Africa-Press – South-Africa. Experts believe the “missing middle” loan announced by higher education minister Blade Nzimande will help students and parents who do not qualify for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
Nzimande announced on Sunday that at least half of students in the estimated 68,500 missing middle category will be funded by government through a new comprehensive funding model.He said government set aside a R3.8bn initial capitalisation fund to support the missing middle students with R1.5bn coming from the National Skills Fund and R2.3bn from Sector Education and Training Authorities (Setas).
This would be enough to fund 47% of the missing middle students, or 31,884 of the estimated 68,446 total.
Dr Muki Moeng, deputy vice-chancellor of teaching and learning at Nelson Mandela University, said the funding was a good idea.
Moeng, however, cautioned that there is a need to also think about the economy when implementing the model and sustaining the funding.
“I think it is a good idea if repayment of the fund will be like the Tertiary Education Fund of South Africa while we were students. We were forced to pay back as soon as we were employed,” she said. She said she hoped there would be a system to monitor and enforce this.
“It will alleviate strain on parents. However, we need to make sure loans are repaid so we can give more loans to others. It will be sad if we say we going to implement this and then find it difficult to recoup the loans,” she said.
The missing middle is defined as students who don’t qualify for funding because their household income is above the R350,000 per annum threshold, but for whom tertiary education remains unaffordable because their annual household income is less than R600,000.
Prof Michael le Cordeur, vice-dean for teaching and learning at Stellenbosch University, said he believed the loan will help the missing middle.“This has been a major problem for some time and is long overdue,” he said.
TimesLIVE Premium reported the criteria for students wanting to apply for a “missing middle” study loan are:
students whose annual household income is between R350,000 and R600,000;
TVET and public university students;
undergraduate or postgraduate students;
70% of applicants will be taken from Stem programmes (science, technology, engineering and mathematics); and
student applicants must sign a loan agreement.
Students who need loans for ongoing studies must attain an average of 60% or higher. Their loan will cover tuition, learning material and accommodation, and those who complete their qualification in the prescribed time and obtain an average of 70% or higher will have 50% of their loan converted to a bursary on request.
Le Cordeur said the fact that most students will be taken from the Stem programmes will help lower the high unemployment rate among youth. He said this was because the programmes will help train people for the future workforce.
“Maths, technology and science will help train skilled people for the future workforce which will undoubtedly feed into our economy,” he said.
Moeng supported Le Cordeur’s view, indicating there was a need for graduates in Stem subjects.
“Stem subjects are important. A student who is qualified in Stem, whether employed in South Africa or internationally, those students are sought-after,” she said.
While addressing the ministerial community education and training summit in March 2022, Nzimande said the country was facing a skills development challenge due to the ever-increasing number of people who are not in employment, education or training.
He highlighted key skills which are sought-after, including the digital economy, infrastructure development, data scientists and computer networks.
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