#FreeEducation

#FreeEducation at last!

source: google images

The announcement that South Africa was long waiting after the feesMustFall protest in 2015.

In-mid December 2017, with little consultation or planning, former president Jacob Zuma announced that in 2018 free higher education will be approved and provided to all first year students.

While this announcement was welcomed by many, there were people who raised questions as to how government is to go about putting systems into place to ensure it's economically viable.

With people have doubts about this implementation and how will the government go about to implement it. According to the government's statement a new criteria determining who will qualify for the financial aid (NSFAS) will be introduced.

During the previous years, those who came from households earning up to R122 000 a year qualified for financial aid. In 2018 this figure changes, it has been increased to R350 000 making it an increment of R220 000. This covers more than 90% of the country's household. For those who are already funded by NSFAS (returning students), the loan will be effectively converted to a grant and there won't be an need to pay it back. The implementation will help will help address issues of young graduates who start life in the worm place already faced with dept.

Positive and negative challenges faced by Practitioners on social media

A positive challenge to PR practitioners is that they will be able to receive issues of concern from the public, especially students from using the #hashtag on social media. As this implementation was long waited for by the students since the start of #feesmustfall in 2015, the #hashtag will help the public to raise their opinion on fee-education. Practitioners will be able to tell which people are happy about free education, who are not and  who are not pleased with the timing of the implementation.

With the awareness on social media at least the public will be aware of how the state funds are being used. This will serve as a clear picture of how the government uses the money from tax payers and other state funds to the benefit of the country.

Other positive challenge is that the awareness of free education will help the public to also create an #hashtag on social media  for the comrades who fought for the feesmustfall , to be released.

As the implementation of free education will not apply to every students in universities but to those who fall under the criteria, creating awareness will not help them. People who used the financial aid scheme back in 2010 will still have a debt to NSFAS. These people will put pressure on the PR practitioner, wanting answers on how NSFAS will settle their debt on their behalf since it is 'free education'. The challenge is now going to be on the #hashtag, the awareness wont be #FreeEducation but it will be changed to #ClearHistoricDebt. It is easy to raise false expectations when using social media before decisions are being made. We all know that our country or the people in authority are corrupt therefore the implantation will not happen immediately. Even though practitioners will try to create a positive image of free education, some people will not fall for the trap. Questions will be raised on social media platforms directing to practitioners as to when is the implementation and also demanding solid proof of what the practitioners are saying. All these negative challenges will make the job of the practitioners more difficult as they will have to answer questions that are not directly to them.         

Recommendation for strategic use of social media

With the public being able to change the #hashtag on social media to their advantage, practitioners should also use the new hashtag to try to create a new awareness. This will view practitioners as thoughtful leaders and people who are not ignorant of certain issues in the country and who believe in changing peoples lives.

To keep the #hashtag in your favor, practitioners should reply and also engage with its audience at all times to avoid the #hashtag being controlled by the audience.