Is it imaginable having a
national state with a privatised Higher Educational system? Are we shifting
from a traditional context to a more modern one where paying for education
equates that of buying a brand new car? Should this matter be governed or does it
benefit South Africa and its citizens? Questions of this kind do rise as we are
seeing a current shift in the system of Higher Education in South Africa.
As a higher education
scholar, I had sat down reading headlines about Universities in South Africa
and the challenges they are imposing on their students. We would remember that Universities
are addressed as “Public” educational facilities designed to specifically
provide vast knowledge and learning to the societies of South Africa. Little
did we note, Universities are now providing education on a ‘new’ level? This
week we have seen students of the Witwatersrand protesting for what we believe
is an increase of educational fees. This issue was raised by student
representatives as we had saw in the news, and newspapers. Students were
protesting against what we also believe was a ‘right’ violation. South Africa is known to be one of the most
unequal nations, globally, and instead of fighting against that appalling
image, it is shocking that social exclusion is still part of South Africa’s
“characteristics”.
A public good has been
now overlooked or rather seen as a tradable commodity. If we would define a
public good, Economists put it as goods that are non-excludable and
non-rivalrous, i.e., such goods cannot be provided
exclusively to some: others cannot be excluded from consuming them; secondly,
non-rivalrous means their consumption by some does not diminish other people’s
consumption levels of the same goods. Simply this means that public goods
should be equally distributed in a society, whereas neither members of the
public are excluded of; and segregated against. In South Africa, there is vast
poverty, mostly tackling Black communities, it is rather challenging for the
current; or better yet the next generation to get proper education without
being side-lined financially. It is a growing issue, a socioeconomic
phenomenon, which its implications are not observed.
Some argue that higher
education cannot be treated as a public good as it does not satisfy either of
the first two features, viz., non-excludability and non-rivalrousness. Entry
into education institutions, it is argued, can be restricted to some, and
others can be excluded; and since the places of admission are generally given,
admission to or consumption by some necessarily means reduction in the
consumption levels of others. Similarly it is argued that there are additional
costs in providing access to higher education to additional members of the
society. This, in my view, is a very narrow interpretation of the technical attributes
of public goods and of consumption of education. At least the
additional person may, however, have to incur a small cost of accessing it, say
in the form of purchasing a textbook. Not by having to pay up to R100 000
for a year of education with annual increases.
The public good nature of higher
education is well understood when one recognizes the traditional functions of
higher education and the social benefits that it produces, many of which
constitute public goods in themselves. Higher education a noble system
traditionally, it shouldn’t be compromised for profits by ‘fat cats’!, whom are
greedy. Lastly, if this matter is silenced and not tackled, we would be looking
at having a nation with a lesser number of educated individuals, a nation with
more crime and unemployment, after all, Charles Darwin said, its survival of
the fittest. The government and its policies should intervene in this matter.
