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.

I thank you.

Issued by: Ministry of Education
14 October 2003