Actuaries prioritise education initiatives to ensure economic upliftment

Roseanne Murphy da Silva, President of ASSA.

While the violent actions of the ‘Fees must Fall’ protestors cannot be condoned, their plight can also not be dismissed as simple thuggery, according to Roseanne Murphy da Silva, President of the Actuarial Society of South Africa (ASSA).

Addressing the more than 1 500 actuarial delegates attending the ASSA 2016 Convention in Cape Town today, Murphy da Silva described as incredibly tragic the country’s failure to prioritise spending on education, which has given rise to a generation that is extremely frustrated at being excluded from opportunities.

Murphy da Silva, in her role as adjunct professor in the School of Statistics and Actuarial Science at Wits University, has come face to face with the violence and destruction on campus in recent weeks. She commended academic colleagues across all the universities for being so steadfast in their commitment to teaching despite the the anger and frustration which often took on an ugly racial tinge.

“While those actions can’t be condoned, the underlying dynamic can’t be ignored. Everyone deserves the opportunity to learn and grow and become a productive, fulfilled participant in a thriving economy.”

She told Convention delegates that while all students should be able to access funding to meet the costs of their tertiary education, a zero fee tertiary education is simply not feasible given South Africa’s fiscal and social challenges.

“Our profession can contribute to building sustainable structures for education funding and I am really pleased that we are already part of this,” she said.

The actuarial profession is assisting key stakeholders develop a robust and sustainable tertiary education funding solution - the Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme (ISFAP) - by modelling the demographic, financial and resource implications of optional policy directions.

ISFAP was introduced by a Ministerial Task Team established in May this year under the chairmanship of former FirstRand CEO Sizwe Nxasana to design a comprehensive funding and student support model for poor and “missing middle” students. The term “missing middle” applies to students who come from families earning a combined annual household income of between R122 000 (the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) means test) and R600 000.

Education a top priority

Murphy da Silva reminded delegates that education remains one of ASSA’s top priorities since it is the key to economic upliftment and revitalisation.

“While our initiatives to promote Maths and Science at a school level may only be a drop in the ocean, we really need to adopt the philosophy that every bit helps, especially interventions that target the development of teaching skills.”

To intensify its efforts on the education front, ASSA has created two trusts focusing on education: the Actuarial Society Education Trust (ASET) and the Actuarial Society Development Trust (ASDT).

The Education Trust has partnered with Paper Video, a social enterprise that seeks to provide learners in Grade 8 to 12 with books of past exam papers for Mathematics, Physical Sciences, Life Sciences and Accounting. Each question has an accompanying solution video recorded by an experienced teacher, offering a detailed, step-by-step guide to solving the problem.

The Education Trust is supported by some of the largest corporate entities in South Africa helping Paper Video sponsor learners from low-income households. Too date the Trust has supported more than 80 schools in previously disadvantages communities and provided training to teachers in four provinces.

The Actuarial Society Development Trust (ASDT), on the other hand, provides financial support to accredited actuarial science programmes across six universities.

In addition to donor funding, both initiatives also receive financial support from the ASSA subscription revenue.

Transforming through education

Murphy da Silva made the point that education also plays a critical role in transformation.

For this reason the Society launched the ASSA Academy late last year to complement the numerous programmes already in place to ensure the demographic transformation of the actuarial profession.

“A key focus of our year has been the ASSA Academy. This has been a commitment to promote the qualification of our black student members while at the same time enhancing the support available to all students tackling the South African syllabus.”

Universities offering accredited actuarial science programmes report that the majority of students in most undergraduate actuarial programmes are black.

The Actuarial Society currently has 755 white student members and 946 African, Indian, and Coloured student members. Actuarial student members have achieved an undergraduate degree and possibly even an honours degree, and are employed while studying part-time towards qualifying for Fellow of Associate membership of the Actuarial Society.

Murphy da Silva announced that in order to take the ASSA Academy to the next level, Lusani Mulaudzi would be taking on the role as principal of the ASSA Academy when he retires from the ASSA Council this year.

Mulaudzi, a healthcare actuary, is the former President of the Association of South African Black Actuarial Professionals (ASABA) and has been a member of the Council of the Actuarial Society since 2012.