Katima students settle tuition fees with cattle

Students at Shiramed Medical Institute at Katima Mulilo have agreed with the institution to pay their tuition fees with cattle.

Shiramed principal tutor Chani Felix says the arrangement has helped students to pay their fees with cattle, instead of cash, which is not readily available.

“The school has also assisted students who cannot afford it for themselves but have got cattle. They have negotiated to exchange cattle for school tuition fees. This has been quite a model that has been working for us,” Felix said during a recent consultation with parliament’s standing committee on education, youth, civic relations and community development.

Felix said all students who qualify for funding from the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) are fully funded.

Shiramed, which currently has 296 students, is a private nursing training institution which opened in March 2020 after the Ministry of Health and Social Services suspended nurses training at the Zambezi Regional Health Training Centre at the Katima Mulilo State Hospital in 2018.

Since the beginning of this year, president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has started subsidising tuition fees for public institutions.

The government is also funding some students at private training institutions through this model.

The Students Union of Namibia (SUN), welcomes the arrangement saying payment with livestock and agricultural produce could help more rural families access higher education.

SUN board chairperson, Benhard Kavau, says cattle, donkeys, chickens and even bags of mahangu could be accepted as alternative forms of payment if a proper system is developed.

Kavau says livestock has long been a source of wealth and a recognised form of exchange in African societies.

“Even today, cattle, goats, sheep, and other livestock remain among the most valuable assets owned by many rural households. It is, therefore, neither irrational nor unprecedented to consider these assets within an innovative higher education financing framework,” he says.

Kavau says the alternative payment system could encourage agricultural production, strengthen rural livelihoods and create a more inclusive way of financing higher education.

He says the proposal would need detailed research and consultations before it could be introduced.

“This proposal should not be misconstrued as a departure from modern financial systems but rather as a bold re-imagining of educational financing that recognises the economic realities of thousands of Namibian families. If carefully designed and prudently implemented, Namibia has the opportunity to pioneer a uniquely African model of higher education financing,” he says.

UNSUSTAINABLE

The University of Namibia (Unam), however, says it has no system making provision for students to pay tuition fees with livestock and has no immediate plans to introduce one.

Unam spokesperson Simon Namesho told The Namibian on Monday that the university only accepts electronic fund transfers (EFT) and cash payments.

“I don’t see it in any foreseeable future, because I think we would also be evaluating that livestock that we receive, which would be a cost to the university to do that. I don’t foresee it yet,” he says.

The Namibia National Students Organisation (Nanso) says many families already sell livestock to pay for higher education, but allowing students to settle tuition fees with livestock is not a practical long-term solution.

Nanso president Dorothea Nangolo says the reality affects students who do not qualify for fully subsidised tertiary education, including some postgraduate students and those studying at institutions that do not receive government funding.

“I recognise the reality of the instances, but it would be limited purely to students who don’t qualify for fully subsidised tertiary education, either because they don’t fall within the criteria or because they are maybe postgraduate students or at institutions that don’t receive funding from the government,” she says.

Nangolo says many parents sacrifice by selling livestock to pay tuition fees, even when the animals were not meant for commercial purposes.

“It is unfortunate in terms of the livelihoods of their family, having to sell livestock, especially livestock that was not meant for commercial purposes, for purposes of paying for tuition fees. But this is something that has always been done by parents who seem to sacrifice for their children, especially when we do not have fully subsidised tertiary education,” she says.

Nangolo says livestock is often sold below market value, especially at the beginning and end of the academic year when parents are pressured to pay tuition fees.

“It’s very sad and I think more could possibly be done to provide better or viable financial solutions in this situation. But that would mean looking at borrowing options, whatever the case may be, as a short-term solution,” she says.

According to Nangolo the long-term solution is fully funded tertiary education.

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