El pasado como una carga emocional intergeneracional

Theme 3: What Are The Key Strategies That Can Be Put In Place To Improve The Completion Rates Of NCV Students At TVET Colleges In The North-West Province?

PS believed that if the students are not well taken of at home, they will not be able to do well at the college. He suggested that students need money to travel to college and money for food to eat at the college. He stated that students will not have good attendance rates if they do not have money to travel to the college and will not cope in class if they are hungry.

“Right, uhmm, there are many factors to take into consideration. If you talk about…what is socio-economic…if the student is not taken care of he will not fit in college, so bursaries need to be on time, to pay the classes financial, for their daily economical needs. Uhmm, they need transport…..we need to look at this as well cause without….without eh…finance, students will not have a good attendance uhmm, cause he will not have money to come to school, they will not have…..when a student is hungry it means the student cannot cope or concentrate”.

PS recommended that the bursary should be paid out to students on time:

“So those bursaries should come on time, students do not have to wait for so long time for the pay- outs”.

According to PS, the students should not only be given bursary money but they also need to be trained on how to use the money. He mentioned that some students go on a shopping spree:

“Above all we need to educate students how to utilise the bursary. Some of the students get a lot of money at once and they see it as a shopping spree money…so before we get bursaries…before the students receive that money, he must be trained or educated how to make a budget from that money and how to divide the money into each day for each month. To utilise it to the maximum, to cancel out all the socio- economical problem because to my point of view, I think bursary NSFAS is enough money to survive and to

carry them out through the year, if I is received on time and if it the student is trained and educated how to use it, then we will not have problem with transport, when do not have a problem”.

PS shared the same sentiments with PX that lecturers should improve their qualifications. However, he thought the lecturers should not make it the responsibility of the college but take the initiative to have their qualifications upgraded:

“Lecturers should improve themselves, self-improvement and not only wait for the college (replace with the college), from themselves because you cannot always accredited, you can always register as a professional body…..that is self-improvement and that body will send yourself and your discipline for training and you will upgrade yourself in private, lecturers must currently also uhmm, aspire to improve themselves as well, self- improvement or training for the sake of students and for the sake of technology that is improving all the time, so the students can also receive the quality education and that orbit (replace with the college) can maybe….training session for the specific programme that they are teaching”.

PT commented on the admission and registration of prospective students. He recommended that the students should be interviewed and registered towards the end of the preceding year of enrolment. PT believed that this would give the selection committee a chance to test and pick the best students for the career that the students choose.

“Prospective students should be interviewed and registered towards the end of the preceding year of enrolment. This will give selection process a chance to test and pick the best students suited for the different courses offered at the TVET College”.

4.4.2.1. Discussion

The lecturers raised a concern with the late disbursement of bursaries. The lecturers claimed that late payments of bursary money results in poor class attendance and students missing assessments. One of the lecturers suggested that the students cannot cope in class when they are hungry.

García, Pérez and Sanz (2019) suggest that the education system should take hunger into account. According to Askew, Mc Dowel and Sanz (2011), hunger affects cognitive and

socio-emotional development. If hunger is addressed, the academic potential of students improves. Askew, Mc Dowel and Sanz (ibid) state that it is rare that the students state that they are hungry, but the hunger symptoms show. The hungry students complain of headaches, weakness and stomach ache. There is also a decline in the students’ academic performance, class attendance and the students avoid the cafeteria area.

There was a suggestion that the students might be taught how to use money responsibly.

Serowik, Bellamy, Rowe and Rosen (2013) recommend that money management

programmes can help to encourage students to have control over their money. A study conducted by Mavuso (2017) revealed that female students do not afford to buy sanitary towels. They resort to using the bursary money to buy food and other necessities for their families.