opening of Mandlakazulu Senior Primary School, KwaMashu
24 November 2007
MEC Ina Cronjè
Chairperson of the School Governing Body, Mrs M Ngema
Principal, Mr T B Nzuza
Members of the School Governing Body and School Management Team of
Mandlakazulu
It gives me great pleasure to be with you here today. Thank you for inviting
me.
I would like to begin by congratulating the Lindelani Community on taking the
initiative to establish a school.
It must be a great source of pride to all of you to have a school like this
after so long, with proper buildings, facilities and qualified staff. There is
no better way for a public school to take root, than to have it grow out of the
community. Your school governing body has created an important tradition and
legacy in bringing this school to life.
One of our key priorities as the Department of Education is to ensure that
all public schools have democratically elected school governing bodies to allow
full participation of parents and communities in the education of their
children. This is in line with the democratic values and principles of our
Constitution, that all stakeholders in education have the right to participate
in the activities of the school, and have a say in making decisions about ways
in which schools are run.
The South African Schools Act gave governing bodies considerable powers,
including setting school policy over uniform, language, admissions, religion,
behaviour and discipline as well as financial management of school
finances.
While the Act defined the powers of the governing bodies, it did not define
the powers and functions of principals. This is what the Education Laws
Amendment Bill, 2007 does, strengthening the role of the principal in both the
management of the school and in the process of learning and teaching.
The demand for professional school managers is growing. Too many of our
principals have not had proper management training. Many need support in
managing schools as learning environments, appropriate to a 21st century
African country.
Over the last thirteen years there has been a change in the prevailing forms
of management in line with the changes in the models of political leadership,
as the apartheid era ended and a new democratic era dawned. These have
increasingly led to changes in the culture of our education institutions.
However, the management of schools has not kept pace with this change; the
authoritarian management style is still practiced.
The Department of Education has piloted a qualification for principalship,
namely the Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE): School Leadership. If this
pilot is a success, the intention is to have an entry-level qualification for
principalship in future.
It has been a concern for some time that some of our schools are not safe
places and that our learners are badly behaved. To assist teachers and parents,
the Education Laws Amendment Bill, 2007 provides for the prevention of drug
abuse at school and the prohibition of dangerous weapons on school premises. We
all need to ensure that the conditions in our schools are conducive to a
positive culture of teaching and learning. Some educators and parents blame
poor discipline on the banning of corporal punishment. Surely teachers know
that the decision to end corporal punishment was not taken as an attempt to
make our schools ungovernable, but as a positive step taken to break the
vicious cycle of violent behaviour within South African society.
Corporal punishment was part of a bigger picture of an authoritarian
approach to managing the school environment. This was based on the view that
children need to be controlled by adults and that measures such as sarcasm;
shouting and other abusive forms of behaviour were appropriate ways of
correcting behaviour. Our view is that discipline rather than punishment must
be used proactively and constructively. In such a system, learners learn to
exercise self-control, respect others and accept the consequences of their
actions. This strategy requires parents to become actively involved in
disciplining their children.
The Department of Education has long provided guidelines on alternatives to
corporal punishment. This year we have also launched radio and TV advocacy
campaigns to make the communities aware of positive approaches to
discipline.
The purpose of these campaigns is to help educators and other members of the
school community to find constructive ways of building a culture of discipline
among learners: ways that will help to instill self-discipline in learners and
encourage them to realise their academic potential.
These approaches are informed by a belief that discipline should be part of
daily life for learners and educators. This is not a simple issue. It demands a
great deal of time, creativity, commitment and resources. We need the support
of parents at home. Parents need to be actively involved in the discipline of
their children, as they are the ones who are responsible for instilling ethics
and values within our young people outside of the school environment.
Our new curriculum supports this approach to discipline. The beginnings of
democracy in 1994 required an end to the apartheid era syllabi and the
introduction of a new curriculum. The first attempt at this was the ill-fated
Curriculum 2005. It was revised and the National Curriculum Statement that we
now have introduced.
Some teachers still struggle with the new curriculum, but the old debates
about the curriculum have become muted as teachers have become more familiar
with its requirements. All schools should have appropriate learning and
teaching support materials.
In closing, let me remind the pupils here today that there are now better
opportunities in the teaching profession than ever before, better training at
university, and most importantly full-cost service linked bursaries. More than
that, we place great emphasis on continuing professional education. Education
does not stand still. There are always better ways of teaching, better ways of
becoming better teachers, better and more enjoyable ways of learning.
So take the opportunities that the government has provided, make a
contribution to a better life for all of us.
I thank you all.
Issued by: Department of Education
24 November 2007
