Sizwe Nxasana, CEO of FirstRand and Chairman and driving force behind the NECT, explains why he is so determined to get big business on board: "To the business sector, involvement makes sound financial sense; growth is impossible unless we produce more qualified graduates. But more than that, it's a matter of simple morality - we all have a responsibility to improve society to the best of our abilities. I have only three priorities right now - my family, my company and the transformation of education. If we don't fix education, we're in big trouble."
What makes him so positive about the NECT is its collaborative nature. "It's a partnership that is the first of its kind in this country, where civil society, unions, companies and private donors are working with government to change the system," he says. With government matching donor funding rand-for-rand, Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) has encouraged their members to pledge 0.004% of their market capitalisation to the NECT. Many have already responded and there is confidence that more BLSA member companies will step forward to contribute.
"For a business like ours to donate R1.5 million to the NECT is consistent with our view that education is the single most important determinant of South Africa's progress and sustainability," says Mark Lamberti, CEO of Imperial Holdings, a NECT trustee and donor. "If ever there was a worthy project related to education, this is it: BLSA's support of the proposal and their encouragement of members to support the project has made a massive difference. It was important for businesses to recognise firstly that there has never been an initiative of such scale aimed at systemic change in education, and secondly that investing in the NECT instead of dissipating their expenditure on education in a thousand well-intentioned but uncoordinated ventures that can never have the same impact - let alone the fact that the government matches each private sector donation."
Lamberti continues, "Support from business is likely to gain even greater momentum as a result of the evidence of government's political and financial commitment, as well as the demonstrable progress within the NECT projects. I'm convinced from what I see that these deliverables will increase the financial support from business as the project gains momentum."
Like Nxasana, Lamberti understands that education is the cornerstone but nonetheless only one element of a fully functional society. "When I hear people say, 'After 20 years of democracy, shouldn't we be seeing more capable people in our businesses?' I want to say, 'That's nonsense.' The 35 or 40-year-old African man, who should now be entering the middle to upper echelons of business, was severely prejudiced by apartheid. Most often his family unit was shattered or fragile, his physical surroundings and nutrition were less than ideal, and even if his parents sacrificed everything to afford him a decent education, there were few role models or mentors. Now you're expecting him to function at the same level as his white counterpart whose circumstances were the opposite and who has been learning about business at the dinner table from the age of 12?"
"Confidence and self-esteem are a function of our early stage family and societal support system. What excites me about the NECT is the multi-level engagement, from the schools, parents and their communities, through the parent bodies and community or religious leaders, right up through the hierarchy to high-level politicians, academics and traditional leaders."
As Nxasana pointed out during the launch of the NECT: "There's no magic bullet; the strategy can only work if all sectors of society commit to it - the private sector, private donors, the unions and civil society need to support these initiatives; not just in money, but in kind. We want parents to get involved in knowing what goes on at school; to hold schools accountable for the work they should be doing. We need teachers who show up at work - and not to sit in the staff room, but to teach. We need active citizens. We need the unions to understand their role; their rights are entrenched in the constitution, but we need unions that can still look after the interests of their members, while playing a constructive role in the reconstruction of our country."
The involvement of [https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/498/120950.html teacher unions] - and all of them have committed to the NECT - cannot be underestimated. A negative public perception exists, because the only time we see teacher unions in the media tends to be during a strike or a scandal. What is often forgotten is the number of passionate, committed teachers who work tirelessly against enormous odds. One of the pillars of the NECT - the professionalisation of teaching - has been on unions' agendas for decades. Apartheid was the culmination of more than 300 years of systemic discrimination in all areas, including education - which is how we arrived in 1994 with an education system that was excellent for 10% of the population, and among the worst in the world for the other 90%. At that point in our history, about the only ones concerned at all with professional standards in teaching, were the teachers themselves and their unions; a process in which they remain active today. They must remain intimately involved in any programmes to upgrade teaching standards.
Lamberti believes the way forward is to retain clear distinctions between two areas of equal importance to teachers and their unions: the professional standards of teaching, and collective bargaining around wages. He says, "In every business that I've ever run, I've tried to separate performance improvement discussions from compensation, because the moment you're having a performance discussion with somebody, and that individual thinks her compensation relies on the outcome of that discussion, she's not listening; she's negotiating. We should be saying, 'What do we do, to make sure we have good teachers, and that there is more effective education taking place?' The wage negotiation is a separate thing - dealing with keeping up with inflation, and fair compensation, etcetera - but it's a different discussion. It shouldn't colour the performance improvement discussion."
While government has made great strides since 1994 in creating access to basic education, improving the quality of that education has not marched in step - a situation the NECT is designed to fix. "We were delighted when Minister Angie Motshekga was re-appointed," says Lamberti. "She's been very strong and very supportive - keeping her retains continuity. I've also been fascinated by the commitment from other cabinet ministers; like the Minister of Correctional Services getting prisoners to make desks - things like that. This is priority one for the country. We need a noble vision; a whole bunch of people - teachers, government, business, parents and community leaders - saying, 'We're doing something here that is greater than ourselves; this is a massive, worthwhile endeavour.' Then we need people to ask, 'How am I contributing to this noble vision?' The third part is to say, 'What infrastructure do we have around this vision to help us achieve it?' Without those three things, systemic change is impossible."
However, he remains optimistic, given the progress in the eight districts in which the NECT is initially being rolled out. Infrastructure and teaching materials are being improved, teachers are upgrading their skills, classroom sizes and qualified staff shortages are being addressed. "The scale at which the NECT is tackling the problem ensures it won't be overwhelmed," says Lamberti. "It's not a completely intractable problem; this is really a chance to make an impact. If the NECT programmes and interventions are successful, then we may have cracked the national problem. Not in two or three years, but we're on the right track."
