Charting a course for sustainable development: The education & innovation imperative
 The national budget 2016 having been read, makes clearer that Trinidad and Tobago is facing a financial challenge. We have another budget deficit brought on by what might well be viewed as a man-made disaster. Man–made in that a financial crisis has occurred simply because all of the economic eggs have been placed in one basket – oil and gas – and we have no control over the prices of those commodities. Hence we find ourselves in a situation as a country with revenues from petroleum (our national economic “egg”) declining, from around $19.3Bn in 2014 to $1.7Bn in 2016.
Since we have to survive, even at the most fundamental level, the situation requires that we find ways to compensate for the shortfalls from oil and gas. Hence, my contribution to the discourse of solutions is that we seek to leverage on the investments we have made in our human capital via the GATE Programme, among other things. The timing is right for us to make those human capital resources work for us. My Campus Bursar says, “Don’t let a good recession go to waste”.
This proposal towards a solution focuses on Innovation and Education for Sustainable Development. An Innovation System (IS), whether deliberately or accidentally developed, is an innate and essential characteristic of all developed nations. Once well-functioning, its role is to optimally facilitate the transformation of new ideas to commercial reality, facilitate the formation of whole new companies and industries, strengthen the competitive advantage of existing product lines, provide a high degree of robustness against economic uncertainties - natural and man-made disasters, etc. Therefore an Innovation System is the basis of a country’s sustainability.
In the current environment, the business of education should be, at the very least, about ensuring that every citizen possesses basic physical and mental survival skills. Its most commonly acknowledged purpose is to maintain society by providing the educational means to empower individuals for the job market and thus achieve, at minimum, a decent standard of living and to nurture ‘good citizenship’. Furthermore, education is meant for personal development. But, most significantly, and given today’s worrying economic state, education must ensure that society is maintained and developed through the forging of new concepts, methods and products that improve upon its current state while ensuring that the existence of future societies (our descendants) is not compromised. This is the standard definition of “sustainable development”. It requires the nurturing of the creative and innovative talents and skills of our citizens.
Consider that an innovation is a product or process that has been created anew and has begun to produce returns on investment thus bringing value to society. Most consider innovation in only an economic context, but innovations can exist in economic, social or ecological dimensions. However, the economic dimension fuels the social and ecological dimensions and wealth generation is necessary for sustainable development.
Closing the gap between sustainable development that is fuelled by innovation and wealth generation requires a complete overhaul of the ideology and operation of our education systems. Some of the key tenets that have to be reconfigured are education for nurturing vs. programming, seamlessly meeting students (of all ages and backgrounds) where they are, and taking them where they want to go (equality of access), developing their skills in creative and critical thinking, their aability to identify problems and realise solutions, their ability to network and “teamwork” to leverage complementary capabilities, to understand IP and its politics, to understand business and entrepreneurship and to be success motivated.
To ignite the spirit of innovation, an Entrepreneurial Talent Grant is needed. In such an initiative, citizens can be invited and encouraged to present innovative business ideas for evaluation by a panel of accomplished businessmen and entrepreneurs. The top five projects should annually receive a $1 million grant to facilitate the development and implementation of their business concepts. The vast majority of small firms have great difficulty in accessing funding especially in the early stages of the innovation value chain so this facility allows access to finance and venture capital to support innovation and commercialisation.
The challenge to this Entrepreneurship initiative ($1 million) in financial year 2017 is how to provide an enabling environment – minimal bureaucracy, fast track public sector agencies and administrative support, and a total education system that promotes and encourages critical thinking for innovation and entrepreneurship – from cradle to grave.
With the decline in oil and gas revenues now is an opportune time to trigger the human capital and education the new “engines of growth”. For the nations of the region to collectively achieve developed status they must close the gaps in the wealth generation pyramid, kick-start the engine of knowledge innovation and then proceed to maintain the system. In other words, to achieve innovation that can contribute to sustainable economic development the country must collectively build national innovation systems!
EDITORIAL TEAM
Campus Principal: Professor Brian Copeland
Director of Marketing and Communications: Dr. Dawn-Marie De
Four-Gill
Editor (Ag) : Rebecca Robinson
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