Effective Investments in Education

The Challenge

Education is a fundamental right for everyone and key to the future of any country. Education has its price everywhere—but the only thing more expensive than investing in education is not investing in education. Inadequate education produces high costs for society in terms of public spending, crime, health, and economic growth. No country can afford to leave too many of its children behind and not to help them achieve the competencies needed for a self-fulfilled life in economic independence.

But the main challenges in education differ across countries and continents. The industrialized world faces the impacts of demographic change, such as a shortage of skilled labor and ageing societies. Emerging countries need to respond to increasing demand in education. And in some parts of the world, it is still not a given that every child has the right to go to school—and, hence, a big share of the population cannot read and write.

Despite these differences, there are common challenges. For example, the "inheritance of educational status" is a global problem: people's education achievement largely depends on their socioeconomic background and the educational status of their parents. Although some countries provide more equal opportunities than others, it remains a challenge everywhere to improve the chances of those children lost to inadequate education.

But education budgets are limited, especially in times of economic downturn. Thus, it is worth comparing countries that have decreased and augmented their education budgets during the crisis—and evaluating the consequences of these decisions. If, on the one hand, investments in education are vital and, on the other hand, budget constraints restrict the available resources, investments should be as effective as possible. The question then is: where does it make sense to invest most in education?


An alternative view of investments in education is that they should be higher where the problems are greatest: that would mean greater effort to tackle inadequate education and more money for programs for children who are lagging behind. Research shows that inadequate education is a problem for the whole of society—even the elites—and that everyone benefits from minimizing the number of low-educated people. Is it possible to invest in more quality in education? What form of qualification will produce the best teachers and pedagogues? And what mechanisms should be used to allocate resources?

Education remains one of the most important duties of any government: it is a public responsibility to provide access to high quality education for everyone. Therefore, public investments need to ensure a good educational infrastructure for lifelong learning. But can private organizations, companies and Nonprofit organizations provide additional supply. Could they become substitutes or should they instead function as supplements to public institutions?

Intelligent financing concepts for education should be based on needs and specific background rather than distributing untargeted subsidies. New concepts of resource distribution require greater transparency. But what should this transparency look like? Will external accountability enhance quality or should there be more focus on capacity-building and self-assessment to improve the education system? How can financing mechanisms provide effective and sufficient investments in education even in times of crisis?

CSI holds the key for education in South Africa

Corporates need to start investing now in their future workforce
Education in South Africa today is fraught with challenges. Teachers and learners struggle due to limited resources and tools, resulting in a general falling of standards. Decreasing the national pass requirements to 35% will not solve this problem and it has a ‘knock on’ effect as matriculants face the challenge of obtaining university entrances, writes Paul Fick, Divisional Managing Director, Jasco Enterprise.

Raise the bar and instil a sense of pride
Even when they do ‘make the grade’, the ‘gap’ between school and university standards becomes apparent, further making it more difficult to pass. Action is required from corporate South Africa to assist government in its efforts to improve the level of education in South Africa. Corporates need to start thinking and investing in their future workforce to ensure that South Africa as a nation remains globally competitive.
This means raising the bar and re-instilling a sense of pride in learning and an attitude of excellence. Corporate South Africa also needs to start equipping the youth with the tools for a better education. These tools are not only to assist in combating unemployment, but also to ensure that more competent graduates are employed to strengthen our economy. Technology solutions are key enablers of these sought after outcomes. However, government alone cannot meet the educational needs of our future leaders. Corporate South Africa has to become more involved.

Incorporating investment into education technology into an organisation’s CSI initiatives is not only vital for improving education, it also benefits organisations directly as they can be assured of more qualified, better prepared future employees. However, simply donating money is no longer enough. Education technology initiatives need to be carefully planned by specialists, applied correctly within schools, and accompanied by continuous teacher training initiatives to empower educators to embrace new methods of teaching and inspire learners to further their education.

What’s lacking is this…
Although there are ongoing efforts to incorporate technology into schools, what is lacking is a solution that is specifically designed for educational facilities. The Critical Links Education Appliance is the world’s first purpose-built education server, a ‘school in a box’ that enables up to 3000 students to be connected on a single server and delivers an enriching educational experience with one-on-one e-learning to develop skills in the 21st century.

As a holistic solution, the Education Appliance addresses planning and implementation challenges, since all of the tools that are needed are built in to the central server and students and teachers need only a basic end-point device to access this. The rugged Classmate PCs that are part of this solution have been designed to withstand the tough school environment: they are spill resistant and highly robust. Intricate security has also been incorporated into the laptop style devices to ensure that should the devices get stolen they can be rendered useless, making them unable to be sold, which will prevent the massive losses due to theft. The Education Appliance, together with stimulating customised educational content developed by local partner LearnThings, offers a complete interactive learning solution that engages and empowers learners.

A cost-effective solution
The Education Appliance is also a cost effective solution that enables any classroom to become a computer lab quickly and easily with a centralised administration facility that enables all sites to be remotely managed for ease of maintenance. For a minimal investment any corporate can deliver a full ‘classroom in a box’ complete with server, 30 Classmate PCs and WiFi connectivity. The server can also be linked into any existing computers the school may have, so the GSOP funded devices if still available, will not be a wasted investment. All the required infrastructure functionality is integrated into a single appliance, combining modern learning techniques with smart technology to help both students and teachers overcome their fears of computers. The Education Appliance lets teachers create dynamic, up to date lessons and allows learners to have convenient 24-hour access to learning resources.

Getting the necessary technology into schools is of the utmost importance, and it is up to corporates of all sizes to get involved to ensure future success for students and business. By sponsoring a classroom, with hardware such as the Education Appliance as well as teacher training to bring them up to speed with 21st century techniques and devices means businesses can help schools to access technology and teachers to become more passionate, inspiring learners to partake in their education and their future.

Government has a roadmap for the implementation of ICT in schools, but this must be augmented by corporate efforts. The process needs to be sped along if education in South Africa is to be improved, and in order to do this, corporates and business need to step up to the plate and spend their CSI money wisely, investing not only in learners but in their future employees and in the economy as a whole. For more information visit Jasco at www.jasco.co.za

Content and images supplied by: http://www.wecanchange.co.za/