Namibia cannot promise equal education while funding students unequally

The call by Welwitschia University Chancellor Scholastika Iipinge for the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) to fully fund students at private higher education institutions deserves serious consideration.

It also demands a more honest national conversation about what “equal treatment” in tertiary education actually means.

At the heart of the issue is a principle that should be difficult for any government committed to expanding access to education to ignore: a student’s access to financial assistance should not be determined primarily by whether the accredited institution they attend is publicly or privately owned.

If a Namibian student is pursuing an accredited qualification in nursing, law, education, commerce or another field identified as important to national development, the question should be whether that student meets the requirements for assistance, not whether the institution happens to be a public university or a private one.