Programme Director
Your Royal Highness, Kgosi Ramokoka
Premier of NW Province, Mrs Thandi Modise
CEO of PPC Cement
MEC for Education, Mr Raymond Elisha
Executive Mayors and Councillors
Principals, Teachers, Parents, Learners and Officials
Distinguished Guests,
We’re here precisely because Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) has done the most honourable deed expected of any proud and patriotic entity that cares for people and communities in which it does business.
I felt extremely proud on being told that PPC has successfully completed the construction of this new modern school for the people of Ramokokastad, in the North West Province. The cost of the entire project is R3.9 million. From this investment, children from Grade R to 6 will learn in a proper school.
The brand-new Ramokoka Primary School boasts 10 new spacious classrooms, a fully-furnished library, an administration block, a computer lab, a nutrition centre, decent toilets, water and electricity. Indeed it opens doors of learning and culture by restoring universal values of dignity and justice to the children!
Since 29% of PPC Beestekraal’s employees come from Ramokoka and surrounding areas, in essence PPC has ploughed back to its workers and their village. It has broadened prospects for the cultivation of future skilled labour for its operations in these parts of the country and elsewhere.
By extension, PPC has demonstrated that the broad goals of the New Growth Path are indeed achievable, with the necessary will and courage. Working together, with our eyes sharply on the spirit-level, we can create 5 million jobs by 2020.
You’ve redeemed the children from an old mud school which was built back in 1910, by German Lutheran missionaries.
The old mud school on the other side of the stream boasted nothing but poor facilities and unhygienic conditions which resulted in high absenteeism, high failure rate and associated problems.
PPC saved the children from a 24-28 km walk to school, each day, by bringing the school closer to the people.
I’m reliably informed that the resounding success of this project was due to partnerships with key stakeholders, like traditional leaders, the Moses Kotane Municipality, Adopt-a-School Foundation, the School Governing Body, Departments of Education, Mineral Resources and Public Works.
What the Handover of Ramokoka says to us is that PPC embraces openly, by word and deed, the dynamic social compact between government, business and broader civil society, for the benefit of the whole of society.
Relocating and building this school constitute a noble and welcome gesture that will go down in history as a towering example of partnership in action. It gives impetus to the drive for high-quality education for all.
Most importantly, PPC has advanced the primary goals of democratic South Africa – economic empowerment, development and job creation.
This school is a product of a community-based approach in the spirit of the 1990s’ Reconstruction and Development Programme which called for people-centred initiatives. Parents of learners and community members built the school. Another spin-off for society and the economy was job-creation, including 65 temporary jobs, and sustaining jobs of teachers.
Undoubtedly, all these efforts advance the Morogoro ANC Strategy and Tactics document of 1969, which says:
- “Our drive towards national emancipation is in a very real way bound up with economic emancipation. We have suffered more than just national humiliation.
- “Our people are deprived of their due in the country’s wealth; their skills have been suppressed and poverty and starvation have been their life experience. The correction of these centuries-old economic injustices lies at the very core of our national aspirations.”
Central to our drive towards economic emancipation is the whole question of quality education and skilling our people who are “deprived of their due in the country’s wealth”.
PPC has made a very strategic investment choice by lifting Ramokoka from mud to modernity and development.
To the community and the school I want to say emphatically you have a huge responsibility arising from this investment. Take care of this school, these children, their education and their future.
Another key challenge at the level of primary education is to improve numeracy and literacy, particularly after the shock the system got from the 2011 Annual National Assessments.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Education Strategy 2011-2015 (2011: 10) says:
“There is widespread agreement that improving learning outcomes on a national scale, particularly in reading, requires simultaneous interventions at four levels:
- teaching and learning in the classroom
- effective school management
- national policy and structural reforms to support school and classroom level changes, and
- engagement and accountability by communities and the public at large.”
We’ve committed to deliver on the ‘non-negotiable’ of teaching and learning for at least 8 hours a day.
This year alone, we’ve provided high-quality workbooks to about 6 million learners. We’ve offered meals to over 7 million learners in more than 20 000 schools.
Measures are apace to usher in an era of “effective school management” by introducing performance contracts for principals and their deputies, better to ensure schools are run professionally like business entities. With this new education path, we want measurable results.
Following consultation with teacher unions, these measures will come to effect, and principals will be appraised according to their schools’ level of performance. Nothing will come of nothing as is presently the case.
Understanding the importance of reading and counting in “improving learning outcomes on a national scale”, we’ve developed and are finalising an Integrated National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy.
If we don’t get these things right the transformation we need to end poverty, to create decent jobs, and to arrest widening inequalities, will be hard to come by.
And so, this strategy, for literacy and numeracy, must help us address system deficiencies, including resource management, school and district management and leadership, focused and relevant support, accountability and monitoring.
We’ve initiated a very comprehensive framework for teacher development and training. It was launched in April 2011. My advice to all teachers here is that you must take advantage of all the development opportunities and training at your disposal.
Teacher unions have a critical role to play in this regard. We’ve got a joint responsibility to see to the development and wellbeing of teachers.
Located in the Foundation Phase, places upon you a heavy yet vital burden to perform. Twelve years down the line, when we release Grade 12 results, we’ll in effect point a finger at the quality of work you do at this level, as primary school teachers.
When we lament because half of the children registered for Grade 1 this year may not reach Grade 12, I think you should be even more worried and more resolved to do better, to raise the bar, for the good of the country, and for a better life for all.
You’ll be happy to know, as a country, we’ve made progress on meeting the Millennium Development Goals. South Africa has almost reached universal access of children to primary education. But quality and efficiency are still a challenge.
On gender equality, we’ve made inroads. But vestiges of apartheid inequalities haunt us. Premier Modise, in a Women’s Month message said: “Far too many women still live under conditions of poverty and deprivation. Far too many women still do not access government services. Far too many women are still victims of gender violence and economic exclusion.”
To build an all-inclusive and equal society means we must provide quality education for every child, in functional schools. We welcome the PPC-driven initiative because we’re committed to improving education quality through the provision of adequate infrastructure for all schools, among other things.
Since 1996, over 2 233 new schools have been constructed, about 73 214 additional classrooms have been provided, about 6 297 schools have been supplied with water and around 2 242 with sanitation and 11 574 with electricity.
There’s no debate our country needs more investment in school infrastructure both to satisfy the right to basic education and to improve quality. Thus we welcome the constructive partnership and corporate responsibility of PPC.
I must stop and give you a chance to enjoy the beauty weaved out of the magic of brick and mortar by the artful PPC. But first, I must strongly emphasise the importance of this “engagement and accountability by communities and the public at large”.
Education is a societal issue. Get involved! It is in our best interest to promote every child’s right to education. Against this background, I would like to extend a special word of gratitude to PPC. This is a perfect gift to the children for National Children’s Day!
All thanks to MEC Raymond Elisha for keeping exams on track in the province. Working together we can improve the quality of basic education and defeat the triple scourge of poverty, joblessness and inequality.
I thank you for your time and dedication to education.
