Black students sabotage their own future

Some of our campuses are on fire with predominantly black students running amok, again. The deep rumbles of discontent on these campuses like the Tshwane University of Technology, for instance, can easily be mistaken for a yearning for access to education and training, if you like.

As much as this government is committed to opening the doors of learning and culture, especially to people from disadvantaged background, it must also ask serious questions.

The impression that has been created by these student rumbles and upheavals on some campuses is that some students, especially black, have a culture of entitlement. Thus what is on display is understandable but unjustifiable social rage.

For all its ugly, violent and downright embarrassing scenes that pit the university authorities, police and State against students, it signifies misdirected energy on the part of the latter.

One cannot be glib about this whole crisis as to reduce its meaning to the recklessness, ill-discipline and lack of focus among students from a so-called disadvantaged background.

There is no doubt, of course, that some may have some genuine grievances but at the heart of the upheavals is poor academic performance. It has been said that these unhappy students are, largely, products of the black under-class whose families may earn, per month, less than the R5 000 minimum required for registration fees.

But the behaviour of holding the whole university to ransom by burning tyres, toyi-toying, attacking property and disrupting classes, for instance, smacks of the criminal action of hoodlums.

It becomes very difficult for some members of the public, including their own families, to identify and relate to the plight of these students. Of the students who are affected, why is it that they always tend to be black?

Are we to believe that the so-called Indian, coloured and white students are not confronted by the same problems and thus unsympathetic? Is violence and disrupting campus life the only way the student leadership, if any, can make its voice heard?

Unfortunately, what we’re witnessing on some campuses is the consequence of a culture of entitlement among some students. There seems to be a direct link between poor academic performance and the inclination to engage in misguided political revolt.

This government has put systems in place to make sure that no student, especially a disadvantaged individual, is excluded due to financial constraints. Much as the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is plagued by maladministration and systematic dysfunction, it exists as a catalyst to address students’ problems.

Perhaps what needs to be happening is for students to grasp the seriousness of academic excellence so that they can be intellectually equipped to come up with solutions to their own problems.

Part of the blame may lie with the university authorities themselves for not making sure the system of financial aid is run efficiently. But the upheaval on campuses is difficult to grasp because the students remain trapped in the narrow struggle framework of the toyi-toyi.

The fact that the student leadership is only half-involved in constructive engagement and forward-looking dialogue with government, the NSFAS and university authorities suggests that it could be intellectually undernourished.

Our students should represent the best of what this country has to offer in terms of leadership for the future. They should not only confront authority but challenge themselves on the exact causes that result in many of them being excluded and denied financial support.

Higher Education and Training Director-General Mary Metcalfe has categorically stated that it is poor academic performance that makes it difficult for government to continue assisting poor performing students.

The predictable thing at the beginning of every year now is for us to expect some campuses to deal with student protest over the same issue. The notion that more government money makes it easier for students from disadvantaged backgrounds to study is simplistic — precisely because it focuses solely on the economic dimension.

What is needed is for students, especially the leadership, to pay attention to the academic performance of the students. The common cause of the exclusion due to financial aid has a lot to do with the fact that students are underperforming and not obtaining the required academic points.

There is something immoral in ignoring the academic underperformance of students in class while making a big issue of their economic circumstances. Nearly 20 years after the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, we confine discussion about student results to poverty and unemployment in so-called disadvantaged families and communities.

It is now time to look at the content of the character of the students and what they are willing to do to save themselves. Either a student works hard to obtain the required academic points or he or she doesn’t.

And if they don’t they should just face the consequences of their action: expulsion.

Everything has a price.