As we are well aware, education is as an enabling right and basis for development. It provides a route out of poverty for people, and promotes equality of opportunity. The achievement of greater social justice is closely dependent on equitable access by all sections of our society to quality education.
Prior to our constitutional democracy, social inequalities were embedded and reflected in all spheres of social life, as a product of the systemic exclusion of blacks and women under colonialism and apartheid . The higher education system was impacted by this discriminatory and authoritarian legacies.
After the 1994 elections, the government committed itself to transforming higher education as well as the inherited apartheid social and economic structure. In light of this there have been concerted efforts to build an inclusive education system that reflects a democratic society as envisioned by the constitution.
Over twenty years have passed since the dawn of constitutional democracy, and it is high time we reflected on the changes in higher education in fostering social cohesion .
LAWS AND POLICIES PROMOTING TRANSFORMATION IN UNIVERSITIES
There have been a number of transformation-oriented initiatives seeking to effect institutional change. These have been aided by the deliberate adoption of regulations aimed at overcoming unfair discrimination, expanding access to education and training opportunities, and improving the quality of education, training and research . These initiatives have been grounded in Constitution principles of human dignity, equality, freedom, non-racialism and non-sexism .
The right to further education is also guaranteed in the Constitution which requires the state, through reasonable measures, to progressively ensure that it is available and accessible to all .
The Higher Education Act 101 of 1997 also recognises the need to redress past discrimination, ensure representivity, equal access to higher education, promote the values which underlie an open and democratic society based on human dignity, equality and freedom .
In line with this constitutional and legislative recognition on the need to transform our higher education and to make it accessible for all, a holistic approach is needed that not only focuses on increasing the numbers of previously disadvantaged students in our universities. We also need to explore other structural factors that may hinder access to education such as cost, cultural inclusion into the social fabric of universities, curriculum change, and the face of the faculties in some of our institutions of higher learning. All of these factors need to be examined from a human rights based approach.
This is indeed necessary given the fact that universities are to mirror the ideal society we are striving for and universities produce and nurture the leaders of our country who will be tasked with advancing our transformation project as a whole in the country.
We must acknowledge that there are modest successes that we should be proud of. Student enrolments of black, coloured and indian students have grown, and the government has established the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) whose aim is to provide financial aid to poor students in a sustainable manner that promotes access to, and success in, higher and further education and training, in pursuit of South Africa’s national and human resource development goals .
While these represents the increasing diversity in our universities, we need to consider what this diversity means for social integration with university spaces.
As stated in the White Paper for Post-School Education and Training, Nov 2013;
‘A growing black middle class has been empowered by the new conditions created by the arrival of democracy, and its members have managed to transform their lives in many ways. However, the majority of South Africans have still to attain a decent standard of living. Most black people are still poor; they are still served by lower-quality public services and institutions (including public educational institutions) than the well-off. Patriarchy, also a legacy of our past, ensures that women and girls continue to experience a subordinate position in many areas of life, including in much of the education and training system.’
This indicates that despite the efforts taken by government and its laudable achievement full transformation has still not been achieved in our universities. These has been made clear by the racial tensions that manifested in universities such as the ‘Reitz incident’ which involved the abuse of four black African staff members here at the University of Free State and the recent student led national movement for access to decolonized education colloquially termed the ‘RhodesMustFall’ and FeesMustFall protests.
The White Paper also identified the existence of other inequities such as differences based on socio-economic status, ability/disability, or health status (especially HIV/AIDS status).
Some of the challenges to transformation and social integration in our universities after access to higher education institutions include low student success rates, curriculum relevance, unsuitable student accommodation, a questionable three-year degree structure, the lack of integration between bridging courses and the core curriculum.
Other challenges facing the academic profession itself include a failure to identify and retain black, especially female, members of staff, an aging academic population, failure to develop African languages as academic languages and inadequate staff development. Moreover difficulties surrounding leadership and governance capacity at higher education institutions include the failure of many of their councils to provide suitable leadership, inadequate accountability for the implementation of transformation policies and institutional corruption.
The institutional cultures of our universities, after democracy, show limited shifts in the colonial apartheid based values system that shaped universities prior to 1994. A number of reports have indicated that the university culture in South African can be alienating and disempowering with pervasive racism.
Another challenge is the varied interpretation of ‘transformation’. Some institutions have a very narrow interpretation of the term “transformation”, limiting themselves to demographic changes only. Other institutions understand the term to be more expansive, extending to institutional culture and a general reform of the institution. Transformation should be broader and not focus on race only, as reducing the transformation agenda to racial equality ignores the broader transformational challenges in previously black universities
Transformation should be addressed holistically, rather than prioritising particular issues, without taking cognisance of their intersectionality of all the different forms of oppression.
In the South African Human Rights Commission’s view, a conception of transformation that more closely aligns with the preamble of the Constitution, as well as the founding provisions and section 9 of the Constitution, should be preferred. Hence transformation in the higher education sector will entail the creation of a system which is free from all forms of unfair discrimination and artificial barriers to access and success, as well as one that is built on the principles of social inclusivity, mutual respect and acceptance.
The Minister of Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande, in his May 2015 budget speech in parliament stated that ‘transformation must be performed to create an Afrocentric space; advance the decolonization of knowledge; agitate for better facilities and more productive practices; promote just pedagogies; broaden opportunities and increase success rates for black students; foster demographic representation on all levels of the academy, and across university structures; stimulate a democratic and non-repressive institutional culture; and ensure accountable governance and management efficiencies’.
Transformation in South Africa Universities, must be reflected in all aspect of the institution such as governance, management and leadership, student environment such as reasonable access and academic success, equity in staffing, institutional cultures, progressive and inclusive teaching and learning, research and knowledge systems, institutional equity, and the political economy of higher education funding.
This is not an easy task for universities and that is why the establishment of the Centre for Human Rights which we are opening today is a necessary and important development. The centre will assist the University of the Free State in undertaking its responsibility to transform the university and promote integration, non-discrimination and inclusivity across all levels not only within university but also within the local space where the university finds itself.
On the part of the Human Rights Commission, the Commission has in the past been involved in the conduct of investigative and reconciliatory activities at the University of the Free State (UFS) in the wake of the ‘Reitz incident’ as well as the Shimla Park incident.
Recognising that the occurrences at the University of the Free State are recent despite previous recommendations made in the past by the Commission to address racist practices at the universities of Pretoria, North West and Stellenbosch.
Most recently, in 2014, the Human Rights Commission convened a National Hearing on transformation in institutions of higher learning in South Africa. The decision was taken following the receipt of a number of complaints on transformation issues in universities, which in the Commission’s view, necessitated a holistic examination of transformation in institutions of higher learning in South Africa. In particular, the Commission sought to determine whether institutions of higher learning have sufficiently transformed in the last 20 years with regard to race, gender, language, culture, disability and sexual orientation amongst others; and the factors, if any, that have hindered transformation in institutions of higher learning in the last 20 years. The Commission made a number of findings and recommendations including:
- Calling on the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) to take a leading role in the transformation of the higher education system and for it to use its powers to hold universities who fail to transform to account.
- The DHET developing guidelines on appropriate transformation goals and strategies within the higher education sector.
- Universities developing human resources policies that prioritise the recruitment of underrepresented and/or previously disadvantaged persons, particularly academics and leaders in senior posts;
- Universities putting in place early warning systems to identify students who require additional support with the view to improving success rates at universities;
- The holding of debates and dialogues around teaching and learning methods, and the redesigning of public universities’ curricula to ensure its social responsiveness;
- The redress of historical inequalities between historically white and historically black universities;
- Addressing the funding challenges faced by poor and middle-income students.
THANK YOU ALL