Free tertiary education for poor students
“The provision of fully subsidised free education and training will be extended to all current and future poor and working class South African students.”
Government is to subsidise free higher education for poor and working-class students, the presidency has announced.
In a statement released on Saturday it was announced that provision of fully subsidised free education and training will be extended to these students at all technical vocational education and training (TVET) colleges, starting in 2018 and phased-in over a period of five years.
“All poor and working class South African students enrolled at public TVET colleges will be funded through grants not loans,” said the statement.
“For TVET colleges, full cost of study will include tuition fee, prescribed study material, meals, accommodation and/or transport.”
The presidency said government will increase subsidies to universities from 0.68% to 1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) over the next five years.
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This, the statement said, will be done as recommended by the Heher commission and in line with comparable economies in order to address the overall gross underfunding of the sector.
“As a result of this substantial increase in subsidy to universities, there will be no tuition fee increment for students from households earning up to R600 000 a year during the 2018 academic year.”
The statement said the definition of poor and working class students will be refered to as “currently enrolled TVET colleges or university students from SA households with a combined annual income of up to R350 000”, by 2018 academic year.
“We reaffirm that education remains an apex priority of government’s pro-poor policies and a central pillar of our fight against the socio-economic legacy of apartheid and colonialism and its resultant triple challenge of race, gender and class-based poverty, inequality and unemployment as outlined in the national development plan.
“Failure to accelerate equitable access and success in higher education and training directly threatens the achievability of this key objective and everything we have built thus far,” the presidency said.
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