South African Tuition Fees: Is Education the key in post-pandemic South Africa?
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Education has always been considered a treasure box that every child is ought to have. In it, we are told that it presents endless opportunities, including yet not limited to getting a job, having sustainable wealth, building networks or various partnerships that can lead you to open doors and if you are lucky enough, finding a spouse who openly supports your career endeavors and the lifestyle that comes with it.
This enthralling little treasure box known as education is a trendy item that every parent is on the lookout for despite the hefty price tag it accompanies.
Education cost an arm and a leg, especially for a certificate that reads something along the lines of, “Mission Complete: we’re kicking you out of your nest because we think you are ready for the working world,”? and with a microscopic disclaimer that reads at the end, “but wait, there’s more. As much as we thank you for spending huge amounts of money on a schooling education that may never guarantee you the success you thought you were granted, we’ve also ensured to include in your package a poverty trap in your journey of finding success. However, we hope you like the little decorative scroll in your hand; we wanted to go for a Harry Potter sort of look.”
According to data analysis published by Old Mutual (2021), parents will be expected to pay R64,200 for the first year of university studies on average. This is likely to triple to R107,600 by the year 2025. The increase would have continued to R165,600 by the year 2030!?
As stated by Business Tech (2019), which was also data that was confirmed and provided by Marius Pretorius, Head of Marketing and income solutions at Old Mutual Personal Finance, “If your child started Grade R in 2019, you could expect to pay between R1,400,000 and R3,400,000 for public or private education respectively over their school career which is a rand amount that includes primary schooling, high school, and a three-year qualification”, he added.
This symbolizes how expensive South African education is in modern times, where unemployment is a bitter pill for graduates to swallow. Stat SA (2021:Q1) confirms that of the 7.2 million unemployed persons in Q1 of 2021, only 2.1% were graduates, while 7.5% had other tertiary qualifications as their highest level of education. In other words, a degree that “glitters” is not always a golden ticket to finding a job opportunity, no matter how prestigious your qualifications and the institutions you who had earned them may be.
We’ve previously witnessed the rise of the #FeesMustFall campaign, a student-led protest movement initiated by the year 2015, which aimed to stop increases in student fees and encourage the South African government to increase its funding in universities. According to Groundup (2015), in the years 2012/2013, the government contributed over R24 billion in total funding to universities which amounts to 2.3% of total government spending, about 0.76% of GDP. As stated by Roshuma Phungo of the South African Institute of Race Relations, this is a rate that is low by global standards as the appropriate numbers would have been 2.5%
Top 10 Most Expensive Universities in South Africa:
Sociodemographic: Educational Category
Source by: StudyRight (2019-2021)???
Sources: Higher Education and Skills/ Stats SA; General Household Survey; The South African. (2021)
Do we conclude that the education system is failing the country, and if so, how do we fix it?
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It’s not to say that the education system is failing the country, but rather, it’s in the way the education system tends to be neglected by those in power. As you might have witnessed with the few statistics provided, a portion of youth’s inability to ‘’take up space’’ as the previous Miss Universe, Zozibini Tunzi had proudly declared, is not quite a possible reach as yet, especially if you happen to fall under our poverty line.
As youth and parents of an overwhelmingly frustrating environment, do we then host violent marches? Burndown concrete buildings? Sway the middle finger at the sight of a BMW driven by a smug politician hoping that he is compelled to walk in the shoes of the ordinary person? The answer to that question is unknown, but I know one thing for sure: change begins in our ability to realize that the problems we face as a nation are battles worth winning for the generations to come.
Despite how costly it is to be a systematically trained expert of any subject, I don’t just want fees to “fall” but the idea that money controls the destiny of anybody’s future to diminish in its totality.?
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