Call on NSFAF to reform its criteria

Justicia Shipena and Evany van Wyk





More than 12 000 first-year university students may not receive financial assistance during the current financial year, unless the government covers the N$641 million shortfall being experienced by the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF).

NSFAF said in a recent statement that out of the 15 087 students who have met the minimum requirements for funding, only 2 925, which is less than 20%, will receive funding for during the current academic year.

Hundreds of students from various educational institutions held a peaceful march on 29 May to the NSFAF head office in Windhoek to demand that government covers the shortfall.

Speaking at a media conference last Tuesday, University of Namibia (Unam) SRC president Kudzai Sibanda said NSFAF needs to reform its awarding criteria, as it is experiencing the same problem year after year.

Sibanda said in the past NSFAF had been educating people and questioned why this should stop during election year.

“We are calling for education for all the students who were approved,” he said.

He said students will not be allowed to register for their second semester if their accounts have not been settled. This will give them no other option but to drop out.

Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust) SRC president Juno Angula said the Nust management realised the NSFAF situation was quickly snowballing and was heading to a national crisis, hence their willingness to allow all students to sit for exams.

He added the Nust SRC, upon receiving the list from NSFAF of the students it would be able to fund, wrote a memorandum to the management and pleaded for all students to sit for their exams.

“We based our argument on the fact that the situation will leave a lot of the possible beneficiaries stranded, and will lead to serious uncontrolled consequences, if the institution remained adamant that no students will write without settling or minimising the debt,” he said.

Angula urged students to believe in the possibility of government bailing out NSFAF.

He said the problem that many students and their parents face is that once you turn a possible NSFAF beneficiary into self-funded student overnight, they will not have had the benefit of crafting a six-month payment plan for tuition fees.

In addition, this leads to students and parents alike resorting to last-ditch efforts to raise funds.

“My advice is to not fritter and risk further exacerbating financial situations we face, but to rather consult with our university management and come to agree on how to amicably solve the situation,” he said.

The students demanded that their expectations be met before or on 15 June.

Higher education minister Itah Kandjii-Murangi informed the crowd, who also marched to her ministry, that government is looking at all the points raised by the students, including the issue of transforming NSFAF.

Meanwhile, acting NSFAF CEO Kennedy Kandume said they will study the petition and revert back to the group through their representatives.

Namibia National Students Organisation (Nanso) president Ester Simon said they intend to convene a discussion session comprised of professionals in the fields of commerce, public management, law as well as academics, in order to explore the transformation of NSFAF.

“Such a session would interrogate the statistics of the funding needs of the student populace and recommend ways in which the fund and the government in general can manoeuvre the current economic outlook,” she said.