This old lady is fed-up with the student situation

Reasons why #FeesmustNOTfall

1. When fees fall, universities must be funded by Government.

a. Government has the poorest run hospitals.

b. They did not succeed in lifting the standards of schooling – all they did was lowering the standards for schools so that more pupils can succeed.

c. The government runs an ineffective police force, ineffective prosecution authority.

Do you really, really, really want poor governed Universities too? Because there is no way that the government will fund universities without taking over the government of universities. That means universities will loose there independence. Lecturers will have to lecture as government prescribes. And when there is a shortage of money, universities will be first to feel the budget cuts. Even without lifting the studyfees, they will have to end some research programs – how much more when they are fully dependant on government money?

2. Universities will also loose their position and ranking amongst other world known universities. It is already happening and it will continue to happen. If this slip in standards is not stopped, one or other day the degree you receive will not be worth the paper it is printed on. What do you prefer: to know that your degree is worth something and will help you get a job, or to stay jobless, because employers prefer to employ people from other countries with worthy degrees? Or do you perhaps mean by Africanization of universities that quality means nothing to you?

3. Suppose government says it will fund universities: Have you ever thought where the money comes from? No? It is called taxes. South Africans are already taxed to the brim. But suppose taxes are lifted: Have you ever thought of it that YOU, my dear student, will be taxed for the rest of your life for the very thing you are now struggling for? If you get a NSFAS loan and pay it back, it may perhaps take 10 years of your working life. If you are taxed to pay for other students, it will be the rest of your life. What is the best target for government to get the most effective taxes? VAT. Yes there are countries where students can study for free. In first world countries, the VAT rate is 32%. Nice hey? Imagine all the poor people in this country pay 32% VAT so that you can get what you want? The second world countries where students can study for free, are mostly in Southern America. And you know what? After they struggled for this privilege and it was granted, the inflation rate as well as the unemployment rate soared to new highs. To me it seems that this request of yours is a matter of cutting your nose to spite your face.

4. Government can only fund universities by three possible means:

a. Borrowing the money, but we are so up to arms in debt that we will not get that without taking the country’s finances further down the gutters.

b. Taxing you more, and you should realise that you are only shifting your payments – from university fees to taxes to be set on YOU for the rest of our life. Norway and Germany, where you can get free education, have tax rates of 45% and 55% respectively.

c. By cutting government funding on other expenses. Where would you, dear student like this cuts to be done? Will the All pay grants do? Or perhaps to fund hospitals less, so that more patients will suffer? Will you prefer the cuts come from policing? Secondary education? Salaries of governments staff? Take your pick for somewhere it must come from….

d. And as last resort , by cutting on corruption. Whau, THAT is a worthwhile cause to struggle for. But ending corruption is not ending soon. Even if it ends, it will take years to cleanse the country and the results of past corruption.

A few messages to the disruptive students and university authorities:

1 Perhaps all students should be forced to take a few lessons in economy 101. Free tuition = higher taxes = higher inflation rates = higher unemployment. Struggling students have already proven that you do not understand economics…..

2 The struggling students are taking away the opportunity for students who want to study by disrupting classes and tests. You believe you have the right of freedom of speech and to be treated fair? Well, why do you not acknowledge these students’ right to be treated fair and make their own choices?

3 You are moaning about the way you are treated by police? But you thing you may throw stones, intimidate and scold them, put buildings to fire and do what you like? Where are your decency and integrity? Why should you be treated fair if you cannot play your struggling effort in a fair play manner?

4 You are vandalising and burning down building millions of rand. Well, if you have the slightest idea how to calculate, here is the sum: Every building you burn down, is one less facility for your own future use. Every building damaged, is one that must be replaced with money that could have been used to lighten your financial burden.

A message to universities and government:

Everybody understands that the poor need some extra help. That is what NSFAS is for. Give the loans to the students, but they must pay it back. A part is conversed into bursaries that has not to be paid back. Student simply have to understand this, otherwise they are not worth the word “student.” A student is someone who is supposed to gain knowledge, insight and skills. Students who can only see and understand one side of the facts on the table, are not worth the word students. Students are people committed to knowledge, good education, good qualifications.

Secondly, students are not only at universities to gain knowledge. They are also supposed to shape their character. And you, the management and lectures are supposed to give guidance. That means LEADERSHIP. You shape a person by teaching him what is right and what is wrong. By teaching him discipline. Students who are only there to be disruptive, are not behaving according to the rules. Ban them and stand strong. Universities have rules. Let every student sign a written contract before he is admitted that he will behave or be dispelled. And be consequent in applying the rules.

A last word:

If I were an employer, I would never ever want to employ a student who is disrupting other people’s rights to study, who wants everything for free, who is willing to throw stones and burn buildings to get what they want. I pity the employer who does not mind this behaviour. I cannot see how he will prosper in his business without employees who do not have constructive values, who respect other’s belongings and who has no work ethic.

I have quite an uneasiness about what courses these students are following. Are they studying to become lawyers and prosecution officials? Heaven forbid that we put our law enforcement in those hands. Are they studying to become doctors? I pity the person who has to put his life on such people’s hands. Are they studying to become teachers? O dear, our education system will loose its wheels totally. I cannot think of even one career where your attitude and work ethic will be constructive – except perhaps politics or labour unions – if you are willing to join the EFF. But I doubt whether they will ever have place for all of you in there political system.

So good luck students, burn everything down, boycott your classes, intimidate your fellow students and then see how you will be the one to suffer in the years to come.

Interesting quotes:

As higher education systems in Africa expanded, provision of free higher education became increasingly expensive and unaffordable, compounded by a sustained decline in economic growth from the mid-1970s until the 1990s. This had severe implications for, among others, social provisioning, including higher education.

Notwithstanding the strained economic growth vis-à-vis the high cost of providing free higher education, the policy persisted, leading to gross underfunding of higher education systems in Africa. The gross underfunding had multiple deleterious consequences, some of which continue to hound higher education systems on the continent.

Overall, free higher education in Africa was built on inequitable social structures. As a result, it reproduced and reinforced these inequalities. To state the obvious, free higher education in highly unequal societies mainly benefits the already-privileged, who have the significant social, cultural and economic capital required to access, participate and succeed in education.

Many countries that once offered free higher education such as China, Australia, Mozambique, Kenya and England, have since implemented cost-sharing policies and models of one form or another.

Please read the rest of this article here:

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20160223145336908