Cosatu welcomes 'missing middle' fee announcement

[schumi]

Cape Town – The Congress of South African Trade Unions has welcomed government's decision to subsidise fee increases for the poor and the "missing middle".

"This is a clear sign that government is committed to helping the children of poor, working and middle-class families," national spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said in a statement.

This after Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande on Monday announced that university and college increases would be up to the institutions, but would be capped at 8%.

He also announced that students on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme would not bear the brunt of the increase, as it would be subsidised by the government.

They would also subsidise the increases for students who fell under the "missing middle”, where households earned up to R600 000.

They agreed that fee increases should only be focused on those who could afford to pay, Pamla said.

"Cosatu believes that the poor students should not be forced to pay but only those from well-resourced families should be expected to pay. We are also calling on big business, the biggest beneficiaries of our education system, to step up and start funding [it]," he said.

Call for peaceful protests

The union supported the student's argument that the country had enough resources hidden in the pockets of "white monopoly capital that can be harnessed and utilised to provide free education for the vulnerable students".

Pamla called for protests to remain peaceful following the announcement.

"The destruction of property will not bring about free education but will delay it because the resources will have to be redirected to rebuild the damaged infrastructure."

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance's Belinda Bozzoli said Nzimande's announcement raised more questions than answers.

"While Minister Nzimande has committed government to cover fee increases for all poor, working and middle class students at university and TVETs in 2017, he stated that he 'hopes' that the minister of finance will announce funding in the medium term budget policy statement, expected at the end of October," she said.

Making such an announcement, without a commitment from the Treasury, verges on the irresponsible, the DA said.

"Besides this glaring gap in the announcement, Minister Nzimande provided us with no assurance that the higher education sector would not again have to pay for all or a part of the additional support to students."

News24
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/cosatu-welcomes-missing-middle-fee-announcement-20160919

 

[Johnatan56]

So higher income people, who pay more tax which funds universities, have to pay more for uni. The logic.

 

[LaraC]

They would also subsidise the increases for students who fell under the "missing middle”, where households earned up to R600 000.

Is that the only criteria that will be used or are there again quotas involved?

 

[jikajoe1]

We are also calling on big business, the biggest beneficiaries of our education system, to step up and start funding [it]," he said.

For once in a loooong time, I agree with COSATU. The thieving nature of big business is what makes their silence so loud in this debate, and they must come in the front because they are the benefactors anyhow.

 

[_Jakes_]

We are also calling on big business, the biggest beneficiaries of our education system, to step up and start funding [it]," he said.

For once in a loooong time, I agree with COSATU. The thieving nature of big business is what makes their silence so loud in this debate, and they must come in the front because they are the benefactors anyhow.

So all the taxes business pay and all the salaries they pay on which people also pay taxes, mean nothing? You do know that if you increase taxes beyond what is reasonable business will leave.

 

[werfie]

So all the taxes business pay and all the salaries they pay on which people also pay taxes, mean nothing? You do know that if you increase taxes beyond what is reasonable business will leave.

In all fairness, if there is a skills shortage due to people not being able to afford education, business will also leave or be forced to hire expensive labour from abroad.

I agree business should also come to the party, as they are the beneficiaries in the end. I say this very broadly and generally, but we should stop accepting that just because tax are paid, your job is done and yes I know our goverment p's out half the money, but this is also something for which the wheels of change have been put into motion, we can't argue one negative with another.

In arguments such as these I agree with some of our revolutionary friends (to an extent). We have a country where half the people are dying of hunger and where opportunities to better themselves are not available, then we have big business that abuse this and coins on the fact that unskilled labour is readily available and cheap while posting unimaginable profits. Somewhere this divide needs to get a little smaller. I am not saying hold business acountable to death, but they certainly need to step up a bit, seeing that they are in the position to do so and that it will benfit them in the long run.

By saying this I am not implying that everyone else that also carry a responsibility is suddenly indemnified from what they are supposed to be doing. This certainly is a multi-faceted problem.

 

[FoXtroT]

Unskilled labor isn't cheap in this country. If it was we would be Africas China.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Unskilled labor isn't cheap in this country. If it was we would be Africas China.

Unskilled labour isn't cheap or productive which is just awesome

 

[_Jakes_]

In all fairness, if there is a skills shortage due to people not being able to afford education, business will also leave or be forced to hire expensive labour from abroad.

I agree business should also come to the party, as they are the beneficiaries in the end. I say this very broadly and generally, but we should stop accepting that just because tax are paid, your job is done and yes I know our goverment p's out half the money, but this is also something for which the wheels of change have been put into motion, we can't argue one negative with another.

In arguments such as these I agree with some of our revolutionary friends (to an extent). We have a country where half the people are dying of hunger and where opportunities to better themselves are not available, then we have big business that abuse this and coins on the fact that unskilled labour is readily available and cheap while posting unimaginable profits. Somewhere this divide needs to get a little smaller. I am not saying hold business acountable to death, but they certainly need to step up a bit, seeing that they are in the position to do so and that it will benfit them in the long run.

By saying this I am not implying that everyone else that also carry a responsibility is suddenly indemnified from what they are supposed to be doing. This certainly is a multi-faceted problem.

What do you feel business should do more?

 

[werfie]

What do you feel business should do more?

Perhaps Bursaries, Learnership programs, on the job study aids?

Big businesses that offer these are a dime-a-dosen, and when you find it it is very limited. I was once in a position to not be able to study further and finding a company that was willing to give me an opportunity of any kind was nearly impossible. Ironically enough I was given an opportunity by a micro enterprise which equipped me in such a way that I was later able to work in big business. This is why I understand these concerns to an extent.

 

[_Jakes_]

Perhaps Bursaries, Learnership programs, on the job study aids?

Big businesses that offer these are a dime-a-dosen, and when you find it it is very limited. I was once in a position to not be able to study further and finding a company that was willing to give me an opportunity of any kind was nearly impossible. Ironically enough I was given an opportunity by a micro enterprise which equipped me in such a way that I was later able to work in big business. This is why I understand these concerns to an extent.

I've only worked for two companies so far and both of them were excellent in providing funding for further studies. I think the problem with providing these opportunities is that you have no guaranteed return on investment. As we all know fees are expensive and with smaller companies the risk of getting no return is maybe just too big.

I've been very fortunate in finding companies that were willing to invest money in my education, my view is therefore maybe not in line with the reality faced by others.

 

[dlk001]

In all fairness, if there is a skills shortage due to people not being able to afford education, business will also leave or be forced to hire expensive labour from abroad.

In my experience, companies I worked for in the engineering field are now supporting much less students, graduates than before. The seasoned professionals, HR, Finance see funding students and appointing graduates as a business financial risk. Funny thing is now, we have a skills shortage, a generation gap which is a much bigger business risk in terms of long-term sustainability.

An example

In 2014, our mining company decided to cut the Professionals In Training (PIT) program to save costs. The PIT program covers a student from tertiary education to 4-years work experience post tertiary. I have two vacant posts, we don't have qualified skills in our PIT pool meaning we must now headhunt, pay more for less experience.

 

[Mila]

Hear ye! Hear ye! This is the most important paragraph of this whole piece:
The Government does not have any money! Not a single cent. It gets all its money from taxpayers! So when you are asking the ‘government’ for ‘Free’ education, you are asking ME, the taxpayer to pay for it. FREE education is as ‘free’ as Nkandla was ‘free.’ It’s not FREE if I am paying for it, poepol!
And if you are going to ask me to pay for your education, ask bloody nicely. The least you can do is stop breaking things, burning things and have a bad attitude about it. But what you cannot do is DEMAND. It is my money. It is your parents’ money.

ASKSAMSON

That is about it.
I will evade more tax this year.

 

[The_Ogre]

The other day I worked out what it would cost at the moment to send someone to UCT. I got to something like R80k for first year BCom. I then checked UWC and only got to about R30k.

Is UWC cheap or UCT expensive, and does anybody know why this big discrepancy exists? :wtf:

 

[Nick333]

We are also calling on big business, the biggest beneficiaries of our education system, to step up and start funding [it]," he said.

For once in a loooong time, I agree with COSATU. The thieving nature of big business is what makes their silence so loud in this debate, and they must come in the front because they are the benefactors anyhow.

Big business funds everything directly or in directly through taxation and providing taxable employment. Without big business there would be no education, period. And, here's the thing: whether or not you think they should be made to pay more, if you make them pay too much they will just go somewhere that wont. And then we will have even less money for education (and everything else) than we do now.