Divesting in Higher Education is Investing in Ignorance

In these economically conflicting times when many governments, including mine, are not so generously inclined to fund higher education as a public good or priority, I join those who are waving cautionary flags in their national contexts to wave one in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Recently, in an opinion piece in the New York Times , Paul Krugman, cited that former Florida Governor, Jeb Bush, and President Obama have declared that if Americans want more good news on the jobs front then they will have to invest more  in education, that is, invest in higher education.  This high level acknowledgement underscores that a nation’s economic growth and success cannot be had without the enabling of higher education to play its pivotal role in producing the higher level skills worker required to drive the economy.

Another American, a former Harvard University President Derek Bok, once uttered the now famous quote:  “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” 

If the foregoing statements were to be contextualized for the PNG context, they would read something like this:  Papua New Guineans cannot talk social and economic development without investing in the institutions that produce the higher level skills workers to drive the economy, and the educated citizens for democratic participation.  And if Papua New Guineans think higher education is too costly for the public purse and money is better diverted and used to support mass basic education, then PNG needs to prepare itself for the economic and social consequences of under-investment in higher education.

But, fortunately at last, some welcome corrective action is happening that might rescue universities from irreparable ruin.  The recent interest in the tertiary sector indicates that higher education is being positioned on the mainstream development agenda.  One of the first definitive signs of interest came from the Garnaut- Namaliu review of the university system in late 2009.  Another signal of this interest was on Australian soil. The Australian Council for Education Research 's (ACER) Higher Education UPDATE Edition 6 of September 2010 reported that ACER and Massero consulting had conducted the research which entailed a needs analysis and an analysis of course and curricula through the AusAID Education Resource Facility of which ACER was a consortium partner.  The latest study of the sector is being undertaken by another well respected Australian academic, Emeritus Professor Ingrid Moses, who is also contracted by AusAID to carry out a scoping study on teacher quality in PNG Universities.  She is tasked to identify feasible mechanisms to attract and retain good quality academics for PNG universities. On February 18, Prof Moses met with the deans of faculties and other senior academics of Divine Word University (DWU). Discussions with DWU staff therefore canvassed views on the issues of staff attraction and retention including staff development, remuneration, housing provision, engagement in consultancies and security. The need for her study had ostensibly emerged from findings highlighted in the Garnaut-Namaliu review.  The findings to emerge from these studies are said to inform PNG’s higher education policy and planning such as the 2010-2030 National Higher Education Plan.

The report of the findings from the Garnaut- Namaliu review is before the PNG government. Unfortunately, the report has not been made public. Nevertheless, the findings were presented in Australia at a conference at Australian National University.  In their interview with ABC  Radio Australia  Garnaut and Namaliu portrayed a university system in a sorry state after “decades of decline”.  Hence, they needed serious intervention to rehabilitate them in order to stem the declining quality of their awards. However, they also expressed that throwing untied money at them was not the answer and recommended that funding be linked to performance.

The Garnaut-Namaliu findings, and findings to emerge from the Moses’ study on issues around staffing mostly likely, will only confirm what those in the sector have known and decried over the years.  From 2003, there have been many reports in the national newspapers that would point to a university system in trouble and unable to meet the demands placed on it. The head of the Office of Higher Education, Dr Tagis, in Sept 2003 said of neglect that: “The higher education sector was “down on its knees”. Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Goroka, Dr David Rawlence, lamenting yet another less than expected budget allocation expressed that underfunding meant that: “…the government has ignored the strategic importance of providing the university with a capital line….” In the Editorial of one of the daily newspapers, The Post Courier, on 6 April 2005, it was stated that: “The starving of the institutions through the budget process is having dire consequences.”  Outspoken Vice Chancellor of the University of Technology, Dr Baloiloi, also in 2005 warned that institutions were “surviving on life support …as they struggled to survive the cardiac arrest caused by funding deficiencies….” Dr Baloiloi went on to say that such a neglect of the higher education sector, particularly the universities, “was tantamount to neglecting brain development in a growing human being.” Simon Kenehe of the Commission for Higher Education described the government’s emphasis on secondary and primary education as “misplaced”.  He was reported to have said that he was “not convinced for one bit that the primary and secondary education sectors will help speed up our country’s economic growth both in the short and long term.”  Speaking to the Garnaut-Namaliu review in November 2009, Dr Baloiloi used the analogy of the golden goose to criticize the PNG government which he described as too focused on demanding the goose to lay the golden egg but had neglected to take care of the goose itself.   The Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare, himself expressed concerns about the quality of higher education provided by universities. Commenting on the key link between staff quality and quality education, the Prime Minister was reported in The Post Courier as saying that: “Quality education and training is simply not possible without a cadre of well prepared and competent teachers and academics.” He further said that universities need to attract and retain their “most highly qualified national academics.”  In a letter to the Editor then a ‘concerned academic’ cited that not less than eight highly qualified academics, half of whom being Papua New Guineans, had left the University of Papua New Guinea in 2002.

So, just how do we explain the sudden renewed interest in higher education?  In my view, the stark reality that is making the PNG politician sit up and take notice is that meeting national development targets, articulated in the various strategic and policy documents such as the Medium Term Development Strategies (MTDS), Vision 2050, Education Reform of the 90s, and the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are less attainable without higher education being enabled at the same time to help and/ or champion the drive forward towards these goals.

Kamalesh Sharma, the current Commonwealth Secretary General, in a speech prepared for the Vice Chancellors’ Conference in Cape Town, South Africa for end of April 2010, made the following remarks, which again emphasize the importance of investing in higher education. “Higher education is where the real skills and real motors for development are born.  The health of higher education is the surest sign of a society on the move.  As key institutions of civil society, universities are uniquely positioned between the communities they serve, and the governments they advise. They are at the core of society, and often in the rebuilding of broken societies.”