N Pandor: Eric Moloto Foundation annual bursary award ceremony and
career exhibition

26 March 2007

Honourable Premier of the Limpopo province
Honourable MEC for Education in Limpopo
Traditional Leaders
Chairperson of the Eric Moloto Foundation
Distinguished guests
Learners and young people

A re lot�heng! Dumelang! Good day!

Thank you for inviting me to participate in the Eric Moloto Foundation's
annual bursary-award ceremony and career exhibition today. It is always a
heartening and fulfilling experience to see the spirit of community members who
strive to make our country a better place for all. I would like to take this
opportunity to applaud the founders of the Eric Moloto Foundation for their
commitment, passion and motivation to developing our communities.

I see that many young people have taken time out during their school
holidays to attend this career exhibition. This speaks to the commitment and
desire for knowledge among our young people. The more enlightened you are the
better your ability is to make informed choices and decisions in life. Use this
moment and time wisely to gain important information about available career
opportunities. At this time in our history, perhaps more so than ever before,
young people must make the right decisions that will see them realise their
potential and prosper.

They need to develop their potential and nurture their talent for their own
sake as well as for the future of our country. All of us, in the private and
public sectors and in communities and families alike have a collective
responsibility to ensure that young people make the best of themselves. This
career exhibition plays an important role in guiding young people and
channelling their aspirations for the future. However, this career exhibition
also takes place in the context of unemployment and a skills shortage in our
country.

This peculiarity, unemployment coupled with a skills shortage is further
complicated by different access to opportunities for young people and women in
particular, in urban and rural communities. We need to expose young people to
opportunities that are available and encourage them to follow careers that
offer them good prospects for the future. Many careers today require a good
knowledge of mathematics and science. In fact, maths and science are
requirements for those careers that are most in demand at the moment. We are
short of engineers, scientists and accountants.

Our performance in mathematics and science as a country needs to be
strengthened. In 2006, only 25 000 candidates passed higher-grade mathematics
in the senior certificate exam, but over 100 000 learners passed standard-grade
mathematics. Many of these young people possessed the potential to pass
higher-grade mathematics. All that was required was an additional level of
support and encouragement to ensure that they succeeded. We have to work hard
to produce more young people with mathematical and scientific skills.

There are among us today young people who are in grade 12. They are part of
the last cohort of full-time learners in our public schooling system to study
for the senior certificate exam. Those who sit the grade 12 exam in 2008 will
write a new exam based on a new curriculum. My challenge to the grade 12 class
of 2007 is therefore the following. Give your studies all your attention to
ensure that the grade 12 class of 2007 will be remembered in history as having
achieved the best grade 12 results ever recorded in our democracy.

Those learners who are enrolled in standard-grade mathematics, but who can
take the subject at higher grade, please consider enrolling for higher grade.
It will mean hard and extra work. But the rewards are huge. Your success in
higher-grade mathematics will provide you with access to wider opportunities
than a standard grade pass. Grade 12 learners in 2008 will study for the
national Senior Certificate. The national Senior Certificate will be awarded to
learners who have attended and completed studies in the national curriculum
statement. We are proud of the new curriculum because it is a national
curriculum that provides training in skills required in the 21st Century, is
internationally benchmarked, as well as focuses on Africa and South Africa.

Young people in grade 10 and 11 in 2007 must make the best subject choices
to satisfy the requirements of the new curriculum in 2008 and after. As with
the current Senior Certificate, the national Senior Certificate will not allow
automatic access to higher education. So subject choices are important, along
with an appropriate level of performance in each subject. Higher education is
not the only choice open to school leavers.

Further Education Training (FET) colleges have been redesigned to teach
young (and old) people essential skills. In January 2007 we introduced a modern
vocational curriculum in the FET colleges. This curriculum will give impetus to
the skills-development programme we have launched. Vocational programmes
offered at the FET colleges include Engineering, Marketing, Information
Technology, Computer Science, and so on.

This is an avenue that we would like our young people to consider as we
consolidate and strengthen the skills campaign. Remember that the knowledge and
skills learners may be acquiring now will become outdated relatively quickly.
Remember also that learners can no longer expect to stay in one job for a
lifetime. Success and survival in the workplace will require that all of us
continually upgrade our skills and take responsibility for our own development.
The doors of learning and culture are increasingly open to all. Choose a career
to realise your potential and help our country become a force to be reckoned
with.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Education
26 March 2007
Source: Department of Education (http://www.education.gov.za)