Windhoek
The Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) and the University of Namibia (UNAM) – as the country’s two main national tertiary institutions – are unable to absorb all the school graduates that aspire to go to university.
“We need to look at how to fund students who are going to institutions other than public tertiary institutions,” said National Youth Council (NYC) executive chairperson Mandela Kapere, when he witnessed 11 students receiving scholarship and admission letters from G-Ngube Research Institute of Namibia.
The funding is worth N$124 570 and will aid a number of students to enrol at G-Ngube in various IT short courses that will start from next week.
The youth leader said access to education is a need that all young Namibians experience. “Rather than targeting funding to institutions, we should rather target funding to students, who are in need of it. If you’re able to get that [funding] from somewhere other than Unam you should still get funding from the Namibia Student Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF),” he said.
He said funding must not follow the institutions, but must follow the young, so that all young people get the same opportunity to get an education, or a skill, or training.
“Sometimes you become annoyed to hear this fight between public institutions on who gets more money and these things are completely misplaced,” he said, adding that funding should rather follow young people.
If training is offered anywhere in the country and there is an institution in that particular area that can provide any student with accredited training, he/she should be able to access a scholarship, a bursary or a grant to be able to access higher education, he held.
“I think this this is one of the reforms and changes that we want to see in our higher education funding formula,” Kapere said.
He also questioned the reason students are unable to access funding for education. “Let us un-complicate the NSFAF (National Students Financial Assistance Fund), so that it becomes as accessible as possible to young people. These unnecessary administrative burdens that we sometimes see being put in place make it more difficult for young Namibians to access training institutions.”
He pleaded with the Ministry of Higher Education to ensure that operations of the Fund are simplified and that it is accessible to aspiring students.
Taking a swipe at the two national institutions that recently threatened to lock out students over outstanding monies, Kapere said this must stop. “The crisis this time around where students are turned away from exam halls, because of outstanding fees not being paid must stop,” he further stated.
Kapere called on tertiary institutions to be cautious in dealing with these issues of affordability and not to turn young people away, simply because they are unable to pay.
“I think it’s a terrible shame that we have public institutions that have been funded over the years with billions of dollars from taxpayers’ monies and they are now turning away the children of these taxpayers and even some of these taxpayers are not allowed to write exams.
“It should be considered a crime. I’m encouraging that the ministry be proactive and that the fund be proactive, as well as the National Council of Higher Education, in order to work on the funding formula so that education becomes more accessible,” he said