4.6 Institutional Interventions
4.6.3 The effects of student protests on Participation and Success
The other theme, which came up very prominently, was the issue of student protests, with their attendant negative effects on students’ participation and successful completion of their training and education programmes. Student protests have become a perennial phenomenon, not only in the TVET College under study, but it has spread like veld-fire in most of South African tertiary institutions under the banner of #feesmustfall. An analysis of the nature and complexion of student protests reveal an uncaring attitude within the leadership and management of South African tertiary institutions in general and the TVET College under study in particular. While the leadership of tertiary institutions, including the TVET College under study assume that student protests are a result of the so-called ‘third force’ and consequently something which the leadership of colleges should not take seriously, it should be noted that the impact of student protests has far-reaching repercussions on the academic
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and social life of disadvantaged students. Along this line of argument, one of the participants in this study commented that,
The only challenge is when students strike. Due to strikes, our tests are run maybe daily which puts a strain on our preparation for the tests. Sometimes assignment due dates are changed because of strikes and we are required to submit more than two assignments on a single day (Ngosazana).
Another participant indicated that he experienced learning challenges due to the disturbing and disruptive nature of student protests. He said,
I have experienced barriers in some of the subjects I do at the college. For example, sometimes we have strikes at the college so we missed classes and as a result, I performed badly in subjects such as Accounting, Financial Management and Maths Literacy (Ian).
While the above participants highlighted the negative effects of student protests, the other two observed that it would be prudent for the TVET College leadership to be pro-active and avoid taking action when students embark on strike action. For example, one of the participants in this study had this to say,
The college should work together with students, in other words, college leadership should talk to students, and listen to students’ concerns so as to create a cooperative relationship. There should be a constant communication between the college leadership and the students so as to be able to solve problems and avoid strikes and confrontations (Dinesh).
Another participant also corroborated the above view and said,
The college management must have meetings with students on a regular basis, especially on how to handle students’ problems. The college management can do this by holding assemblies with students on a weekly basis so that students are updated on important issues, which concern the college (Zuzi).
Student protests in South African TVET Colleges in general and the TVET College under study in particular are symptoms of much deeper problems within the department of higher education and training. One of the problems, which is revealed during situations of
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antagonism and polarisation between college leadership and the student body, is the absence of a respect for the development of a social capital on the part of the college leadership.
Social capital is the aggregate of the actual or potential resources, which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition (Bourdieu, 1977) which provides each of its members with the backing of the collectively owned capital (Ibid). They may also be socially instituted and guaranteed by the application of a common name and by a whole set of instituting acts designed simultaneously to form and inform those who undergo them; in this case, they are more or less really enacted and so maintained and reinforced, in exchanges (Sullivan, 2001).
Vasquez (2008) emphasize the view that if high expectations are communicated to students through different types of cues, verbal and non-verbal, the students’ academic performance can be influenced positively. This means that student protests, which the college has been facing, could be avoided if the college leadership of the college under study had communicated with students on a regular basis. Berg and Theron (2013) argue that communication is one of the basics of all leadership behaviours, with verbal communication probably the most important.
The views expressed by the above participants indicate including lack of social capital in the TVET College under study. An analysis of the goings-on the college under study shows that the college leadership has become a connoisseur in adopting and implementing “fire- fighting” strategies, that is, it only acts when the situation has deteriorated to unacceptable levels. There is therefore, need to come up with communication strategies, which ensure that students are kept informed. This is important because lack of formal channels of communication force students to rely on informal channels which are often misleading and full of concocted information, half-truths and information which is meant to raise emotional temperatures of students. Since the researcher joined the college in 2011, the college leadership, educators and students have experienced conflicts, which manifested themselves in form of strikes, by educators and students because of a lack of communication. Many of these strikes could have been avoided if the college leadership had initiated communication mechanisms whose objectives were to address lecturers’ and students’ concerns. While student protests have been perceived in negative terms, a critical analysis of this phenomenon in TVET colleges can be interpreted as the light that opens the eyes of the leadership of the TVET College under study. Without student protests the leadership of the TVET, college would not realise the magnitude of the problems being faced by students from low socio-
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economic backgrounds pursuing studies so that they can improve their opportunities in a fast- changing South African labour market.