Editorial … When Elephants Fight, the Grass Suffers

STUDENTS have reason to be angry. They have spent hundreds of hours sweating over their books and now do not know whether they will be allowed into exam halls or whether they will get their results thereafter. That anger is fair.

Many of the students do not have back-up plans to fall back on, if they are told at the last minute that they cannot write exams.

We are not only referring to those at Namibian institutions. There are scores of others outside the country who also have sleepless nights.

Instead of worrying about exams, they are concerned about where they will sleep if expelled from facilities, what to eat and what the next day holads for them.

In fact, some of their parents have been privately informed by Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) officials to start paying the fees at those institutions, because there is no guarantee that the commitment made by that institution will be met.

NSFAF announced earlier that they have written to all institutions of higher learning, both public and private, to request them to allow the students to write exams and spend their valuable time focusing and preparing for these, while they and the government try to solve the financial matters in a timely fashion.

The institution has also been playing a game with students by sending them letters each month in which they would ask them to submit all their documents. Such a move, students said, was simply to delay the payments.

While NSFAF might have a genuine case about underfunding from government, they are no less innocent in how they run their affairs.

NSFAF was set up to operate as a revolving fund. They are supposed to collect payments of their previous loans in order to fund new applications.

However, between 2009 and 2010 alone, they had failed to account for more than N$2,7 billion in taxpayers’ money.

A report tabled by finance minister Calle Schlettwein in the National Assembly last year detailed how auditors found that the institution also failed to explain the difference between assets and liabilities amounting to N$288 million and N$353 million, respectively.

Things might have become better in the meantime, but it is alarming to note that government this week stated that NSFAF took on 5 000 more students than budgeted for.

This means that while NSFAF budgeted for N$947 million they want to spend N$1,3 billion. It is a staggering N$337,5 million more.

Yet their collection of outstanding loan repayments leaves a lot to be desired with over N$500 million not collected from those they previously funded.

Such over-commitment reflects the attitude of a careless institution.

Of course we understand that NSFAF did not probably want to show students the door, but they need to rein in on the very same students when it is time to pay back.

That needs to happen until such time it has been made clear that NSFAF is giving out grants – which are not repayable – and not loans.

In the meantime, we (and especially the desperate and stranded students) do not need the public feud between NSFAF and the government as we have witnessed this week.

Their dispute holds no advantages for the students. If anything, it creates more anxiety.

Students should not be the victims of the fight.

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