For how long will we continue to blame the poor performance of our students in the country on the Department of Education alone and not the students themselves too? Aren’t they, the students, the ones learning, if not failing to learn?

But of course one would have to also take into account the failure too, on the part of the country’s education system which for more than a decade now has continued to produce the ‘so-called illiterate and incompetent future generation’ as they are now known.

One cannot understand let alone comprehend the audacity the Young Communist League has in trying to dictate to the University of the Free State what admission requirements it should set for the new entrants and what not.

In its ill-informed and dictatory statement to the university – the YCL said the introduction of the innovative ways’ by University of increasing its admission points requied for entrants into the university from the previous 28 to 30 is “inconsistent”. With what, exactly?

The increase, according to the YCL, was just another way in which UFS could “further exclude black students from being admitted in the institution”, a decision which it ‘vehemently opposed’. The league said the point system used by universities was “inconsistent and [had] been a tool to ostracize students from disadvantaged backgrounds.”

The league said:

The point system does not take into consideration that students from privileged schools have more subject options as opposed to schools in disadvantaged communities. The point system and the number of points one needs is applicable regardless of how many subjects a student has. A student can have only six subjects and still be required to meet the same requirements with someone who has 11 subjects.

It further accused the University for not offering Music subject to the “disadvantaged communities whereas in private school there is an entourage of subjects offered where students can easily meet stringent requirements set out for entry”. This in the YCLSA’ view, read the statement, was a “creation of a white elephant in UFS and [affirmation] that the institution will forever be white”. Now who’s a racist?

The 12 month programme, allegedly, created to assist students from disadvantaged communities, said the league, was a “mockery” because it only “prolongs the number of years which students study and moreover it increases the already high costs of tuition and expenses of staying in university.” The programme is one that is used by many Universities, including the North West University at Mafikeng campus.

The the pointing system, – as one understands it and although, admittedly, it somehow disadvantages students who are/were from the poorer schools that were not well-resourced enough and some of whose students voluntarily failed to study hard enough to reach their ‘expected’ potential and meeting the pointing system required of them by higher learning institutions like UFS – is not used for the purpose of ‘excluding the black students from being admitted in the institution’ as alleged the league. Instead, it is used to raise the high level of intellect on students. More than that, it is used as a yardstick on how much efforts the students themselves willing to put into their school work in order to reach and even exceed their ‘expected’ potential and results.

And this is something that the league itself fails to understand and one thinks that even the Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande cannot ‘intervene’ on this matter unless of course the system was used on ‘racial lines’ or to/on black students ONLY, something that is presently non-existent in this case.

So, please YCL, no matter how hard it might be for the students to meet the required pointing system – you still cannot dictate to the university on what’s always best for the students, except on other politically-motivated matters as they, the university and its entire teaching stuff members, are experts and professionals in their respective fields of study and one trusts that they actually know what they are doing and why they are doing it.

And whether you collectively “fight tooth and nail” and “mobilize [your] structures” to scrap the system should it be implemented as you see it as “racial tactics policies” – it is still the UFS’s prerogative, one that you presently cannot do anything about.

Akanyang Merementsi blogs at Akanyang Africa.

Professor Jonathan Jansen, Rector of the University of Free State, wrote a brilliant article in the Times newspaper yesterday in which he advised the Grade 10 “students to be sent to university before they finish high school”. And just who will pay?

This is one of the noble ideas thought by someone as senior in a tertiary level as Jansen. Not even the ministry of higher education has thought of it. Anyway, this should be welcome, I think. Jansen saw this as a solution to the “damaging loss of money and talent that comes with tens of thousands of South African students dropping out of university”.

Jansen wrote at the time:

“The consequences of failure and drop-out are devastating: universities lose funding resources, parents lose out on hard-earned savings invested in their children, students lose confidence in their ability to gain a university education, and the country fails to gain another skilled graduate from university.”

He said these consequences were not only ‘devastating’ for students, but that they were as equally devastating to their families, the universities themselves and the country at large. Unfortunately, few universities had come up with ‘imaginative solutions to an old problem’ of ‘high drop-out rates’.

In his great proposal, Jansen said, for example, a university should go to Grade 10 pupils by offering them the option of going to university “every Saturday morning from 9am to 3pm where [they] can do either Psychology I or Chemistry I or Accountancy I over a three-year period – during [their] senior high school years”. This, said Jansen, as an effort to bridge the ‘gap between a poor school education and a demanding university training [that] will be too much’ for them as they were likely ‘destined to drop out’.

This will further provide an opportunity for students to:

1. Gain the one thing that first-generation university students desperately need – university knowledge,
2. Learn how to take summary notes in large classes,
3. Learn to use the computer as a tool for learning,
4. Learn to find their way through a university library using both online resources as well as sources in the stacks,
5. Learn to work on complex problems in psychology or accounting in groups consisting of talented but equally disadvantaged students from other schools,
6. Learn to consult with tutors and professors,
7. Learn to find their way through the campus buildings, and
8. Learn to find their own voices in classrooms, laboratories and seminars.

He said students would learn ‘disciplinary knowledge’ in one of the three subject areas and gain the ‘skills and the confidence to negotiate’ their way through what is often a frightening experience: university life. However, it was acknowledged that this may not be the solution to the ‘high drop-out rates’ but it was worth exploring and was likely to attract negativity from some quarters.

“This kind of innovation demands the best university teachers and an intensive model of academic support. A strong mentorship programme is critical and open, regular feedback is important to guide [students] over the three-year period. But once these foundations have been laid, [students] would have the competence and confidence to deal with the rigours of university life, including lousy university teachers”, said Jansen at the time.

He said one of the important and acknowledged advantages of this proposal is that should students pass these three while at high school, they could gain the credits for the course once they register at the university offering this plan. “[They] would not have to pay a cent for the course and, in addition, [they] will have a lighter first-year load than other students.”

This is one hell of a brilliant plan/strategy/proposal; however, there is something which either Jansen forgot to mention or someone missed. And before I say that, a friend of mine warned me the other day, as a society, of always attaching ‘value’ whenever we talk of progress, change and developments. He was referring to name changes of cities, streets, municipalities and special venues and the nationalisation of the country’s mines and how much these were likely to cost the tax payers.

With this now said, so, Prof: who is going to pay for these ‘Saturday classes’ for these pupils and just how many universities, yours included, are willing to do that if they cannot afford to assist their ‘financially struggling’ students?

Akanyang Merementsi blogs at Akanyang Africa.

What’s the difference between a UCT student and the homeless beggar down the road? NOTHING!!! Think about it, we sit on the stairs in the sun for the majority of our day, R1 coins are like gold, we admire people who have caught a pigeon and shoes are rare! Ladies, gentlemen and students get comfortable because I’m about to take you down memory lane on a journey through the life of a UCT student. We’ll explore areas such as the cafeteria, the parties, res life, new friends and “family”, the parties, exam time, the different stereotypes you see on campus and oh did I mention… THE PARTIES! Basically everything that makes a UCT student what they are (note: it is likely that these patterns of behaviour may easily be recognised in students from other universities) so sit back, relax and let’s get started!!!

Remember the first week you arrived, O- week. It was in that week you made a friend for life only to discover that she is possessed by the dark lord Lucifer and is here to purchase your soul! You met your new wonderful roomie who later became the $@#(*&@%) thing you live with and moms kitchen was replaced with the cafeteria. Unfortunately, it was only in second week that you discovered that the word cafeteria comes from the two Latin words “café” meaning “place to eat” and “teria” meaning “to vomit”… Co-incidence? I think not…

These things weren’t issues at first, I mean, you had just come out of 12 years of being controlled by your parents and school rules and finally you were free to party! It is during these times that beer becomes your best friend, you learn the popular language of drunkanese and you have issues falling off the floor. Later you become vulnerable and realise that your cat died ten years ago and you get defensive because the pot plant doesn’t believe you. You’d think this is the worst of your experience but it has only just begun.

It is about this time you discover that “worshipping the porcelain God” is more than just an expression and those long distance phone calls to GEORGE can go on long after you think you’re finished! But on a serious note the morning after is when reality finally kicks in and you remember a serious problem in a students life… AIDS… those After Intense Drinking Shits get you every time and you swear you’ll never drink again… and you don’t… until the next weekend!

Other than the obvious, food is a very important aspect in a student’s life. Students love food so regardless of what it might taste like or what it might be you eat it! I swear they could serve road kill and as long as there are sauces everyone will eat it! You may laugh but this is a serious issue people. Ever notice how at every mealtime there are two options, chicken (or so they say) and “food x”? Ever notice how many pigeons there are on campus when you first arrived compared to how many are left now at the end of the year? WHERE HAVE ALL THE PIGEONS GONE?! Another thing, have you ever noticed that the quality of the pigeon, I mean food, is indirectly proportional to the amount of tomato sauce left after every meal? The better the meal, the more sauce is left over, the more digestively challenged it is, the more it must be drowned!

Campus life is the best though and it’s funny how people who are studying the same degree always flock together. You can tell the Business Science students a mile away with their iPods, Puma’s (and thank God they’re over the pink shirt phase) and if you need to find any Film and Media student look on Jammie stairs or grass patches, I guarantee they’re all there. You wouldn’t know how to spot an AcSci student though because they can’t afford to leave their rooms and as far as law students are concerned, you don’t want to know what they look like. As different as we may appear, there are a few valuable lessons we all come to learn during our UCT student career:

Firstly, Procrastination is an art.

Secondly, to steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.

Thirdly, it’s amazing how late you can stay up doing absolutely nothing, yet falling asleep in class or in the library takes an average of two seconds.

And lastly and most importantly, your life will never be the same again!

Debbie Liebenberg is a Journalism & Linguistics student at Rhodes University.