Education must make entrepreneurs, not workers: Yunus

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Education must make entrepreneurs, not workers: Yunus

Published: 13 Feb. 2023, 17:49

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, left, and Yunus Centre Chairman Muhammad Yunus discuss and share insights on Seoul's policies for socially vulnerable people at Seoul City Hall in central Seoul on Monday. [YONHAP]

People should not be job seekers, but should be entrepreneurs themselves, a Nobel laureate told the mayor of Korea's capital city.

That's what 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi social entrepreneur and chairman of the Dhaka-based think tank Yunus Centre, told Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon when they sat down for a discussion on Seoul's future at Seoul City Hall on Monday.

The talk particularly focused on policies for low-income families.

“If you follow the old road, you always end up at the old destination,” said Yunus.

“Seoul’s 2030 vision is very important, but there is so much more to imagine,” he said, referring to Seoul Metropolitan Government’s goal to transform Seoul into a city that improves the lives of low-income individuals and strengthens its international competitiveness by 2030.

When asked about ways to improve the city's current social safety net scheme, he said creating friendly banks that motivate low-income individuals to repay the fund could be an alternative to the government simply doling out cash.

Founded in 1976, Grameen Bank is one such financial banking system that allows socially neglected people to access banks and secure small amounts of working capital through collateral-free loans.

Yunus and the bank jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for initiating a socially beneficial project.

Yunus said the bank is a self-sustaining business with around 10 million borrowers, 97 percent of whom are women.

The repayment rate consistently remains above 98 percent.

Oh shared his own thoughts on ways to improve the measures the city has been actively implementing.

“The Grameen Bank is one example showing an individual’s potential to create their own job through an entrepreneurial mind,” Oh said.

“On top of providing subsidies through the current social safety net fund, working together with financial institutions could be another way.”

The city of Seoul currently provides people in need with social safety net payments, a type of basic income for low-income families, initiating the trial program in July 2022.

A total of 1,600 households now receive money after the city government expanded the number of households eligible for the trial last week.

Households that make less than 85 percent of the country’s monthly median income — lower than 1.76 million won ($1,370) as of 2023 — and have less than 326 million won of assets can receive as much as 880,000 won per month.

The measure benefits a wider group of households than the national basic livelihood security program, most of the recipients of which earn 30 to 50 percent of the country’s median income.

The city government will be testing the measure for three years, collecting feedback from experts to see how effective the measure is.

“I believe there is a need to further experiment on what will motivate these people to live and become independent,” Oh said, addressing the need to draw up measures to compare policies to generate more practical benefits.

The mayor also asked Yunus for his insights on improving the city’s educational program Seoul Learn, provided to students from low-income families.

Yunus suggested that education should "produce future entrepreneurs, not workers.”

Students in Seoul from vulnerable groups, including low-income households and multicultural families, are eligible to apply for the program.

“What Yunus said about young people becoming entrepreneurs instead of seeking jobs is in line with Seoul Learn,” Oh said.

“The motivations and goals of students should be definite to enhance the effect of the program.”

Seoul Learn allows students between the ages of 6 and 24 to access popular and paid online classes for free and offers one-on-one mentoring programs.

The policy was one of Oh’s pledges when he ran for the mayoral by-election in 2021.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]