Thank you Madam Chairperson I just want to give some advice to the hon Snell here on my left. Napoleon Bonaparte once said: "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." [Laughter.]
Madam Chairperson, I am not a member of this committee and I apologise on behalf of Ms Nolitha Vukuza-Linda, a Member of Parliament, who cannot be here. I am a member of the Finance committee and my approach to this debate will come from that angle.
The International Development Community has begun to recognise the importance and link of higher education to economic growth. The problem is that this recognition is small in comparison with the recognition on other levels. We are all aware of the private benefits for individuals. It includes better employment, higher salaries and a greater ability to save and invest. Public benefits are less widely recognised, which explains many governments neglect of tertiary schooling as a vehicle for public investments. Higher earnings for well-educated individuals raise tax revenues and ease the demand on state finances.
In a knowledge economy, tertiary education can help economies to keep up or catch up. Higher education graduates are more likely to develop new tools and skills themselves and, with greater confidence and know-how gained, may generate positive effects on job creation.
So, Minister, take care of your good universities. Help those who want to do better, but do not pull down those that are achievers for whatever reason. We need them to remain world-class institutions. President John Kennedy once remarked, and I quote:
Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.
Minister, the growth of the economy and the destiny of this country will be shaped by the opportunities for education. No education system anywhere in the world is better than its teachers and it is the government's role to make sure of this. Continued neglect of this will carry a high price. Gordon Brown, in his new document prepared for the G7 Summit later this week called "Education for all" puts it bluntly, and I quote:
Today's extreme inequalities in education are tomorrow's inequalities in opportunities for economic growth, trade, investment and employment.
Money does not always guarantee success, but chronic and sustained underfinancing and mismanagement of allocated funds is a guaranteed route to failure. If we want success for universities, we must make sure that our basic education platforms function well. There are concerns, but we must all acknowledge that getting into school is just a first step on what should be a journey into the joy and discovery of learning, towards life- long learning and good universities.
The Education for All Status Report is bold about the role of education in economic growth, and I quote:
Evidence confirms that education is a strategic investment in economic growth and job creation, with social reforms that outweigh private returns. Increasingly, education is the fuel driving the knowledge-based global economies.
In 1975, South Africa had 33 000 registered artisans, today only 3 500 are left - that is 90% less than 20 years ago. Our decline in this sector creates a huge challenge to reinvent our FET colleges. If we fail this, we fail job growth in South Africa. I hope that today, with the announcement by the hon Minister, there will be some changes.
We all know that growth is the only effective and lasting antidote to mass poverty. The investment in human capital is as important as the investment in physical capital. Every country that had sustained high growth for a long period has put substantial effort into training its citizens.
The precise weight of human capital and good universities and FET colleges in economic growth is now clear. As the Harvard economist Claudia Goldin has shown in her research, America pulled ahead of Europe in education before it pulled ahead in economic growth.
If we are successful in running good universities and FET colleges, have disciplined students who grab the opportunities, denied to so many others, we will reap the fruits to increase long-run economic growth - and therefore rising incomes - and the magic of compound growth, so lifting people out of poverty.
So, hon Minister, this government will see the benefits of supporting well- functioning institutions of higher education. Therefore, we support Gordon Brown when he says:
The real question is not so much whether countries can afford these investments. It is whether they can afford not to make them. Cope supports this Budget. [Applause.]