Registration Tangle At Polytechnic of Namibia

Registration Tangle At Polytechnic of Namibia

Registration at the Polytechnic of Namibia started off on a bad footing for students in arrears on government study loans and grants, who were denied registration because of unsettled tuition fees. The complaints had the education ministry livid with the Polytechnic, saying the institution is not supposed to deny students registration as government has guaranteed to pay outstanding fees. The Polytechnic downplayed the matter saying it was simply a financial verification technicality that the institution does every semester but does not take long to carry out.

The Namibia Student Financial Assistance Fund (NSAF), which administers government study loans and grants, confirmed to New Era the problems experienced with registration at the Polytechnic, saying a meeting with the Polytechnic took place this week, and an agreement was reached to solve the problem. Registration for the second semester started on Monday this week.

A group of panicking students who are all recipients of loans from the NSAF approached New Era yesterday to pour out their sorrows. The students were angry with the government for not paying the previous semester's tuition fees on time.

"We are confused and worried about our studies. We do not know why the government has not yet paid the loans when they know registration started on Monday," bemoaned one of the students, a second year Business Administration undergraduate. Compounding the matter, they said, is the fact that the Polytechnic has blocked their access to online registration.

Kaitira Kandjii, the Director of Marketing and Communications at the Polytechnic, says no student was turned away from registering but that the Polytechnic monitors each semester those who have not paid. "For us to do that, IT [information technology department] blocks all student accounts so that they can verify. It is just a process that takes some hours to see who has a loan and who does not, no one was turned away from registering," he said.

However, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Alfred Ilukena, was not happy when he heard of the students' grievances. "If government says we will pay, we will pay. We are just streamlining and once the funds are available then we will pay the outstanding accounts," said Ilukena.

"These are government institutions and we have always been financing them," he said, adding that the money is still not available because at the beginning of the financial year before the budget is approved, the law only allows ministries to get 33 percent of the previous year's allocation. This means the ministry could only spend 33 percent of their previous budget. "With the little funds we have before the budget is released, we accommodate those students in foreign universities. Local universities can wait because they are near. Is there a year that we never paid them for them to become suspicious of us?" asked Ilukena.

The NSAF has in the meantime assured that it would pay the Polytechnic all the outstanding fees. The Director for Marketing, Communication and Student Affairs, Percy Tjihere, said the problem had to do with students not having resubmitted their acceptance letters. Of the 2 220 students that the NSAF has approved for loans, there are 1 020 students who did not resubmit acceptance letters.

Tjihere said a meeting was held on Monday and it was agreed that acceptance letters would be printed out on campus to avoid any delays.

"As of today [Tuesday], the letters will be there at the Polytechnic and those who did not collect their acceptance letters will be alerted by the Polytechnic to get them via SMS so that they can register," said Tjihere.

For the 2013 financial year, the NSAF awarded loans and grants to about 8 515 students countrywide and only 4 300 brought their acceptance letters to indicate they are still interested in getting financial assistance.