Universities are demanding education be rated as economic service or good

There are two stories as to why Kisii University was closed this past week. The official one is that the students were rowdy and wanted to burn down university facilities, for no good reason, one would assume. The non-official one is that the students were protesting a proposed fee increase. Both claims are true, for different reasons. The officials wouldn’t wish it to be known that indeed they will increase the fees. They had to find an excuse. The students are just about right that the fees will go up. That is a reason they find worth to protest, for some of them won’t be able to pay.

For sure, the fees will soon go up in Kenyan institutions of learning, public and private, quite soon, going by the state of the economy. The economy is in recession, even if those who know don’t want to say so. If schools and colleges have to keep up with the rise in the cost of running these institutions and pay demands by their staff, extra charges have to be introduced. And so, we should brace ourselves for more complaints and protests by students. Already, student protests against fee increases is more than a year old now in South Africa. Indeed, major South African universities such as the University of the Witwatersrand, Cape Town, Pretoria and Rhodes are struggling to find ways to mitigate against violent student protests which have led to suspended studies, damage to property and an uncertain future.

ANY INCREASES

The Fees Must Fall Movement (#FeesMustFall) insists that any increases in student fees for study in publicly-funded universities must be negotiated with the students or that fees should actually fall. The students, a majority of them from poor households feel that they already carry a heavy fee loan burden and that any increase in fees will deny them not just an education but also future employment. As it is now, many previously disadvantaged South Africans – blacks, coloureds, Indians – suffer the consequences of the apartheid legacy. The black townships and villages still lack housing, water, health facilities or even proper schools. The cycle of poverty will forever shadow them and their offspring, in which case ‘education is the key to a prosperous future’, as some school mottos in Kenya claim.

It is the children of these poor people who can’t bear the thought of being denied an education, a future job, and escape from the fate of their parents. They are demanding that the government offers them free or subsidized education. Last year they won the battle with the government when the #FeesMustFall forced the government to freeze fee increment for 2016. The ANC was facing elections this year. That has come and gone. The ANC was beaten in many municipalities. It is suggesting fee increase for 2017. Yet the South African economy has tanked. The rand is on a downward spiral against major currencies. Corruption and wastage by the ruling class means that there is little money to be invested in social services such as education.

NOT ADEQUATE

Isn’t this a familiar tale around here? Kenyan universities are claiming that the exchequer’s grant isn’t adequate to cover the cost of educating an undergraduate. Well, what the university administrators aren’t saying is: what exact amount goes into paying the teaching and support staff; how much is used annually to build new or maintain the existing classrooms, offices and laboratories; what portion goes to research, innovation and development? Would the university officials say how much of the funding is wasted in setting up uneconomic campuses all over the country? Would they speak about hundreds of support staff that really do little or nothing in the universities? Can they provide details of the pay and benefits of the top management compared to those of the rest of the employees?

In other words, the universities – like many others all over the world today – are demanding that education be rated as an economic service or good in the market. Just like any other commodity? They are saying that the university is a marketplace of ideas and skills and that learners should be made to pay for whatever services and goods they need at the market rates. So, those who can buy the education will. Isn’t this a denunciation of the old belief that university education is a public good? What about those who can’t? Either they look for loans to supplement what resources they have or forgo education. But there is a catch here. The same market demands specific qualifications and skills when applying for a job. Specialised knowledge is still largely certificated in tertiary institutions. It simply means that children from poor homes may gain secondary school qualifications – if, for instance the government provides free education at primary and secondary levels – but won’t gain any other skills. Isn’t it more expensive to have such huge part of the population unschooled beyond basic education, unskilled, unemployable and therefore left out of the economic mainstream?

Tom Odhiambo teaches literature at the University of Nairobi.

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