SOUTH AFRICAN VARSITIES GET EXTRA $1.2 BILLION TO IMPROVE STUDENT ENROLLMENT

S’African varsities get an
extra $1.2bn to improve
student enrollment

Students from the University of Cape Town, UCT,
protest on their campus demonstrating for free
education in Cape Town, South Africa, Monday, Oct. 3,
2016. A South African Education Minister Blade
Nzimande said Monday a small minority of university
students is trying to spread “anarchy” with violent
protests calling for free education. AP/Schalk van
Zuydam
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Students at South African universities and higher
education institutions will receive an extra 17 billion
rand ($1.2 billion or 983.3 million pounds) over the
next three years, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said
on Wednesday.
The government of Africa’s most industrilised country
is under pressure to improve access to education
following the protests that have disrupted learning at
various campuses but has said in response to the
protests that it could not allocate extra funds to
education at the expense of health or housing.
Weeks of demonstrations calling for the scrapping of
university fees, prohibitive for many black students,
have highlighted frustration at enduring inequalities in
South Africa more than two decades after the end of
white minority rule.
“The medium-term budget policy statement proposes
to accelerate the growth of spending on post-school
education,” said the Treasury.
“A zero percent university increase in 2018 would likely
result in a shift of resources from other priorities
towards higher education,” the Treasury said.
Students took the streets when the government in
September recommended that 2017 university tuition
fee increases be capped at 8 percent, higher than the
current inflation rate of 6.1 percent.
Spending on post-school education and training rises
to 89.3 billion rand in 2019/20 from a revised 68.6
billion rand in 2016/17, an annual growth rate of just
over 9 percent and one that outpaces inflation of 6.1
percent.
Over the past five years, spending on tertiary education
and training has grown faster than other budgets,
including health and policing, and increased from 1
percent of GDP in 2008 to 1.5 percent today, said the
Treasury.
However, as South Africa has tried to avoid a low-
growth trap with real GDP growth estimated at 0.5
percent this year, the Treasury warned that policy risks
over the medium term are mainly associated with
unanticipated spending requests, such as the call for
free education.

SOURCE: TODAY.COM