SEIZE THE MOMENT: INTRODUCE FREE QUALITY EDUCATION FOR THE POOR AND TRANSFORM HIGHER EDUCATION

On Monday 13 November 2017, President Zuma finally released the long-awaited report of the Heher Presidential Commission tasked to establish whether free education was feasible or not. The President received the report three months ago but did not release it. This created a lot of speculation, especially that he fired the former Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande while seating on the report. The saddest part is that this report comes out at a toxic time when the ANC is highly factionalised. We might miss an opportunity to realise that young people are united beyond political convictions on the question of free quality education for the poor and the best thing that the ANC led government can do is to deliver on the resolution that they took 10 years ago at the Watershed Conference in Polokwane.

Students in 2015 led the historic Fees Must Fall protests that took the country by storm. The unity of students from various organisations in their resolve for no fee increments was unparalleled especially at an epoch of very active oppositionist politics. Though these students who advanced the Fees Must Fall protests differed sharply on the ideological outlook of free education, they all, however, appreciated the need for a collective voice as they confront the government in demand for fees to fall.
What the ANC government must learn from this, is that, if they don’t seize the moment by capturing the imagination of students and youths and make means for free quality education for the poor in 2018, young people will rise again, side by side, not minding the colour of the t-shirts and logos they are wearing, refusing to be managed by partisan politics, they will occupy the streets and it will be a sad day for the liberation movement that we failed to learn from 2015 and we refused to listen to young people. The fact is, the time is ripe for free education and there is no other way but to deliver in the interest of the poor and the working class.

Having studied the executive summary of the Heher report, one gets an impression that the commission failed to capture what is at the core of students’ submission to them. When various student and youth organisations appeared before the commission, there was sufficient consensus on the need for the government to implement free education now. What these organisations differed on are in fact modalities on how to implement free education. It was, therefore, the responsibility of the commission to reconcile these different submissions and come up with a workable model on free education funding, but instead, what Heher did was to bring back a report that butchers free education and takes it out of the picture. It is on record that the beneficiaries of NSFAS have been finding it difficult to pay back the loan because of the social economic conditions they find themselves in, when these students graduate must start paying black tax by looking after family and relatives such that paying back NSFAS becomes practically impossible because of poor family backgrounds.

It is therefore inconceivable why the Heher commission convinced itself with replacing the already burdensome NSFAS with another loan system. The proposed income contingency loan system entails that all students studying in both private and public institutions, whether rich or poor be funded through government guaranteed loans sourced from the banks. This recommendation by Heher ignores the class inequalities that exist in families and proposes to treat all students the same. To them, the son of a mine owner must be treated the same way with the son of his house helper when they want funding for education.

This will entrench and reproduce inequality in society. Private institutions in their nature are for the privileged few, why should government preoccupy itself in getting funding for students who go to private institutions instead of building more public universities and colleges to widen access and success for all in higher education? If we want to address inequality in higher education we must never accept this funding proposal.

The introduction of a loan from the bank to replace the existing loan from government which is NSFAS is a scheme to lock students into a cycle of debt. Banks are more likely not to charge lesser interests compared to NSFAS, this means the already poor students will pay more than they currently pay back. But because banks are financial institutions operating to make profit, it further means that the Heher commission has effectively commercialised education, placing the burden on students who must repay back the loan with interest charged. To show that it’s no longer about the plight of the poor students, Heher proposes that SARS be used to collect the debt back. This flawed recommendation of the commission is enough for all free education loving people to reject the report. Education is a public good and must never be sold to students.

Government and the private sector are the beneficiaries of the human resource produced by institutions of higher learning. It is therefore capitalistic and an insult to students to place the burden of financing education and loan liability on a student and government alone excluding the private sector. Government must increase education funding in real terms and must commit a certain percentage of the GDP towards the cost of education. The Heher commission committed a murderous crime by exonerating the private sector and not compelling them to pay the cost of education. The popular recommendation which the commission overlooked was the introduction of a progressive corporate tax that will fund education. This is necessary because the rich must pay for free education for the poor. All these recommendations by the Heher commission ignored and overlooked submissions that were pro-poor and instead, shielded capital.

What is now left is President Zuma to pronounce himself correctly without factional grandstanding on this report. His inter-ministerial task team studying this report must not use more time because students are getting more anxious. The President must pronounce himself in such a way that he declares free education and makes private sector accountable too by influencing a law that compels capital, captains of industries and monopolies to pay for the cost of education.

While we anticipate President Zuma to announce free education in line with funding proposals made by progressive organisations, a debate about transformation, decolonisation and de-commodification of higher education must continue because institutions of higher learning are sites of power and a struggle that must never be abandoned. We hope to see free education now and in our lifetime!