Address affordability
Almost every year since the Fees Must Fall movement SA higher education institutions have faced student unrest at the beginning of every academic year due to the numbers of things that bring dissatisfaction to students.
There are a number of factors that lead to the student protests.
First, it is the fact that higher education institutions design policies that fail to take into account the economic background of many South Africans.
The level of poverty is very high in SA, it is estimated to be around 60%.
In such conditions there are universities that want R15,000 to R20,000 for registration.
Where do they expect students from poor families will get such money?
If universities are supporting the call for accessibility of higher education then they need to relook at their policies that keep on blocking students.
Also students with outstanding fees are not allowed to register – where do they expect the students to get the money with incomplete qualifications?
Second, the issue of accommodation is a national crisis in all SA higher education institutions that is still not yet addressed.
Students find themselves sleeping in places that are not conducive for learning (studying) due to the unavailability of student accommodation and unaffordability of the accommodation available because most of this accommodation is very expensive.
Former whites only universities are still failing to deal with racism accordingly.
This is evident with the return of a staff member who had been accused of numerous cases of racism between 2013 and 2017 at Nelson Mandela University.
Perhaps higher education institutions need to ask themselves a question: if the majority of South African can’t freely access these institutions then who did they build these institutions for?
The only way to fight this and end the unrest is to stop transforming higher education institutions bit by bit, because we need to transform them entirely by dismantling all the Eurocentric foundations created by apartheid.
Boy Menzi Shongwe, BEd Honours: Educational
Psychology candidate