Address by Gauteng Premier David Makhura, at the opening of The Africa Reggio Emilia Alliance International Conference on the Reggio Approach; St Mary’s School, Waverley
Programme Director, Bishop Gill Lee;
Bishop Peter Lee and Rev Roger Cameron;
Mrs Des Hugo, Headmistress of St Mary's Junior Primary and Founder of Africa Reggio Emelia Alliance;
His Excellency Ambassador and Veteran of the Liberation Struggle, Uncle Tony Mongalo and Mrs Lilian Mongalo;
Dr Allessandro Costa, the First Secretary (Commercial) at the Italian Embassy;
Mr Lebogang Montjane, Executive Director of the Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa;
Members of the Board of the Africa Reggio Emilia Alliance;
Members of the Board of St Mary’s School;
Ms Tiziana Filippini from Reggio Children, Italy; Ms Sausan Burshan from Mexico;
Ms Monika Seyrl from Austria;
Maurizio Mariano, Leader of the Italian Section of the Hellenic, Italian and Portuguese Alliance;
Honoured Guests and Distinguished Delegates:
Thank you for the opportunity to address this important conference focusing on the Reggio Approach to learning and teaching. Education is one societal matter too important to leave to government alone; a matter too crucial for government to leave to the private sector and civil society.
Over the next three days, you as the delegates will spend time at this Conference sharing views and exchanging information on the Reggio perspective to learning and teaching. Undoubtedly, there will be reflection, debate and discourse on the best practice that can be gleaned from the Reggio experience and ways to apply these lessons under different country specific contexts.
Ultimately, your goal in this Conference is to build more centres of excellence within our education system, especially in the early childhood development and primary education. This is goal we share.
Distinguished delegates, as we gather here today, let us summon the spirit of the Founding Father of our democracy, President Nelson Mandela who said: “Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farmworkers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another”.
The Reggio Emilia Alliance has a noble mission: to give our children a head-start in life, to place them on an equal footing with their counterparts anywhere in the world, to unleash their potential and to mould them to become better citizens of a better world. And according to Nelson Mandela, ”Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.
Programme Director, as we begin this Conference, let us also recall that the people of the City of Reggio Emilia in Italy, from where the Reggio approach originates, demonstrated an incredible act of human solidarity in support of the struggle for liberation in our country.
I would like to thank the visionary leaders and the kind people of this great City for their profound foresight, deep compassion and strong bonds of friendship.
As we tackle new challenges of the new era, we derive inspiration to work in the development of our children and the young people of the world, who are our future.
It fitting and proper that your Conference takes place during the Youth Month. During this month as South Africans we honour the sacrifices of our young people of our country, many of whom paid with their dear lives, for us to a free nation.
During this month, we rededicate ourselves to the development of young people as the single most investment that any wise nation has to undertake. I can say without fear of contradiction, that there is no better way to advance the development of our young people than to provide them with quality education starting from early childhood development.
As government, we identify fully with the Africa Reggio Emilia Alliance’s vision to improve the lives of the children of South Africa through quality education and by proving an innovative approach to learning and teaching.
We acknowledge the work you are doing to support educators from disadvantaged backgrounds, making it possible for them to offer quality education to our kids, especially in the townships. Turning township schools into centres of educational, cultural and economic excellence is an objective of the Gauteng provincial government, which I have the distinct honour and privilege to lead.
We are also inspired by your insistence on the involvement of parents and the community at large in the education of their children. This is in line with our belief that education is a societal issue.
Programme Director, as the Gauteng Provincial Government we remain committed to investing in the development of our young people.
This commitment has found expression in, among others, the goal we have set for ourselves that by 2009 we will have achieved universal access to Grade R. In this regard, work is underway to train and properly equip our Grade R educators. We are determined to improve the infrastructure of ECD centers, formalise these centers, train ECD educators and standardise their remuneration.
We are also intervening through a range of other services, such as no- fee schools and our homework assistance programme, to support learners, especially those from poor communities, so that their place in life is not determined by their background but by their effort.
We are also moving with speed to introduce new technologies in the education system in order to enhance learning and teachning, including in township schools.
We continue to strengthen School Governing Bodies in order to enable greater participation by parents in the education of their children. Communities must be involved in the proper functioning of their schools.
We want our children to grow up understanding that we want to build a better Africa and a better world wherein we live side by side in peace and friendship.
We want our children to grow up knowing that they are their brothers and sisters’ keepers. We want an education system that teaches our children the values of tolerance, respect and above all, human solidarity.
I would like to commend Africa Reggio Emilia Alliance’s contribution to the educational development of the youth of the world.
You are driving major innovations that have profoundly changed the way in which learning and teaching should take place. In particular, you are the pioneers in early childhood development and primary education.
Let me conclude, once more by quoting Nelson Mandela: “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats its children”.
As the Gauteng provincial government, we would like to work with you to improve the quality of education in our province.
I wish you all a successful Conference and would like to know about the outcomes of thereof.
God Bless You! God Bless Africa!
Thank you.
