Program Director
MEC for Education
Principals
Councillors
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is a commonly held view that the development and growth of the country is to a greater extent dependent on the kind of investment the country makes into the education of its children and people in general. This view holds more sway for the nations that are striving to pull themselves out of the abyss of underdevelopment and poverty.
Our nation is no exception. We have just emerged from the racially polarised past which perpetuated uneven development and inequalities that continue to haunt us even today, eighteen years into democracy.
These inequalities were more pronounced in the education system which balkanised our schools and classrooms such that the education of the black African child was systematically stifled and neglected.This systematic exclusion and neglect did not only affect the targeted group but the required development and growth of our country. Since the majority of the available human resource was never adequately harnessed, it resulted in serious lag in areas of science and technology.
What we know and understand is that the challenges we face today require a paradigm shift, a fresh approach that will yield the desired results. As in the wise words of Albert Einstein, “No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it. We need to see the world anew.” Einstein’s words remain relevant and true to our conditions in South Africa and Gauteng in particular.
We are in a province that pumps and supply blood for the sustenance of the entire country. Gauteng is highly industrialised yet the gap between the skills required by the economy and human resource development is huge. The gap is even more yawning when considering that we are fast becoming knowledge-based economy which demands a different set of skills and capacity.
Moreover, we are a province that has positioned itself as the Global City Region (GCR) competing with the best in the world.However, it is one thing to claim the tag and another to fit and suit the tag. What we are working on as the provincial government is to carve the path and implement strategies that will enable us to fit perfectly into the GCR tag.
As we strive for the attainment of our strategic goal we are fully conscious of our shortcomings and challenges. It is for this reason that we resolved amongst other thingsto establish the GCR Academy, under the auspices of the Gauteng Department of Education, to drive the implementation of the Gauteng Human Resource Development Strategy (GHRDS).
The strategy provides a framework for the development of the skills that the Global City Region requires in driving the economic growth and social transformation. The strategy (GHRDS) calls for the implementation of the talent pipeline as well as harnessing priority skills that will give Gauteng a competitive urge leading to growth and development.
In responding to the above mentioned requirements, the Academy has the responsibility of implementing the Bursary program, career education for grade 8 and 9 as well as skills development initiatives targeting young people between the ages of 18 to 35.
In the previous financial year the Academy made available bursaries to top 4 learners in quintile 1 schools and 3 to quintile 2 schools respectively. In that year a total of 1 470 learners including tool, die and mould learners benefited from the program.
This process of allocation of bursaries involved District Directors, principals and lay councillors as a direct link to the Academy. Lay councillors were of great assistance in that they collated matric data base with clear details of the learners and submitted the information to the Academy in time for consideration. Consequently, there was a vast improvement in terms of the number of learners who applied to institutions of higher learning when compared to the previous years.
The Academy was in a better position to track the top 3 learners after the announcement of the matric results and issue letters of bursary award on time.
The budget allocation for financial assistance (bursary) has grown from 15 million in 2008/9 financial year to 120 million for 2012/13 financial years. The growth allows the Academy to adjust and increase the bursaries awards to learners in line with inflation and university annual fee increases. Furthermore, it also provides the Academy with the latitude to increase the number of new beneficiaries thus contributing to poverty alleviation and skills development.
For the Academic year 2012 a total number of 1269 bursaries will be allocated to no fee paying schools and 302 for tool, die and mould project.A total of 100 bursaries will be made available for the deserving matriculants in the Academic Year 2012.
The bursaries will be received by learners who, inter alia, meet the following criteria:
- Must be unemployed and be in the process of acquiring a Grade 12 Certificate or equivalent.
- Top 3 learners in no fee paying schools.
- South African citizen.
- Preference will be given to individuals from previously disadvantaged communities (i.e. parents or guardians earning meagre income, or destitute).
The awarding of bursary, I must emphasise, comes with a package of conditions aimed at instilling discipline, hard work, honesty and commitment. The applying bursary conditions are as follows:
- The Academy does not pay for failed subjects as well as those learners who failed completely and require re-registration with Institution of Higher Learning.The Bursary will be liable for the payment of any repeated subjects or courses.
- The Bursary Award will not be paid directly to the beneficiary but will be disbursed to a financial institution and or Institution of Higher Learning where the beneficiary is enrolled.
- The Bursar is not receiving any other financial assistance from any Government Department, Business or any other Institution, unless otherwise if the amount provided by the GCR Academy does not cover all the financial needs of the Bursar.
- Bursars are expected to do community service from their second year of study in any government institution as approved by Academy.
- The Bursary Award covers, amongst other things, tuition fees, prescribed text books, accommodation and meals.
We believe that it is about time that we all put and direct our energies to the education of the African child whose development will place the country in an enviable position amongst the self-respecting nations of the world. It is only when we work together as government, community and business that we can make light the burden of an African child. It is only when we share the same dream that more can be achieved.
Transformation that enriches all areas of our lives will be accelerated if we all work for one mission.
In a nutshell, what the country cries out for which is aptly expressed by Learning to learn, a respected group of educationists of South Australia,“ We need a metamorphosis of education - from the cocoon a butterfly should emerge. Improvement does not give us a butterfly only a faster caterpillar.'Such radical outlook can only be effected by an equally changed mind.
Dankie. Ngiyabonga.
