OPINION | State must disburse student funds on time, without exception

When Amanda Shinga, 24, from Port Shepstone in KwaZulu-Natal, enrolled at the Buffalo City TVET College in the Eastern Cape in 2021, her first year was shaped by systemic neglect. For the first four months, she did not receive her National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) stipend, forcing her to survive on handouts while living in an informal settlement near Mdantsane, an environment that was neither safe nor conducive to studying. There were days when she went to bed hungry and could barely afford to pay for transport to campus.

Amanda is among the nearly one million young people in SA who rely on Nsfas funding each year to cover basic needs such as food, accommodation, transport, and tuition. However, persistent delays in the disbursement of these funds leave many students struggling to finish their studies, especially those, like Amanda, are in their first year. When financial support fails to arrive on time, students are pushed into desperation.

Many face hunger, homelessness, and the emotional strain of uncertainty, increasing their likelihood of dropping out. These delays also increase students’ vulnerability to risky survival and coping strategies such as transactional sex and substance abuse, which, at times, leads to gender-based violence and heightens their risk of contracting HIV. Although funding delays drive many students to drop out, Amanda was lucky.

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She had the support of local NGOs that provided food vouchers and ensured she was exposed to other like-minded young people, which helped to build a sense of community and belonging. In 2026, Amanda is pursuing a new qualification, a diploma in public management, which entails 18 months of theory and 18 months of mandatory work-integrated learning. Once she completes the theoretical component of her studies, she will be required to enter the work-integrated learning programme, intended to bridge the gap between learning and the world of work.

Work-integrated learning is facilitated by Sector Education and Training Authorities (Setas). In practice, Seta funding flows through colleges, which are responsible for disbursing stipends to students. However, stipends for students undergoing work-integrated learning are often also delayed, making it impossible to go to work where they are placed, let alone afford food and accommodation.

When funding is approved but not disbursed on time, the state is not merely inefficient; it is in breach of its very own developmental contract with young people As a result, many are forced to interrupt or abandon their placements − undermining their ability to convert their studies into real employability. SA’s skills gap is often framed as a pipeline problem, citing too few artisans, technicians, and mid-level professionals, which are vocational skills taught at TVET colleges. What is less often discussed is how many students are lost midstream.

Every student who drops out because funding does not arrive on time signals an interrupted qualification, a wasted public investment, a household pushed deeper into economic precarity, and a community absorbing yet another story of disappointment. Nsfas and Seta funding are not acts of benevolence. They are instruments meant to meet constitutional obligations and ensure the success of national strategies to improve youth employment. They give effect to the right to further education, the National Development Plan’s vision of a skilled workforce, and the National Skills Development Plan’s emphasis on workplace learning.

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