Linda Ensor
5 March 2003
Johannesburg — SA could lose out, says minister
CAPE TOWN SA had more to lose than to gain from making commitments in education under the World Trade Organisation's (WTO's) general agreement on trade in services (Gats), Education Minister Kader Asmal warned yesterday.
The agreement is aimed at regulating the progressive liberalisation of global trade in all services, including education services. International trade in education services has grown significantly over the past few years, and by 1995 was estimated to be worth $27bn annually.
Asmal, briefing Parliament's trade and industry committee, said that SA had not yet made any commitments in education, although a co-ordinated approach was being worked out with the trade and industry department. Kenya, New Zealand, Norway and the US had made requests for unlimited access for their service providers in SA, asking for them to be allowed to operate on the same terms as SA providers.
In terms of the WTO rules each country is expected to identify those services for which it wishes to provide access to foreign providers, as well as the extent and conditions of the access. Once the commitment is made, it cannot be changed.
Asmal noted that private foreign providers of education had had a "devastating" effect on African higher education.
He warned that the unintended consequences and costs of trade liberalisation in education could not be underestimated and it would be preferable for SA not to make any commitments at this stage. In the past there had been a proliferation of local and foreign private providers of sometimes "dubious quality", and their unbridled growth, if not checked, could have had a profound effect on the higher education system.
"Given the concerns in different parts of the world, we must ask whether there should not be a fundamental rethinking of the inclusion of education in Gats. We must engage with Gats in a way that holds promise for our own agendas and needs. We must avoid at all costs a Gats in education that puts our education, our culture and our future in peril," Asmal said.
"It is important that we remain vigilant to ensure that increased trade in education does not undermine our national efforts to transform higher education and in particular to strengthen the public sector so that it can effectively participate in an increasingly globalising environment. Trade considerations cannot be allowed to erode the public good' agenda for higher education.
"We cannot countenance the excessive marketisation and commodification of higher education which can lead to the unfortunate homogenisation of academic approaches and can undermine institutional cultures, academic values and the search for truth."
On the other hand, Asmal warned against parochialism and narrow chauvinism and stressed the need for genuine international collaborations in education.
He said there was an existing and transparent framework governing foreign providers of education in SA, and that the emphasis should rather be on strengthening the country's current activities designed to promote SA's role globally. Foreign operators would have to operate in SA having due regard to its policy goals and priorities.
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