Education remains the crux of a prosperous society
and their parents pick up more of the tab, since they get so many of the benefits?
Yes, rising tuition fees is a problem, so has student debt. The majority of students rely on loans.
Paying back these loans siphons off money young people could otherwise use for buying a house, starting a business, or simply making purchases that pump money into the local economy.
Also, the increasing reliance on debt places a particular burden on low-income families and students who end up borrowing more.
I know there are those who don’t believe the rising tuition is such a big problem as it has been made it to be. They say university education isn’t actually costly. It’s lucrative – much more lucrative than it used to be. There is an argument that while today’s university students carry more debt than their parents, they are poised to reap much greater benefits.
Poised to succeed
After all, once they graduate and move into jobs, they stand to earn nearly twice as much as those with just a high school qualification. So asking taxpayers to cover the cost of higher education is like asking them to subsidise people already poised to succeed. So, with these conflicting views, how else can our Rainbow Nation fund higher education?
I believe business should play a bigger role, and pay at least 75 perecent of fees for educating our children. The other 25 percent should come from state funding, loans, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and other sources.
Indeed, I recognise that businesses have a unique responsibility to the communities they serve, and they react to education-conscious organisations with increased business and added respect, through projects such as funding infrastructure, bursaries and scholarships.
I know that by when employees mentor local students, and when businesses partner with particular schools or sponsor winter schools, businesses play an important role in the development of education in our country.
However, we need exciting new options for business involvement that will serve to greater diversify the ways in which corporate South Africa can contribute to education. There is no better time to get involved in education than right now.
What we need is an organised and more formal investment in tertiary education by all companies. South African business should form a Tertiary Education Fund where all companies should make annual contributions to educate all our children.
Indeed, big business needs to invest more in our public education system so that we produce skilled workers and educated citizens.
The better qualified the work force, the more business reaps the benefits. Education has been shown to boost worker productivity more than longer hours or capital investments. Interpersonal skills, good writing and communication, technological literacy, higher-level math and science knowledge, these are qualities that companies need. Investing in education could help prepare our country for the future.
Pace of change
All the evidence suggests that in the coming years, the pace of change will continue to accelerate, driven by a combination of factors, including rapid technological innovation, globalisation and increased international trade competition from the emerging economies of other emerging economies.
Increasingly our prosperity as a nation will depend on our ability to discover and exploit niche markets, to be creative, nimble, agile and adaptable. That will require graduates who are entrepreneurial, unafraid to experiment and – on occasion – to fail, graduates who are self-starters, who have emotional intelligence, can draw on the skills of others in teams, are good communicators and are respectful of diversity.
Jobs will be more fluid and people will need to update and refresh their throughout their working lives.
It is a future where learning is lifelong and accessible from a multiplicity of learning centres, some of which will have learning as their primary function, but others of which will be dedicated primarily to other pursuits such as commerce, the arts, culture, health and physical well-being. I know that big business and public education are often wary partners. They share a goal – a well-educated graduate – but they don’t always agree on how to achieve or measure it.
I am aware that there are those who think education is not that important because they may not have children currently in school. But to the person who realises the importance of a highly trained work force that receives a competitive salary and pays taxes proportionately, education is vitally important for the future of every South African and for the economic future of this country.
Can we truly afford not to support the best education possible for this generation of students who will eventually be supporting us? skills
The increasing reliance on debt places a particular burden on low-income families and students who end up borrowing more.