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Decolonisation is part of the complete overhaul needed for a sustainable higher education system, writes Malegapuru Makgoba
We are currently faced with a crisis in higher education whereby most things, if not everything, “must fall”. Remember, the clever students have not revealed where and how these all “must fall”. There is a chance that everything may just “fall apart”.
The students, who are united on these issues across universities, national boundaries and the nation have correctly identified a simple but obvious common story. This is a hallmark of leadership.
The story has been with us since the dawn of our democracy and has been growing every year. It resonates with the nation and addresses the same three pillars mentioned in the National Development Plan (NDP): inequality, unemployment and poverty.
The story is critical for students’ future and indeed for the very survival of a healthy higher education. It will also affect the future of the nation and our place in the “League of Nations”. It simply cannot be ignored and must be addressed.
Autonomy lost in panic
Government in the form of President Jacob Zuma responded swiftly and positively. However, in its response, several unintended consequences became obvious: university autonomy was handed to the state by the vice-chancellors and chairs of councils; by freezing the fee increase, this showed the solution to be short term and only palliative; it revealed the poor leadership, lack of unity and lack of planning among vice-chancellors on an issue of national importance.
President Zuma’s announcement undermined the authority of the vice-chancellors to lead the sector. Of course, previously, the vice-chancellors of our country had committed another cardinal governance sin out of fear of their student stakeholders. They abandoned autonomy by running to the president and, in so doing, bypassing Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande.
The issue of autonomy was not touched on by any university leader during this protest period. University autonomy discourse should evolve from the now-forgotten concept developed by the National Commission on Higher Education, namely, “cooperative governance”.
The students outsmarted the vice-chancellors by:
. Their successful collective national protest, which garnered international support;
. Forcing them to panic and flee to government for support and legitimacy; and
. Giving them a vote of no confidence, due to their failure to respond appropriately to students’ demands, rendering them impotent.
Some vice-chancellors are vociferous when it comes to debates about limits of terms of office, or about competencies in government and other sectors. But they are silent about their own sector. Some universities’ staff and students have stated publicly that their vice-chancellors are not fit to lead them. Why have they remained silent and not done the “honourable” thing?
Transformation at the heart
It has become obvious that what this generation of student leadership has unleashed is a unique opportunity to overhaul and transform the higher education system fundamentally. They are tired of the current system that hangs on the pillars of racism and white supremacy, and continues to reproduce inequality by whatever measure you look at. This current system contradicts the objectives of the NDP.
What these students are also telling us is that a generational chasm exists between how they see and plan their future, and how the vice-chancellors do so.
Students want free, quality education. With careful and inclusive planning, it is possible for our country to afford this – the minister himself has alluded to it.
Students want to have decent accommodation at varsity; they want quality education delivered by qualified staff over the mediocrity we see all over the sector; students want the knowledge system decolonised and white institutional culture transformed to be in line with the identity and culture of our country, and not the identity and culture of some foreign country. They want the funding of universities fundamentally transformed to reflect the types of universities we need, and they want universities to be led by reputable scholarly leaders.
In looking for solutions, we cannot afford to focus on one aspect (#FeesMustFall) and leave the other components within the system, because a single-item-focused solution is bound to fail.
So the #FeesMustFall quest is the opening salvo of a much deeper, complex and interlinked package that includes access, success, quality education, institutional culture and a transformed knowledge system that relates to South Africa’s evolving identity.
This is in similar vein to the 1976 students’ uprising. Transformation will not occur without pain and without financial resources being allocated to it. It cannot be led and driven by the very same people who created the mess. As Albert Einstein once said: “We cannot solve our problems by using the same thinking we used when we created them.”
As a nation, we can elect to adopt an approach of palliative, short-term crisis management or adopt a long-term strategic but comprehensive solution. I prefer the latter, as the former is unpredictable, unsystematic, avoids the big picture and will prove too costly in the long run.
Our own ‘free education’
Our government has identified education as a critical priority: the ANC adopted a resolution on free education at the Polokwane conference in December 2007, and free education is integral to the Freedom Charter. So we have it in us to implement this and stop the dead end debates.
Let us not allow ourselves as a nation to be blinded, intimidated or paralysed by the reality of the many crises we face, but rather choose to focus on a few crises, be energised, rise to the challenge and find solutions.
Let us put our passions and energy behind higher education, and resolve the issues in a responsible way.
Higher education is a relatively small but critical sector, and resolving the issues around it well will give South Africans the confidence to move from debate to implementation and action in other sectors too.
Let’s identify all the elements involved in this complex crisis and choose a small team of dedicated experts, rather than party members, to come up with solutions. We do have experts within and outside of the ruling party to assist. This is a national issue that affects us all; it isn’t a party political matter.
For over three centuries, the majority of our citizens were denied education and those who received it got an inferior version that consigned them to servitude. Now we have a generation that is hungry for quality education and is prepared to fight for it.
We should give credit to this generation of students and their leaders. In my previous incarnation, I often reminded my colleagues that “no child leaves his/her home and parents to come and strike or break doors or windows at varsity. If we do not appreciate this, we are missing an important point.”
I know many parents who’ve advised their dear children to the contrary.
Free education is possible
Investing in education is investing in the “invisible and invincible”. The founding father of our democracy, Nelson Mandela, said: “Education is a powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Our students demand this weapon to change their world and their future. Are they asking too much, or asking something too complex to comprehend?
We should not reduce the quality of our future generations to “inflation targeting” or “something we cannot afford” when the average South African sees money squandered, corruption flourishing, and the subtle looting of our country going on every day. We should reprioritise our budget to give future generations the chance to compete equally in the global sphere.
The solutions to this crisis will be both complex and simple. If higher education matters, it will prove to be a top priority for our government. This will require that, firstly, our leaders decolonise themselves. Secondly, channel their inner strength and vision to advance the cause. And thirdly, get their “famous chandeliers” firing.
No good thing comes cheaply and without pain, hard work and going against the grain. Some serious thinking out of the box is required. Normal people live in the world never to change it; only abnormal people transform our world. Let’s find the latter individuals.
Professor Makgoba is a retired vice-chancellor and principal
