IN this week’s column, I have decided to pay tribute to the late? prospecting University of Zambia student, Musanka Makwamba who sadly? took her life about three weeks ago, as a result of not having been able to secure a bursary to pursue a degree course at University of Zambia (UNZA).
This sad development in this country’s educational sector, has exposed? a lot of weaknesses in the educational system and selection criteria? at the country’s highest learning institutions.
This development has equally reminded us that the Government alone cannot cater for the ever-rising numbers of school leavers wishing to pursue further education.
This unpleasant occurrence has left me convinced that as a Zambian? citizen and columnist, I have a moral obligation to try and provoke? some debate and discussion on the subject with regards to how the? corporate world can come in and help efforts to provide financial? support to the less privileged would-be students at various higher? learning institutions.
I am of a great disposition that the corporate sector through marketing sponsorship can make some significant contribution towards lifting the Government’s heavy burden of carrying this big responsibility alone.
The recent global trends show that there is a shift from the old ways of looking at governments as sole providers of everything.
The syndrome of “Boma iyanganepo”(the Government should look into it) is long gone.? If you recall some years back, Zambians were so used to depending on the Government for everything including food and clothing.
Do you vividly recall the times of coupons that enabled the average Zambian household have access to free mealie-meal through the Government subsidy. ?School-going children were even entitled to free school uniforms as well as exercise and text books.
Of course this system could not be sustained for a long time as it implied that someone? somewhere, was paying the price for all these provisions indirectly.
The spirit of Government and private sector partnership is now being propagated and encouraged world over as it has been acknowledged by many people that most of the financial resources are now in the hands of the private sector.
Since the help of these private entities can only be gotten from the perspective of moral obligation, it can only be right for all the stakeholders that is the government and corporate world to join hands through partnerships, when it comes to resolving social problems.
The Government can no longer be seen as the only answer to society’s problems since 80 per cent of world’s economies are controlled by the private sector.
From the Zambian context, our economy is currently 70 per cent driven by the private corporate world, namely, mining, agro-business, manufacturing and retailing.
Most of these can be classified as multinational enterprises which are viable and profitable.? The problem, however, is that despite registering huge successes, very few of these organisations have even given it a thought of rendering a helping hand to the under-privileged.
Incidentally, marketing sponsorship should and can be considered as being a part of an organisation’s corporate social responsibility programme.
From the recent incident and other challenges experienced regarding the administering of Government bursaries at the country’s two largest public universities, it is now evident that our Government is overwhelmed and has difficulties with accommodating everyone in need of Government support.
Government through the Minister of Education recently hinted at introducing Government educational loans in the place of the current bursary scheme.
In as much as this is a good idea which has been tried and tested in many other countries and workable for disciplines such as medicine, agriculture, education, engineering and other careers which are more appreciated in the Government.
But where will this leave other vulnerable prospecting students in Government recognised private universities?
Don’t they also need some kind of help? In my view, this will still not adequately address the? problem.
This is where the participation and contribution of the private sector is needed. In the spirit of good corporate citizenship, the private sector should begin to take up this challenge and work together with other stakeholders, that is identify different universities and identify outstanding prospective students for financial support.
When seen from a marketing and business perspective, sponsorship, especially for academic programmes and projects has the ability to produce substantial rewards or benefits for the sponsor.
Far from being philanthropic, sponsoring students especially when the bet is right can be a huge commercial investment which could product long-term benefits for an organisation.? For instance sponsoring an engineering student should mean that the sponsor is training their own employee.
Further, the company will get the reward of having skilled labour at a minimal cost as no morally upright person will demand so much from an organisation that funded his or her education.
This kind of undertaking will normally be marketing driven and as such it will be used as a marketing strategy.
It will also equally attract publicity and enhance an organisation’s corporate reputation; this will in turn boost the business.