It is, indeed, gratifying to host 20 school girls in my department today as part of our contribution to the “Take a Girl Child to Work” Campaign.
This illustrates our commitment as government to ensure that never again shall a girl child be subjected to oppression and related social ills, which impeded women’s progress in taking their rightful position in society.
Today, in support of this campaign, we are declaring our support to change our world through promotion of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous society.
Coincidentally, this year we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) and the 65th anniversary of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League, which requires all of us, especially the democratic government to deepen youth participation in the reconstruction and development of our country.
Our first step is to educate the youth about nation building, their role in building a caring society and encourage them to use their energies productively in order to salvage our country, our continent and the world from poverty and underdevelopment.
As leaders of tomorrow, young people must be encouraged to grow their knowledge about their obligation to others through investing their time and energies on activities that would bring about a better life for all our people.
Through this campaign, we want to expose young people, especially girl children from previously disadvantaged communities to different career paths. The intention is to ensure that they are well informed about their career choices so that they can be able to make wise decisions when they enter tertiary institutions.
As the democratic developmental state, we have observed that one of the critical challenges that continue to haunt our young democracy is to ensure proper alignment between the skills that our education and training system produces and the needs of a developing society and economy.
The transport sector of our economy has been hardest hit by this experience, which has prompted the Eastern Cape Department of Roads and Transport to mobilise young people of this province through innovative programmes to attract their interest in the transport related fields of study.
We strongly believe that central to any effort to overcome the scourge of poverty is the development of the human potential of our people through education and skills development.
Drawing on the short term interventions, which are envisaged in the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA) and those being coordinated under the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA), we have an obligation to upscale the ongoing work to ensure access to affordable, quality and economically-relevant education for all.
It has been a widely accepted fact that to achieve and sustain the growth of our economy, we need to invest heavily in education and skills, among other things.
Some of the critical areas include:
* high level, world class managerial, planning and engineering skills
* town, city and regional planning skills
* artisan and technician skills
* management and planning skills for public health and education
* mathematics, science, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and language competence teaching in public schools.
Today, we are making a commitment to ensure that we turn the situation around.
In order to broaden your understanding about this department, you were taken to various projects, including Bhisho Airport, where you saw young people, especially young girls from other countries who are being trained as pilots in your own backyard.
At Amabhele Station, I am sure you met young men and women, who are being trained as track welders, train controllers, train drivers and track masters.
We have many other projects, including roads construction learnerships for youth and training of young traffic officers in Port Elizabeth.
I hope you have enjoyed your day with us.
I thank you
Issued by: Department of Transport and Safety, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
28 May 2009
