nearly 20 950 students in colleges still not cleared for funding.

In South Africa we have a total of 50 colleges to date, and out of those 50 colleges a total of 20 950 students are yet to be identified as registered. The reason for this is that they are identified as registration data exception according to the Minister of higher education, science, and innovation, Dr blade Nzimande.

On Friday 21/07/2021 Minister Blade Nzimande has outlined the funding allocations for TVET Colleges in relation to NSFAS Funding scheme"

"out of 365 191 students, there are 202 460 students who are funded for the first academic year that Nsfas has made funding allocation for. While 223 410 students have been claimed by colleges, 20 950 are identified as registration data exceptions which Nsfas categories as multiple registrations and where students are changing courses which is contravention of TVET funding rules".

According to the TVET College funding rule is that "A student can only be funded for one qualification at one institution at any one time". This rule is also found on the website of Nsfas, which most college students forget to look it up when making decisions like these. Their decision end up causing a lot of confusion to the system and no one can blame them that because when looking for funding most people don't read fully the terms of condition, especially if its accepted.

The minister went on to say "Nsfas has embarked on an exercise to confirm funding with institutions and only 17 TVET Colleges responded conforming that they have 7903 outstanding registration to be submitted for the second first academic cycle ending in June 2021". I do hope that other 33 colleges will respond quickly and save students life and academics. The is nothing more heartbreaking than to see a student asking for donations or food online because of delayed repay by institution or not being aware of the rules.