Programme Director
All principals present
Senior officials
And staff,
Thank you for attending this seminar. Empowering women principals in public schools is key. This is a timely engagement. We celebrate a special women’s month, during the Centenary celebrations of women’s struggles for liberation.
This is the 100th year since the historical march of women in 1913 against the extension of pass laws to women and against the draconian 1913 Land Act that dispossessed the African people of their birthright to land.
As we recall these momentous events encompassing the 9 August 1956 women’s march, we take stock of where we are on women’s empowerment and gender equality. 9 August is an important day in the history of our country. It was on this day that 20 000 women marched to the Union Buildings against the proposed passbooks for women and unjust laws.
In August we remember the brave marchers who were led by Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophie Williams. We pay tribute also to generations of women who gave their lives for freedom. I’m therefore excited that today’s event focusing on empowerment of women leaders is located in this period, just so we can renew our resolve to take the baton from our country’s gallant women.
There’s much to celebrate. We noted on Wednesday when we had a Women’s Day Debate in Parliament the great advances we have made since 1994. We welcomed the growing representation of women in Parliament, now beyond 40%.
But we also said there are areas calling for more action. The workplace is one of them. And thus we welcomed the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill. Once passed it will help enforce gender equity in the private and public sectors. On 1 August, as the Council of Education Ministers we noted positive developments on women’s empowerment in the sector.
This was occasioned by the appointment of two women MECs for education – Mrs Dikeledi Magadzi in Limpopo and Mrs Wendy Matsemela in the North West. This is progress.
Programme Director,
As the country recalls achievements of women, this seminar affords us an opportunity to celebrate and encourage the advancement of women who are currently in school leadership positions across provinces.
I believe we have among us innovative principals, the cream of our women teaching-force. And so this encounter should create very creative opportunities for networking and information-sharing, with the very best among us. This seminar should provide a platform for you to engage and together explore your working environment, challenges, roles and how to sustain leadership initiatives. These are vital for both self-development and quality-add in the classroom.
For me what happens in the classroom is always key. The extent to which we’re empowered as women leaders influences our output and value-add in our schools and communities. It is important for the provision of quality education to all children. Educating a woman is educating a nation. That has not changed as yet. We must capitalise on it.
This seminar is meant to kick-start a process in which women principals will establish communities of practice for themselves and for others, for empowerment and capacity-building. It is intended to create an environment that will help increase the number of females in leadership positions within education.
This requires the development of informal and formal networks to which women managers could turn for mutual solidarity and support. We’ve done this with District Directors when we institutionalised our meetings with them. It works superbly.
You may be asking ‘why now?’ You’d know that for a long time women have occupied lower positions in our schools and elsewhere in society. The situation is worse in secondary schools where the majority of principals, their deputies and heads of department are male.
This is a cause for concern particularly because women constitute the majority in society and in the education sector in particular. Census 2011 did show that women are in the majority. This should be reflected in all sectors of society, even in schools. Female teachers overwhelmingly dominate the ranks of teaching as there are 257 633 female teachers (68.3%) and 119 579 male teachers (31.7%) in public schools in the country.
However, current stats reveal that there are only 8 210 female principals and 14 337 male principals appointed in permanent posts. Female principals represent only 36.4% of all principals in the country. 63.6% are male.
Records also reveal that the majority of female principals (that is 57.6%) is between 50 and 59 years old followed by 31.4% of those who are in the 40 to 49 age group. Only 2.2% of women principals are in the 30-39 years age group. Clearly these figures are not representative of government’s vision of redressing gender equity in the employment of women managers, in particular school principals.
The situation is even compounded by the fact that our system is not doing much to attract younger female principals between the ages of 30 and 39 years.
Programme Director,
Challenges facing women leaders often differ from those facing their male-counterparts, just as in any other patriarchal society. Studies show barriers for females and persistent attitudes inhibiting them from assuming more leadership roles.
You know that traditional identities and roles associate women with parenting and nurturing, and men with paid employment. Thus to this day and age women are still less paid than men. Societies worldwide have internalised these gender roles. This is why gender roles play out, unconsciously, as part of the effects of power in a manner best explained by Michel Foucault in his theses on disciplinary power in Discipline and Punish.
Due to current challenges facing women leaders, some women are even reluctant to take on leadership roles in education. For the democratic state gender equality is key to transformation and development. The Bill of Rights contains an equality clause, embracing all people.
The Employment Equity Act of 1998 further spells out the need to include women in sectors where they’ve been previously excluded. Out department recognises the critical role women leaders play in all spheres of life.
We believe women are critical influencers of social development within communities and contribute significantly to the country’s productive life. Thus the need for further empowerment. Our department wants to create and sustain more leadership opportunities for women.
We remain committed to increasing women’s participation in formal and informal leadership roles across the country and to strengthening women’s participation in decision-making and community-building. In 2002 we introduced a training programme known as Women In and Into Management and Leadership Positions. It was a management and leadership capacity-building programme.
Its aim was to support potential and women managers in the sector and was well-received by participants across provinces. It is vital to assist you as women leaders to perform your duties efficiently and with confidence. But self-development is each individual’s responsibility, mainly in education. We’re thought-leaders. We should ourselves learn and lead by example.
In a nutshell then, this engagement that we plan to institutionalise is intended to initiate a programme for empowering women principals in their management and leadership roles, by among others things, enhancing skills. Granted, the Women In and Into Management and Leadership Positions took the form of structured lectures, with course material.
The programme we’re proposing today will focus on ensuring that as women principals you receive sustained support. Networking will be a key feature of this process. Hence the theme we’re presenting is: “Female Principals Working Together to Inspire Others.”
COSAS would have said: “Each One Teach One!”
The envisaged support will take cognisance of social dynamics and obtaining power structures such as persistent patriarchy and gender socialisation. We hope to assist in enabling all women principals to sharpen their skills and understand deeply the nature of their administrative as well as management roles as leaders.
Our mandate being to improve basic education quality, of importance would be to bring all principals to that fundamental understanding of their role as leaders of the curriculum. As a department we remain committed to increasing women’s participation in formal and informal leadership roles.
In sum, colleagues, this seminar should mark the beginning of a process leading to the development of an effective leadership support system for women school principals through mentoring and participation in learning communities. The sooner we do these things the better. The stakes are high in the country. We’ve got to move education quality even further up from where it is currently.
We’ve got to present improved learning outcomes as demanded nationally for the improvement of education, innovation and skills development. We’ve got to create schools that work, and turn every school into a centre of excellence. This is what President Jacob Zuma called for in the 2013 State of the Nation Address.
We’ve got to make a good start for the next academic year. We need to ensure a smooth roll-out of the revised CAPS in the Senior Phase and Grade 12. We need to fill vacant posts ensuring that when schools reopen in 2014 there is a teacher in front of every class.
We need to prove that the over 114 million national workbooks we’ve produced are value for money and are indeed put to good use by teachers, learners and parents. Where we’re building schools, these should optimise school functionality.
Programme Director,
I’m saying these things because if we do not improve leadership and management capacity, all of these priorities will not see the light of day. This process we’re initiating today is therefore important in that it will afford us as school principals another arena for exploring our challenges, turning them into opportunities and sharing good practices.
Colleagues,
These are some of the thoughts from our side. Their enrichment and enhancement rest in your hands. You go through this situation each livelong day. You should therefore be able to tell us what will work for you best to improve your working conditions and leadership for better schools.
I look forward to fruitful discussions!
