SASCO OPPOSED TO THE IMMEDIATE IMPLEMENTATION OF E-LEARNING: A CALL FOR A SINGLE COORDINATED HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM

The South African Students Congress is taken aback by governments’ continued fumbling and failure to provide sufficient and decisive leadership in the higher education sector in the midst of a global pandemic. Government has declared a state of the national disaster in which tertiary institutions have consistently defined themselves above the regulations put in place by government and in doing so have endangered countless lives of students in the process and their academic future.

The dismal response by our government has led to the establishment of a WhatsApp group which moonlights as a task team that must coordinate the higher education sector in navigating the pandemic outbreak in the republic. This act by the government of leasing its thinking capacity and responsibility to the sector to Universities South Africa further highlights the vacuum in leadership on the side of government. Universities South Africa has proved over the years to be a structure that lacks the imagination to deal with problems that exist in institutions of higher learning.

The Government continues to turn a blind eye to the inequalities which exist between historically white institutions and historically disadvantaged black institutions, the University of Witwatersrand, University of Pretoria and other historically privileged institutions have been given the green light to continue with their systematic exclusion of students from poor and working-class backgrounds. These institutions and governments are fully aware that a large majority of their students are from remote areas which are poorly serviced by the government and largely not demarcated to receive services such as courier services and network connectivity; these are the lived realities of communities which get poor service delivery from government.

It is only a minority of tertiary institutions that have indicated a readiness to migrate to E-Learning; this is not shocking as institutions such as UNIVEN, WSU, TUT, UNIZULU, DUT, UFH, and MUT have over the years struggled to grasp the concept of digitalizing their systems. This has been evident in their continued failure to create digital administrative infrastructure for applications for admission in these institutions. It is preposterous to assume that an institution that has failed in such a small task of digital administration in February 2020 would miraculously have the capacity to run e-learning in April 2020.

More unfortunate is governments’ complete silence on vocational students and how they complete the academic year, the silence speaks directly to having no regard for TVETS in the country and proves that their program to make them institutions of choice is merely lip service. The clueless indication by some government officials in dealing with the TVET catastrophe amidst this pandemic leaves much to be desired as it is inconceivable to indicate a migration to E-learning in practical based institutions. These TVETs face massive infrastructure challenges with most failing to run effectively even before the outbreak of the pandemic.

As SASCO we call on all South Africans to stand with the downtrodden, marginalised students who are treated as second class citizens. Our cry as students in the face of such massive injustice and blatant display of inequality demand a complete boycott of E-Learning services as of 20 April 2020 until the following demands are met:

1. Adequate Investment into ICT Infrastructure across HE. (With the understanding that e-learning is the inevitable future).

2. Postponement of Commencement of E-Learning by two weeks to find means to ensure accessibility and success to Online learning. (2 weeks at least).

3. Provision for the students who won’t cope with the E-Learning to deregister without incurring costs and exclusions.

4. A clear resolution around anti-exclusions by institutions of higher (academic) and assurance of funding and policy deviation by NSFAS.

5. Continued disbursement of NSFAS allowance for the students who will be studying from home.

6. N + 2 rule

7. Mixed methodology strategy that is not aimed at the alienation of students based on their class origin.

8. Allow students to return to their residential areas to have access to WIFI so they are able to continue with their academic work.

It is in such moments that Government and institutions of higher learning should take into mind the most important stakeholder in the sector, a student that stands little to no chance of defeating the chains of inequality they face, a student that is a beacon of hope for her community, a student that has no alternative to break the chains of poverty outside of education. This is a moment to reflect on the true values and principles of the existence of knowledge production institutions, an opportunity to show that capital doesn’t trump humility and our true values and philosophies as Africa people.

Issued by SASCO

Bamanye Matiwane
President
079 026 5759

Or

Buthanani Ngwane
Secretary-General
073 257 5677

For Enquiries:

Luvuyo Barnes
Media & Communication Liaison
079 393 7131