The Education Debate: Entrepreneurship
is more important than education for SL
Dilrook Kannangara
Thank you Lankaweb for hosting the views of concerned Sri Lankans on
matters of national interest. It is a fact that there is no other web
portal concerned with such matters. Most of them are only after political
power for the most demeaning politicians who don’t care about education,
etc. Let me stir up a controversy by calling that entrepreneurial skills
are more relevant and important to Sri Lanka than education! Let me
justify my claim.
Sri Lanka already has a good quality education level, but…
Yes, our Human Development Index is reasonably high vis-à-vis
our GDP per capita. However, I agree that it is not enough as we are
ranked at 93. India is ranked at 126 and China marginally ahead of us.
Surprisingly Turkey (a developed country) is ranked with us. However,
why are we economically backward than some of the lower ranked countries?
One may argue that India’s GDP is lower than us; yes, but they
record the highest GDP growth rate repeatedly and it will not take long
for them to beat us as they have beaten us already in industriousness.
Imagine a situation where all Sri Lankans are educated and skilled in
jobs in demand and they engage in such jobs. Will the country develop?
No, as there is no capital formation. On the other hand, if a very few
are educated and most are engaged in business (the only thing an uneducated
individual can do other than slavery and illegal acts; even joining
the army needs some education), then the country will develop as the
collective capital creation will further invest in economic growth.
Thereafter they can educate their children and themselves in whatever
degree imaginable. A large number of business empires (especially in
Japan) were built by uneducated individuals.
The nation that had a man from Matara who opened up the first bakery
in Jaffna, has become unable to utilise the resources of the N-E where
we have the most natural resources for the manufacturing industry. As
long as the LTTE is alive (peace, war or surrender) this will remain
the bitter truth. Worst still, if we implement the ‘racist-federalism’
(federalism along racial lines) promoted by many ‘thinkers’,
we will be worse off as we will lose complete de facto and de jure right
of control. What happened to East Timor’s oil reserves will happen
to all our resources. Essentially, we are foxed, if you know what I
mean. Having killed the last tiger, the government should vigorously
exploit the untapped resources of the N-E so that the national economy
gets its due peace dividend. However, we need entrepreneurship (than
education) as displayed a hundred years ago.
Extreme lack of entrepreneurship
One reason is the extreme lack of entrepreneurship that very few local
business entities exist to employ and harness the high education level.
It is no surprise that unemployment levels among the educated is higher!
It is absurd that there are doctors (alternative medicines may be) without
jobs in a country the number of patients to a doctor is very high. It
is also absurd that one third of all Chartered Accountants of ICASL
are living abroad as the country cannot provide good jobs for them plus
other reasons. In fact, India did face this problem sometime back but
quickly overcame it. In a striking example, let me point out that a
Sri Lankan became the CEO of Computer Associates (an IT powerhouse especially
then) at a time when India hasn’t joined the ICT race. The rest
is history. Its individual growth (education) verses national growth
(enterprises).
However, some have pointed out that programming for Microsoft gives
only a meagre share of the ICT value chain and MANY (emphasised) software
companies have spun up in India that sell their own software.
Individual welfare verses the national economy
But our educated flock didn’t have the entrepreneurial skills that
the Indians possessed. Today ICT industry of India is much larger than
our GDP! However, we have produced and keep producing very highly skilled
ICT professionals almost everyone goes abroad as there aren’t enough
companies here. We have too many educated job seekers but no employers.
It is akin to the old Sinhala adage of seven beggars’ soup! Working
and settling down abroad is better for the individual but what about
the society and the country?
Part of the problem lies, ironically, in education or lack of it. When
an Italian educated PM spearheaded the Indian ICT revolution, unfortunately
for us, we had an uneducated PM and an uneducated President. When India
was forward looking, SL was backward looking as we further digged into
slavery industries whereas India shed such industries and moved forward.
The Indian ICT revolution was more about entrepreneurship than exporting
ICT professionals abroad.
Work for their profit or work for our profit
Another big problem is the heavy dependence on foreign investments.
We should understand that foreign companies here do not contribute to
domestic capital creation, let alone a tax payment to the government!
They only provide employment as we can’t have a company to employ
them! A common statement in business acumen is that ‘you cannot
become rich by working for another’. If we gear up the education
system to produce more employees who would work either here or abroad,
it wouldn’t add anything much to the Sri Lankan economy.
We have many Sri Lankans working for NASA but what is their contribution
to the national economy that sustains the education system? Nothing.
A bus operator adds more to it than them. This is the reality in this
capitalist world. We should also appreciate the fact that it is the
economy that drives education and its not the other way round.
Disparate earnings of ethnic groups
Let me sight another salient example. It is no secret that the average
income of each ethnic community in Sri Lanka is different. This is a
phenomenon in almost all the countries in the world. Exclude those people
living under terrorist control and in the plantations (education is
provided to both, though). Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims are at different
average income slabs increasing in that order. Why? Average income is
in direct proportion to the entrepreneurs in each community as a percentage
of their total number.
Malaysian example
My assertions resound with the findings in Malaysia. As a result of
the Bumiputhera Law, more ethic Malays graduated than others proportionately.
However, their average income levels were very low than the Chinese
in spite of preferential employment on top of preferential education
facilities! The reason was traced to lack of entrepreneurship. The government
is now leading a campaign to develop this vital skill with full force.
Who commands more respect?
The Sri Lankan society pays much more respect to sarong-clad-filth-spiting
small-time businessmen than educated and well mannered professionals
and their teachers. It is because they make more contribution to the
economy (and to the education system) than the educated. One is a producer
whereas the other a consumer. This is the same in most Parishes and
Dayaka Sabawas as well. Most of our businessmen are uneducated and most
educated do not take an active interest in business.
This skill, therefore, cannot be effectively cultivated in ‘business
schools’, etc. as their products end up working for someone else!
It got to be trained in more practical terms. But the best incentive
is to award a lower tax rate for industries and advance low interest
rate credit to start-ups. This will definitely reduce the government
tax income and hence will reduce the education spend. However, this
is the only way to re-allocate resources and priorities to a sector
that earns than consumes.
Corruption bigger than committed by politicians
Tertiary education is a big blackhole; in size, it surpasses corruption
of all politicians combined. Although, a large number of its products
do add value to the national economy than they have consumed, a significant
proportion does not contribute. Some even make negative contributions.
Due to 1981 census data and the conflict, students from the North have
a very high probability to get into tertiary education compared to others.
They also have the benefit of entering university from all 25 districts;
a huge advantage denied to others. It is estimated that the 9% SL Tamils
have more than double (18%) representation in universities. Most of
them migrate after graduation and finance the LTTE voluntarily! This
is the cruel reality; we have built a more than USD 300 million empire
for the LTTE which is many times our defence budget. It is likely to
grow as long as we continue with our blunders. Some others belonging
to the majority are no better as they very actively engage in subversion
within the country. Ungratefulness is an essential product of ‘free-tertiary
education’ or any subsidy scheme.
It is time we divorce socialism and commit to capitalism, because each
has different priorities. Socialism in any form is complete nonsense
to the modern world that struggles to maximise utility from a shrinking
resource base. It is expected that the atmosphere will let us down before
petroleum does. The price of a crude oil barrel is likely to reach an
astronomical USD 80 a barrel and even the citizens of developed countries
are already struggling to pay their mortgages and some, even to live.
What matters most in such circumstances is not to look for ways to spend
(and to spend effectively) but to expand industries that will provide
enough capital (and cushion) to meet the challenges of tomorrow. A nation
can opt not to sign the Kyoto Protocol (some nations have opted not
to), they can also opt not to finance education (again some have), but
none can afford to neglect its industry, not even the Vatican. Education
cannot salvage us (as a nation) as it hasn’t done so for years.
Instead, it is industriousness (with or without education) that can
uplift us. Let us be industrious, education will fall into place. This
is the story of Japan, in my view the most industrialised country and
an undeniable example that industriousness must take priority over education.
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