GCIS
The Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande, said there was no crisis at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, blaming the scheme's detractors for the negative publicity.
"I must upfront indicate that NSFAS, insofar as it successfully services the needs to the vast majority of poor students, is not in a crisis as many of our detractors would want the public to believe," he said during a briefing on Tuesday on the status of the funding scheme.
Nzimande acknowledged that "we may be having glitches here and there", but he said the "scheme is not in a crisis."
The Minister said that the government has actually turned the tide in student funding for the children of the poor and working class, adding that NSFAS is the "single largest student funding agency in Africa" and was a unique scheme in the world in that it completely funds students for their studies, travel, accommodation, and personal care.
"In fact, it is for this reason that our detractors want to project NSFAS as being in a crisis because they want to discredit one of the most successful schemes of this ANC-led government," Nzimande said.
The Minister said that during the 2023 academic year, the government was funding all qualifying students on the DHET bursary scheme who have been admitted for funded programmes at public TVET colleges and Universities.
He said over 1.1 million applications were received through the DHET scheme's online application and 156 700 are from SASSA beneficiaries.
Nzimande said NSFAS provides for an upfront payment to institutions to cover course-related registration, tuition fees, and living allowances to ensure that all beneficiaries are registered at institutions without paying an upfront registration fee.
