Programme Director;
Minister and Deputy Minister and Members of Provincial Executive Council;
Educators;
Learners;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and gentlemen.
Tonight we celebrate excellence in the teaching profession in South Africa.
A labour of love first and foremost, teaching is a calling to which an individual responds with deep conviction, motivated by the inner desire to contribute to the betterment of human condition.
Society as a whole owes much to the teaching profession. Since time immemorial societies have looked to teachers as socialising agents that imbue the next generation with norms and values on which depends the future.
Educators are the legitimate custodians of the cultural elements that define society, shaping the contours of its future.
Through this noble profession humanity is socialised into critical and consistent thinking in keeping with the first principles underpinning a social system.
At the same time, part of the successes of teachers is reflected in the critical faculties that learners develop as they mature and begin to question received wisdom, engaging their world dispassionately as they seek new meaning that defines human existence.
Indeed, we would be lost without the supplementary parental role teachers play to acculturate our children so that they become better human beings armed with an abiding understanding of society and nature.
As we celebrate and recognise the contribution of tonight’s nominees, we hope that their good example will serve to encourage others to continue to give their best to nurture learners into future leaders.
We believe that every teacher shoulders the aspirations of our nation and that they have it in them to bring the yearnings and dreams of our nation into fruition.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Flowing out of the brief sketch above, it is evident that teachers are themselves products of this continued socialising process. It is also clear that in and of itself teaching is a noble profession that needs to be recognised and appreciated in its own right.
So tonight we honour educators who have managed to rise above the rest, not in the spirit of cut and thrust competition but in the course of doing their work to the best of their ability, driven by passion, dedication and vision.
We speak here of men and women who dutifully go about their daily work with neither expectation for personal glory nor aggrandisement.
Indeed, tonight society is celebrating those who have consecrated themselves to the cause. This is all-the-more commendable in a country such as ours where some of our educators still labour under uneven and challenging conditions of work.
Educators are the most valuable repositories and transmitters of the much sought-after knowledge and skills in the modern, highly competitive world.
Necessarily, this places an obligation on all of us to support their efforts.
In this regard, barely twenty years ago, the education system in our country was fragmented, uneven and unsuited to our national conditions.
Today government has set education as the apex of its five priorities; the others being health, creation of work, the fight against crime and corruption as well as rural development and land reform.
Essentially education is an integral aspect of culture, which therefore make it a societal responsibility. As a result part of this responsibility requires that we all work together with teachers to improve the standard of education.
Consequently, school governing bodies, parents and communities have an important role to play in ensuring that every child is in school, on time, learning.
On the other hand, government, teachers and unions also need to work in concert and consistently to create an environment conducive to the culture of teaching and learning.
Once again we take this opportunity to congratulate the nominees on these prestigious and well-deserved awards with the express hope that even more educators will in time emulate these meritorious achievements.
We thank you for your commitment and encourage you to continue giving more to our children and sharing pearls of wisdom with other teachers.
To those who are about to be decorated this alone may be said, and we say it with the most entire conviction of its truth: well done and keep up the good work!!!!!
I thank you.
