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Date
: 14/10/2003
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: Asmal: Santam Entrepreneurs Programme national awards
ceremony
SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, PROFESSOR KADER ASMAL, MP, AT
THE NATIONAL AWARDS CEREMONY OF THE SANTAM ENTREPRENEURS PROGRAMME,
Caesars Gauteng, Kempton Park, Tuesday, 14 October 2003
Director of Ceremonies, Ms Vera Lawrence
MECs for Education
Head of Santam Corporate Citizenship, Dr Eltie Links
Officials of the Department of Education
Principals, teachers, and students
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
It gives me great pleasure to be part of the Santam National Awards
Ceremony for young entrepreneurs for 2003. Events like these are an
important part of our overall strategy to make learning more
relevant to the lives of our students.
Through this initiative, Santam has contributed to the broadening
of the boundaries of human investment to enrich the lives of
students, teachers, schools and the broader community. I believe
strongly that it is essential to deepen and strengthen our
country's intellectual and human capital, because the wealth of a
country is not measured only in terms of its physical resources,
but more so by people and their efforts on a day-to-day basis. All
the natural and physical resources in the world and any amount of
increased direct investment may amount to very little unless we
develop our key asset - our people.
I wish to take this opportunity to convey my sincere appreciation
to the management of Santam for having the insight and discretion
to make the necessary capital investment in this important project.
Your generous and untiring support is a good response to the call
from the government, underpinning the second phase of our
democracy, to "push back the frontiers of poverty and to expand the
frontiers of opportunity". It is through such initiatives that we
can enhance social development and poverty alleviation in our
country.
This project is also an answer to the government's national call
for increasing levels of much needed skills in our country.
President Mbeki has on numerous occasions referred to the
importance of major institutions responding to the national Human
Resource Development (HRD) Strategy and to how it is imperative to
develop skills that will ensure increased levels of productivity
for our country. Early this year the Cabinet discussed the issue of
scarce skills as part of a broader discussion on developing human
resources and thus further developing the capacity of our economy
to grow in a sustainable manner.
What our country needs are people who have marketable skills,
people who possess critical entrepreneurial flair to support a
growing economy such as ours, and people who are in control of
their own destiny. Our economic future depends on people who can
think, who can access and apply knowledge to take advantage of
existing opportunities and create new opportunities for employment,
increased earnings, and improved productivity. Such people are
indeed the entrepreneurs, which this project seeks to
develop.
I commend Santam for their active support and the work done since
the inception of this programme. The Santam Entrepreneurs Project,
which is running in secondary schools around the country, deserves
praise. The programme has currency in a sense that it does not only
create entrepreneurial awareness and knowledge for the students,
but it also creates genuine sustainable revenue for the school. It
goes further by encouraging teachers to become involved in
entrepreneurial projects, and thereby improves their own knowledge
and attitudes towards entrepreneurship.
What makes this programme further remarkable is the fact that
learning is related to a qualification. By offering this programme,
students can add a seventh subject, Small Business Development and
Enterprise to their Senior Certificate qualification. It is
pleasing that since its inception, the programme has had a 100%
pass rate in the subject in Grade 12, which further indicates the
commitment and dedication from teachers and students alike.
I am pleased to notice that the project places a high value on the
development and support of previously disadvantaged schools. In the
past, these schools were marginalised from every aspect of the
mainstream, including the economic mainstream. Including these
schools so significantly in the project is not only in line with
the government's commitment to addressing the historical imbalances
of the apartheid legacy, but will also go a long way in getting rid
of the idea that economic and management sciences are only for
those in historically advantaged socio-economic positions.
What is also pleasing is that the project has grown in leaps and
bounds in the past few years. The fact that the project covers 300
schools and approximately 15 000 students in all nine provinces
shows how popular it is among students, who have been starved of
such opportunities in the past.
I am also happy to note that the project does not only concentrate
on exit level pupils at Grade 12, but also those entering the
Further Education and Training (FET) band. This shows good insight
into how skills are developed in a sustainable way over a long
period of time.
The new National Curriculum Statement Grades 10 - 12, which was
approved by Cabinet on 27 August 2003, has taken on board many of
the ideas and values advocated by the Santam project. In line with
the last developmental outcome of the National Qualifications
Framework on developing entrepreneurial opportunities, several of
the revised and the new subjects of the National Curriculum
Statement have explicitly incorporated entrepreneurship as an
outcome of teaching and learning. These include Business Studies,
Consumer Studies, and Agricultural Sciences.
As you will be aware, the entrepreneurial element in grades 10 to
12 is built on the solid foundation laid by the Economic and
Management Sciences learning area in grades R to 9. The Santam
project has provided an opportunity for many of our students to
apply the concepts they learn in Economic and Management Sciences
in the Market Day Competition, which is an important part of the
project. Furthermore, by providing user-friendly materials and
encouraging innovative teaching methods, the project has assisted
in the process of re-orientating teachers towards achieving the
intentions of outcomes-based education.
I have to say that although I support the development of economic
and management sciences among our people, I have to warn you about
two myths, which have been perpetuated by some among us. Firstly,
it is not true that the only way to secure employment in the 21st
century is to study economic and management sciences. I have been
to many graduation ceremonies where I have seen large numbers of
young people graduating with commerce degrees, and many of them
thinking they will walk straight into a job. After these graduation
ceremonies, these young people face the reality that a broader
selection of higher education courses would have served them better
than a narrow selection of management courses.
Secondly, I have heard many people resist the insertion of a values
programme in economic and management sciences by arguing that this
is a 'practical discipline', which should be kept free from values,
which are seen to be subjective. Only a person who has not been
around in the past few years can advance such an argument. Am I to
remind anyone about the problems of Enron, WorldCom and Arthur
Andersen? Values and ethics should form a central part of education
in economic and management sciences. We have to teach our students
to be ethical, honest, compassionate, and to value human dignity,
equality, environmental justice and democracy just as we teach them
to be good entrepreneurs, accountants, auditors and
economists.
The fact that my department has developed a strategic partnership
with Santam on the entrepreneurship project is an indication of how
we value working together with the business community and other
partners. This is done in the true spirit of Tirisano - the
Setswana word for 'working together' - which is the motto of my
Ministry. When we adopted Tirisano as our motto, it was in
recognition of the reality that no government can do everything on
its own. We need to mobilise our people in all walks of life in
order to fully realise our goal of creating a better life for
all.
I am also pleased to know that the Insurance Sector Education and
Training Authority (InSETA) has been contributing to this
initiative, ensuring that the programme is made available to all
nine provinces.
I wish to invite Santam and the rest of the business community to
continue supporting our teachers in the fields of technology,
business, and mathematics. Over the past decade, the world has
changed fundamentally, and therefore much support is needed for
teachers to cope with these changes and to prepare our students
accordingly. Part of the support could include career exhibitions,
community development, bursaries and other forms of financial
support.
Finally, I should like to salute those students who have made it to
the final of the Entrepreneurship Competition, and wish to extend a
word of encouragement and appreciation to those who have
participated but are not recipients of awards. I believe that the
knowledge and skills acquired from the project will enhance the
ability of all participating students to access the job market and
to pursue further studies.
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