On Friday, students burned down the main campus of the Maluti TVET College in Phuthaditjhaba. They are apparently upset because of NSFAS bursaries for the year and also demand the resignation of Mr. Mabena, the principal of the College. Students of the Bethlehem Campus tried to carry on with classes as usual, but students travelled in on busses from QwaQwa and intimidated the Bethlehem students to close that campus again.
If they are so dependent on NSFAS bursaries to survive, one wonders where they got money for their bus ticket from? But that besides the point.
We know that the true reason for this action lies in the fact that the midyear exam is starting in a week or two from now. There is an exam permission policy from the Department of Higher Education which is based on an 80% compulsory class attendance and a 40% academic average in all subjects. Students who does not meet those requirements, are not allowed to write exams.
And in that, lies the real reason for burning down higher education institutions every year. Only this year it started rather early. Usually it happens towards the end of the third term when the quota admission students into Universities for medical and engineering degrees realise that they are not going make it to the exams. The burning and vandalism then starts and is usually blamed on “Fees must fall”, “De-colonisation of education”, “Afrikaans must fall” or, in this case, bursaries. Nobody falls for those excuses any more, alas.
Front National is convinced that this incident is merely the first flame. Indications are there that exams will again be disrupted in 2018, at the expense of the student who actually pays for his tuition and who really wants to study of course.
Read the original article on Front Nasionaal SA
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