South African Fees Protests force Universities to adopt alternative teaching means

Fees must fall protests have forced universities to look at alternative ways to teach students, including online services and creative new lecture venues.

University of Pretoria Professor, Norman Duncan, says their students are on track to write their exams at the end of the year, despite the disruptive fees must fall protests.

This is because a quarter of all courses are available online and some lectures have been moved to alternative facilities including coffee shops.

He says the current crisis has shown the weakness in the traditional education system.

“We have to think of new ways of doing things, and certainly the online platform broadened the way we can make education accessible to more people.”

“But our infrastructure won’t allow us to accommodate everyone who needs an education for the 21st century if we only do it the traditional way. We have to look at other ways.”

Meanwhile, Universities and students were the biggest winners in Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan’s medium-term budget policy statement.

Just over R7 billion will go to universities to compensate for students whose parents earn less than R600 000 a year, while just over R9 billion will go to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.