2021 applications and 2020 extended academic year

1. INTRODUCTION

Following the pronouncement by the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, regarding the extended academic year to the December period and the payment of allowances for an additional month to the National Certificate Vocational (NCV) and Trimester 2 students who were writing exams in December 2020; The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) issued Circular No.16 of 2020 outlining the process to be followed by Colleges in claiming these allowances for the affected students.

However, given the limited time and technical constraints, NSFAS could not make the payment in December but intends to process these outstanding payments by January 15, 2021. NSFAS was also made aware of a certain circular purporting to be a NSFAS formal communication which committed to payment dates in December.

Kindly note that this communication was not issued by NSFAS and the information contained in that document is fake and seeks to misguide our stakeholders and tarnish the good name of the scheme. We strongly condemn this and apologise for any inconvenience caused by this act.

2. 2021 WALK-IN APPLICATION PROCESS

Please be advised that NSFAS is aware that the TVET college sector experiences a high volume of walk-in applications during its first application cycle, however, this process commences at a time where the country is confronted by the Covid-19 global pandemic with South Africa currently under level 3 national lockdown restrictions.

As such, we need to be responsible as a sector in managing these applications and ensure that we minimise risks associated with the processing of manual applications.

NSFAS will provide a detailed process to be followed when processing the 2021 walkin applications and will take cognisance of the environmental conditions highlighted above. The 2021 walk-in application period will commence on January 18 - February 15, 2021. It is important to stress that this process is exclusively for prospective students intending to register in the TVET sector.

Therefore, NSFAS will rely on your collaboration in managing this process efficiently to ensure that funding decisions of these students are processed as speedily as possible.

3. REGISTRATION FEES NSFAS

qualifying and funded students are exempt from paying registration fees, as in previous years. Kindly ensure that this is applied during registration. All operational matters should be escalated to Ms Lungisa Sishi, Senior Manager in the TVET support via LungisaS@nsfas.org.za or contact your service administrator.

Yours sincerely,

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