As the country celebrates the highest national matric pass rate of 78 per cent, I could not help but be concerned about a number of
students who will be scammed by unregistered colleges.
These are the learners who, unlike their peers who achieved a university entrance, have passed their matric with a higher certificate.
It also includes learners who failed to apply on time last year for university admission and now want to further their studies.
A great number of these desperate learners will be lured to enroll at the fly-by-night colleges, or at institutions registered with the department of higher education but offering courses or programmes not registered with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA).
We have over the years seen young people studying hard towards a qualification but at the completion of the course only discover the
qualification is not worth the paper written on it.
When they enter the job market they are faced with the reality the qualification they work so hard for is actually worthless because the institution offering it is not accredited to offer the programme.
This will be after many years of parents making a sacrifice to keep up with ridiculously expensive college fees with the hope their children will have a better future, better armed to compete in the job market.
It is even more disappointing to see a parent suffer a heartbreak because after paying tuition fees from their life savings, only to be met with a ‘to let sign’ on the so-called college’s premises. The young person is supposed to begin with their studies, but the ‘college’ has never existed in the first place. The ‘officials’ who claimed its existence were in fact fraudsters who prey on the gullibility of desperate parents genuinely desiring the best for their children.
I believe all this can be avoided if learners were to learn to be less desperate and emotional when they decide on which institution of learning they wish to pursue their tertiary education.
Research and more research is imperative. This can help avoid the pitfalls of receiving a ‘qualification’ that has no value, and is not even recognised.
How I wish that one day there would be local non-governmental organisations (NGOs), especially in the townships, with the sole purpose of offering advice to learners to think more carefully about what they want to do post-matric, and to differentiate between bogus and real institutions, and to help them to apply to accredited higher learning institutions.
For now I encourage the new matric graduate to be more alert, and to conduct thorough research about the college before investing in a college of their choice. If you wish to enroll for a qualification in a college, please interrogate the courses offerings thoroughly before you pay the tuition fees.
