Call for govt to assist

THERE are 28,000-plus grade 12 students who have sat their Higher School Certificate examination all throughout the country.
Government is investing heavily in the tuition fee free policy, and as such, the number of grade 12 school leavers has increased compared to a few years back.
There will be an online selection conducted by the Department of Higher Education Research Science and Technology this year to foster transparency and accountability in the process.
This is a milestone achievement for the department and the country.
However, the issue now is the access to higher education institutions.
The six existing universities, excluding Institute of Business Studies,  Information technology Institute and the 35 colleges cannot cater for even half of the school leavers for this year’s intake alone.
The current strength of higher education institutions will cater for only 4000 to 5000 students.
Where the rest of the 23,000-plus students go is an unanswerable question for the country.
Creating access to higher education institutions vertically or horizontally, through the process of differentiation, would cater for that.
The Government has to intervene and assist by any means to increase the quota for each course in every higher learning institution in the country.

Jay Frankiee Kup
Lemina Manda