Papua New Guinea needs to invest more in Higher Education

Simon Kenehe speaks his mind about investing in Tertiary Education 

By FIDELIS SUKINA

This year Papua New Guinea celebrates 40 years of Independence a nation rich with resources and a growing population.

The importance of education is important to drive Papua New Guinea forward not just any education but higher education which involves tertiary education.

I was honored to be part of Divine Word Universities 19^th Foundation Day in August had the opportunity to listen to Simon Kenehe the former Commissioner for Higher Education in Papua New Guinea.

He hails from the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, and has a back ground in Business and Economics but most of his career was spent in Higher Education development and helping universities in Papua New Guinea he is currently a board member with the University of Natural Resources and Environment.

He spent the majority of his tertiary institution in the United States of America; he was also instrumental in the Vision 2050 where he was responsible for the first Pillar Human Capital Development.

So he was one of the best people to give advice on the need for educating our younger generation in Papua New Guinea.

His long work in Higher Education has made him passionate and he cannot talk  enough about the need for educating and bringing the standard up for Papua New Guinea

He talked about the importance of higher education in Papua New Guinea, and gave a history on how America caught up to Europe and become a super power and now other countries are working hard and becoming more  industrialized as well through learning complex  mathematics and other new innovative ways of development .

 “The nation’s ability to compete is threatened by inadequate investment in our most important resource: people. Put simply, too many workers lack the skills to perform more demanding jobs. --- We face a massive job of education and training – starting before kindergarten. Can we afford it? We have no choice.” Mr Kenehe said

 “For you to appreciate how extremely important it is to be educated and be meaningful agents of change in PNG, let me relate a challenging article I read back in 1988. This article is from - A Special Report on Human Capital, titled – “The Decline of America’s Work Force.” I quote:

“The report goes on to say - “That in 1851 – Britain was the dominant world power. The U. S. was No. 2 in industry and catching up fast. American manufacturing prowess in large part was due to a highly educated work force. A century or so to the 1980s, the U. S. became the dominant world power. Japan was No. 2 and closing in fast.”

“American CEOs marveled at the quality of Japanese products which flooded their markets. They made pilgrimage trips to Tokyo.  Their findings - that manufacturing superiority was being forfeited to the Japanese. And yes, once again, behind the success in manufacturing prowess lies in a better-educated work force.”

“Much of the Japanese success stemmed from the fact that its blue-collar workers could interpret advanced mathematics, read complex engineering blueprints, and perform sophisticated tasks on the factory floor far better than blue-collar workers in the U. S.” end of quote.”

He challenged the students asking them how the powerful messages come across to them and questioned how politicians would react to them.

"Do these messages signal anything that our political leaders should think about seriously in order to improve our higher education system? I think so.  

He added on further that  other  countries took heed of the innovative use of education and now are reaping the benefits as well."

“Japan was followed by South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore which also gave high priority to higher education and training for their workers, their investment in their people enabled them to “catch – up” with the developed countries of Western Europe, North America, and elsewhere.”

“China and India also invested heavily in higher education and training to “catch – up” with the industrialized world. The governments of those two (2) countries recognized higher or tertiary education as indispensible for economic growth and for their country’s integration into the global economy, both through training of highly qualified workforce and through innovative research.”  Mr Knenhe said 

He said Asian countries did not only invest heavily in their institutions of higher education, they  also established Overseas Scholarship Schemes which sponsored thousands of their young men and women to study in overseas universities in USA, Canada, Germany, France, United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Graduates returned home and applied their new knowledge and skills to help develop and progress their respective countries.

He said Papua New Guinea Is not fully accepting the fact that more graduates in the field of science and technology is needed.

“PNG unfortunately has really not fully accepted - that it is people, and not machines, equipment, or political promises that are the driving force behind economic growth. Building up human capital must become a national priority for PNG. PNG needs to graduate hundreds of thousands of its young men and women in the fields of science, engineering, technology, mathematics, ICT, and so on.”

He added that the last  40 years  Papua New Guinea was playing into the hands of big corporations involving them in the  skilled part of science  and technology.

“The consequence of lack of priority investment in human capital development over the past four (4) decades is that, we as a country, have been playing into the hands of multi-national corporations and other cunning foreign investors who employ highly skilled and trained foreign experts in the fields of science, engineering, technology, mathematics, ICT, international finance, corporate law, managerial finance and other skills. In other words, those foreign companies are taking full advantage of PNG’s deficits in those skills, know – how and expertise.”

“We also have known for quite sometimes, that the middle to highly paid jobs is where skills, know – how and expertise amongst PNG citizens is seriously lacking. That means PNG is facing a monumental mismatch between middle to highly skilled jobs and the ability of its citizens to carry out the requirements of those skilled jobs. This requires radical policy change by the Government.”

He said Government must invest more money in higher and technical education to narrow the current human capital deficit. Unless the Government invests in this extremely important area, the PNG economy will continue to be dominated by foreign business owners and investors.

He gave two good examples on how Papua New Guinea was being run over by overseas investment.

“Here is a first example; the Australian High Commissioner Ms Deborah Stokes told the 2015 PNG Update Conference on June 18th, 2015 at UPNG that Australians alone owned 5,000 businesses in PNG. She said that Australia has also amassed, to date, total investment of $A20 (or K42.052) billion in PNG. Furthermore, she said that this level of investment was more than Australia’s total investment in Indonesia.”  

“Ms Deborah Stokes did not make known the types and categories of businesses and industries Australians are involved in. But, this level of investment and participation by large numbers of Australian companies mean that Australia alone, as a country, is generating and transferring billions of Kinas from its commercial activities in PNG. It means also that Australian companies indeed have commercial power over the PNG economy.” 

“Here is a second example of PNG’s inability to stand up for its own good. This example appeared in - The National (Newspaper), Thursday, July 16, 2015, Page 6 which featured comments by Sir Nagora Bogan, Chairman of the Taxation Review Committee.”

“The headline read, quote, “Millions in tax incentives going to foreigners. The country is losing out on millions of kina because of tax incentives offered to foreign investors.” Mr Kenehe said

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He also made mention that big companies that come in have the best lawyers and best accountants and when they lay their deals out, our guys are not well-equipped, competent or professional enough, let alone being assertive. It’s happening in LNG, it’s happening in quite a lot of projects.

“We’re giving incentives left, right, and centre. We have no control and there are no records of how much we are giving away in terms of tax incentives. It cuts across the resource sector to forestry, fisheries, etc. The idea of reducing corporate tax is in itself an incentive already.” End of quote.

He said Sir Nagora’s comments reflect the way the PNG economy is being sucked out of its wealth. It is also the outcome of failures by successive Governments, over four (4) decades, for not investing in its people, most particularly young people." Kenehe said 

His third example was a real eye opener for the nation the number of students being unable  to secure  space and the failure of government to  establish  better   structures in place  for the young generation of Papua New Guinea.

“Here is a third example, large numbers of Grade 12 leavers are unable to secure places in institutions of higher education, because of lack of capacities, lack of academics and instructors, inferior academic salaries and conditions, and other resource factors.” Mr Kenehe said

He added that With the Governments introduction of Free Education in 2012, we will see by the end of 2016, over 74,000 students graduate from the Nation’s Secondary School System. Only about 6,000/7,000 (8.8/10.4%) of them may be fortunate enough to gain access to institutions of higher education in early 2017. The bulk of 68,000/67,000 (or 92/90.5%) of them will be: (a) returning to their villages; and or (b) migrating to urban centres and towns looking for jobs which they have no skills.

“These large numbers are not just numbers - they represent the Nation’s young people – the future of PNG. It is not clear whether the National Government, let alone Provincial Governments, have any concrete plans or solutions to employ and utilize the energy of these young men and women.” Mr Kenehe said 

“And, there is more, by 2025, the number of Grade 12 leavers will increase to over 117,000 students. It is not known, how many of them will gain access into the tertiary education institutions. (Papua New Guinea Labour Market Supply Data: Education & Training August 25th 2009, Table 11, Page 31 of 85).”    

“Again, the PNG Government must invest in educating and skilling these young people at tertiary education institutions. It is the best investment PNG, as a Nation, can make in its future.”

“The Government also does not appear to clearly understand the relationship between PNG’s export of under - valued raw materials and it’s under – investment in human capital development. By continuing to export it’s under – valued raw materials, it is also exports skilled jobs, forfeits foreign exchange revenues, quality infrastructures, minimization of its import costs, and shuns technology transfer. The manufacturing sector requires a highly skilled and capable workforce.”  Kenehe said