achievement point.

With reduced state subsidy to universities over time, classroom lecturing has, in many instances, degenerated into crowd management. Given the academic semester of fifteen weeks or less, the notional teaching-learning time is further disrupted by recurrent or occasional student upheavals.

The manner in which institutions are managed or mismanaged is a separate area of imponderables.Crime is rampant and often deadly. The destruction of valuable assets continues.

There is an ongoing cry relating to housing backlogs for the poor and destitute. The national budget is perpetually held to ransom by a curious mix of demands and ills. Does it really make sense to dabble with free university education against this background?

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