• At a media briefing held on Monday, NSFAS Board chairperson, Ernest Khosa, called on tertiary institutions to do their part in helping to verify students who receive aid.
• NSFAS says student registration data is either submitted late or incorrectly, which hampers the organisation.
• For August a reported R992 272 572 has been paid to students in universities and TVET colleges.

Tensions and friction between the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and learners across the country receiving assistance show no signs of easing.

With protests taking place last week, and NSFAS confirming that the current divisive bank accounts are here to stay, neither side is backing down, which is why the organisation is asking tertiary institutions to do their part in helping to verify students.

In a media briefing held on Monday, NSFAS Board chairperson Ernest Khosa, unpacked the current state of affairs, singling out universities and TVET colleges for their lack of assistance in terms of vetting students who are receiving aid.

Per SA News, he noted that student registration data is either submitted late or incorrectly by institutions, which severely hampers the scheme’s ability to pay in a timely and accurate manner.

“NSFAS policy requires institutions to send updated registration monthly, therefore any wrong payments, such as those paid to students who have dropped out or not attending classes, would be as a result of institutions not alerting NSFAS through this process,” he explained.

“We remain committed to having a collaborative relationship with the leaders of higher education institutions and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges,” added Khosa.

For August, an estimated R992 272 572 has been paid out by the scheme across local universities and TVET colleges. NSFAS also notes that a total of the 355 270 paid students have been able to successfully verify themselves and receive payments. This figure represents 86 percent of the students signed up for the scheme during the current academic calendar year.

Along with a lack of assistance by institutions to help verify students, Khosa pointed out that, “closer to payment dates, the system experiences technical glitches caused by high internet traffic due to students registering at the same time. Onboarding for TVET college students continues on an ongoing basis as new students enrol.”

“We have also had reports of students struggling with the authentication process and requiring assistance, hence we swiftly deployed officials across various campuses,” Khosa continued.

Moving forward, NSFAS has partnered with organisations like the South African State Security Agency (SASSA), South African Revenue Service (SARS) and the Department of Home Affairs (DHA).

“These partnerships have proven to be fruitful in helping NSFAS make informed decisions. We have had instances where information received through third parties is either outdated or inaccurate. We have been in constant engagements with the said parties in a bid to get real-time data,” Khosa concluded.

Regardless of the reason why students are not receiving the funding that they have applied, and qualified for, it is clear that more needs to be done by all parties to assist students, many of whom are not only reliant on the funding to continue studying, but survive too.

[Image – CC BY-ND 2.0 GovernmentZA on Flickr]