Times Of Swaziland: Scholarship crisis

Scholarship crisis
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BY SISHO MAGAGULA on 24/08/2013 03:38:00


MATSAPHA – The future looks bleak  for about 500 students of the University of
Swaziland (UNISWA) who will have to drop out due to lack of funds.
These are qualifying students who were admitted by the insitution and are
already doing first year in their various fields of study.
This week, government, through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security,
released the list of all students who will receive scholarships to pursue their
studies at UNISWA.
Only 800 students will receive the government grants this academic year.
In an interview this week, Vice Chancellor of the University of Swaziland,
Professor Cisco Magagula said the normal admittance at the institution ranges
from 1 200 to 1 300, even though he was not sure of the exact number of students
admitted this year.
Declared
With government having already declared that only 800 would receive
scholarships, this means about 500 will have to forget about pursuing their
studies. This is assuming that 1 300 were admitted this year.
The university opened for the second semester two weeks ago and all the admitted
students have been attending normal lectures.
They were eagerly awaiting the release of the list of scholarship beneficiaries.
Students who are not on the list and have no alternative sources of funding will
have to leave the university.
Professor Magagula said at this stage, it would be difficult for him to state
the exact number of students who will drop out but said it was with certainty
that those who did not have funding would have to make their way back home.
Finished
“We will only be able to know how many will have to drop out once we have
finished counting those who have been granted the government scholarships.
“We have to determine with certainty the number of those sponsored by
government and those who are self sponsored to see the difference.
“It’s true that there are those who will have to drop out due to lack of
funds. It’s a sad reality we cannot run away from,” he said.
Professor Magagula further mentioned that August 29 is the registration deadline
and it would thereafter be that they would be able to give the exact figures on
who is in and who is out.
“After that, we will do the calculations to determine how many are government
sponsored and how many are privately sponsored. We will then be able to give you
the figures of those who will have to drop out.  It is obvious that there will
be drop outs,” he said.
One of the students who did not receive government scholarship was on national
radio on Wednesday and narrated his ordeal.
Denied
He said hardly two weeks of being a UNISWA student he would have to go back home
after being denied scholarship. He appealed for financial assistance from
members of the public to help him continue with his studies.
‘We are denied basic right to education’
MATSAPHA – Students of the University of Swaziland are disappointed that some
of their own will have to down their pens and return home after they missed out
on government scholarships.
President of the Student Representative Council (SRC) Sibusiso Dlamini said it
was saddening to note that government continues denying other students their
basic right to education on the basis of what has become known as
‘prioritising’ courses at the university.
Dlamini explained that to their understanding, the prioritisation of courses was
introduced two years ago because the country was faced with an unprecedented
economic crisis.
“Early this year, we were informed that the country was offiially out of the
fiscal crisis. We had, therefore, expected government to pay for all students
this year, or else pay for at least 90 per cent of the qualifiying students.
Disappointing
“What is happening now is very disappointing because we are talking about
people’s lives and their future here,” he said.
Dlamini said it was also unfortunate that there was little they could do to
assist their colleagues who had not been granted government scholarships.
“We are, however, trying to persuade the administration to at least postpone
the closing date for registration in order to allow some of our colleagues
enough time to solicit funding for their studies.
“It is a pity that the government scholarship list was released very late and
a mojority of our colleagues had hoped that they would be sponsored. Now they
would have to start afresh and solicit alternative funding,” he said.
Some courses almost phased out
MATSAPHA – Government’s failure of not consulting with stakeholders on
certain issues almost led to the total phasing out of some courses and
departments at the University of Swaziland.
Two years ago, government started prioritising certain programmes at UNISWA and
announced that it would only sponsor students majoring in those fields.
These included programmes such as BSc and Bcom. Less priority programmes are
Humanities, Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) and others.
Government decided that it would no longer sponsor students doing the ‘less
priority’ programmes.
According to UNISWA Vice Chancellor Professor Cisco Magagula, the decision
almost led to the total phasing out of the departments considered of ‘less
priority’ by government.
This is because government took the decision without consulting the institution.
Professor Magagula said the university reacted by simply letting government know
of the implications of totally not funding students in such program-mes.
“The truth is that if you educate everybody in their different areas of
interest and skill, they are able to be self-sustainable and the country
develops in that way.
Sponsoring
“The country cannot survive on scientists, engineers or doctors alone. As far
as we are concerned, government shouldn’t stop sponsoring students in some
courses completely, to such as extent that the university comes to a decision to
phase out those courses because nobody is teaching there.
“The truth is that tomorrow you will need those people; within two or three
years down the line you will need qualified people in those areas,” he said.
Professor Magagula said this advice was communicated to government and that is
how some departments were ‘saved’ from being phased out.
“You will recall that when this thing started, there was totally no funding
for students in Social Science and Humanities. We then put our cards on the
table and told government of the implications of doing such a few years down the
line. Government came back to increase the numbers.
They then said in the 500 that were granted the scholarships, a certain number
would be Humanties and Social Science students. So, ngiko ke sitsi tsine kulabo
labasinika bona, akune-tiswe onkhe lama departments,” he said.
Professor Magagula said had government consulted them from the start, the
problems that were encountered when the prioritising system started could have
been avoided.