Make your dreams come true …

Today is international Make Your Dream Come True Day. (I kid you not). I learnt this in today’s newspaper. I also discovered in the self-same publication that Blade and the boys will be increasing State funding to academically-deserving, financially needy students at South Africa’s universities.

This is good news for the oh-so-many young people whose dreams cannot come true without financial support for tertiary studies.

So Dr Nzimande, our minister of Higher Education, is offering funding to some 205 000 students at university and to another 200 000 students at vocational colleges. R9.5 billion is the sum mentioned for this year.

Last year, according to the Herald, the sum dished up to students was R8.3bn, excluding the R1m bailout fee for the previous shortfalls in payment via the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

It all looks pretty pleasant on paper but past experience has shown us at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) that centralising the student aid system (partially, as a means of defeating corruption) is not necessarily the answer. It certainly wasn’t for so many of our students. Far fewer students benefitted from the loan system at NMMU in 2014 than in previous years. But perhaps others benefitted elsewhere instead.

Whatever happened then and whatever happens in 2015, we all know that the R9.5bn is never going to be enough in meeting the needs of so many financially impoverished students.

According to the good Minister there are about 425 095 spaces available at South Africa’s 26 universities, 50 technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges (the old Further Education and Training (FET) colleges) and 21 Setas.

We have about 6 000 of those places at NMMU each year. Always they are filled. But always there are students who lose out simply because they do not have the money to pay for their studies.

What happens to the dreams of these students?

Do their dreams fade? Do they become part of the sad 25.5% unemployed official statistic for South Africa? Or do they hold onto those dreams?

Walt Disney once said: “if you can dream it, you can do it”.

There’s a ring of self-belief to his statement; something that looks beyond present physical and material circumstances; a cry that encourages us not to give up.

So if there are any students who might be reading this; students who are struggling to find the financial means to book their spot to a better life, please, please, please don’t give up.

After all, it is international Make Your Dream Come True Day – a day dedicated for doing something towards achieving your dreams. So stop thinking, wallowing and wondering and do something constructive towards that dream – ask for help; seek advice; find a job; research opportunities; visit a bank; fill in a NSFAS application form; study harder …

Be a doer!

You might be further inspired to persevere in your dream after watching NMMU’s television commercial http://ow.ly/Heb7l