Ceremony by Cameron Dugmore, Western Cape provincial Minister of
Education
17 August 2007
Judith O'Connell, National Business Initiative (NBI),
Melvin Caroline, Director of Education Management and Development Centre (EMDC)
East,
Nobantu Pasiya, Director of the Cape Teaching Institute (CTI),
Teachers,
Michael Le Cordeur: EMDC West Coast/Winelands
It gives me real pleasure to be here today. I am an admirer of the work of
the NBI and its EQUIP programme. And I am very proud of the work of the Cape
Teaching Institute which received a deserved bronze award as part of the
Western Cape Premier's Service Excellence Awards. I have been putting pressure
on the CTI to consider expansion, in fact, into becoming the "Cape Teaching and
Leadership Institute" and look forward to the day when that might become a
reality.
But today, the people I am proudest of are those who will be awarded
certificates for completing their eight-module Leadership and Management Course
for HODs. I acknowledge those of you here who are HODs already and those of you
who are Post Level 1 teachers who have grasped this opportunity to enhance your
skills. It takes a special person to sacrifice private time - time over
weekends and holidays - to complete a demanding study programme. I salute you
all. Maybe, in the not too far distant future you will be on this stage again
when you complete your 'Induction programme for newly appointed Deputy
Principals', and again when you earn your 'Advanced Certificate in Education
for Principals'. Or maybe you will be here cheering on your colleagues as they
complete their 'School Business Leadership Course' which will soon be offered
by the CTI in co-operation with NCSL (UK).
Times have not been easy in education this year. Some older teachers would
complain that they have not been easy since the new curriculum was initiated.
Those who have been in service for longer will talk angrily about the loss of
teacher posts during the time of retrenchments. It is true that opportunities
for promotion have seemed to have been limited over the last decade. Teacher
cutbacks meant that there was little movement between schools. People in posts
stayed in them, in fact.
Ambitious teachers like you, people who really wanted to lead and to make a
difference have often found themselves sidelined. And in a profession dominated
by women, it must have been frustrating for women to see promotion posts going
to men with such monotony. I am happy to say that I think that we are on the
threshold of a new period. The tightening up of performance appraisal with the
introduction of the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) is a good
start. We are setting performance objectives and expecting our supervisors to
assume responsibility for the training or upgrading needs of their staff.
Employment Equity targets are driving the filling of promotion posts. With new
model of the 'Senior Teacher,' where a teacher will be able to advance in
status and salary but not have to leave the classroom to become an
administrator, I think we are making a real breakthrough.
Ladies and gentlemen, I want to say today that I do believe that being a
teacher is a vocation. And that we need it to be a vocation in fact. It's never
just a job. We don't want people teaching our children if they don't want to be
teachers. If they are just killing time and waiting for payday. We don't want
people teaching our children who choose to close their eyes to our children's
hurts, to their needs, to their hunger. We don't want people teaching our
children if they don't know how to handle their classes.
We need people like you. People who are full of joy about the role of the
teacher. People who embrace the various roles of the teacher. People who even
go so far as to study further to upskill themselves. I say again - I applaud
you, today. I wonder how many of your schools are implementing 'catch up'
programmes after the industrial action? This is part of the complexity of being
a teacher, isn't it? On the one hand you've been out on the streets campaigning
for a better wage. On the other hand you have a vocation, you care about your
learners and you're doing all you can to make it up to them.
But we all know it's not enough just to have a vocation - you need an array
of hard skills as well. And because the role of teacher as social worker, as
counsellor, as caregiver is increasing and not lessening as time passes, the
range of skills required is taking on surprising directions. I know that the
EQUIP NBI course has been specially adapted to suit the needs of you, its
students. I'm pleased that you have been trained as both leaders and
managers.
Your school and your community are all part of a complex network of people
connected by a passion to get learning right for your group of learners. I want
to challenge all of you here to pledge today to go the extra mile for your
schools. You haven't just completed this course for yourselves. You now have
gifts and skills to share with others. I look forward, in fact, to hearing
about the impact you have made on your schools. I want to hear about school
turnarounds, about community turnarounds, about learning families and learning
communities all mobilised by the Class of 2007.
I thank Equip and the NBI for their work. I thank your schools for helping
afford you this opportunity. I thank your families for rendering support and I
thank you all for coming so far. I will watch your shadows stretch across those
whom you help and look for how you light the paths for others.
Issued by: Western Cape Provincial Government
17 August 2007
Source: Western Cape Provincial Government (http://capegateway.gov.za)
