P Mlambo-Ngcuka: Michaelhouse Speech Day

17 August 2006

The Rector, Guy Pearson,
The Bishop of Natal, Bishop Phillip Rubin,
Chair of the Board of Directors, Bruce Dunlop,
Members of the board of governors,
Visiting Heads of Schools,
Teachers,
Parents,
Senior prefects and prefects,
Students:

It is a singular pleasure for me to be with you here today on the most
important calendar day of Michaelhouse High School, when the school awards
those who have worked hard and have excelled in their various fields of
study.

I am touched and delighted to be part of the Speech Day and to present
prizes to the boys just when the school bids farewell to all those who will be
leaving either for tertiary institutions to further their studies or to join
the world of work. In particular those who will strive to be self employed, be
wealth creators, those who will be committed to the public service and those
who will be care givers. Aiming to get a degree or a job is a small ambition;
you must aspire to be your own bosses.

Our country has just celebrated two important events in our national
calendar. The 50th anniversary of the Women’s Day last week on 9 August and
before that the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of 16 June 1976.

Those two important days changed the course of history in our country and
left an indelible mark and made a lasting impact in the history of the struggle
for freedom. These historical landmarks should therefore be celebrated by your
generation and the generations to come.

We celebrate people who didn’t follow a path but who opened new pathways.
Many a times those paths are now footnotes of history.

I am raising these issues because it is a duty of any young learner to learn
from the history of their country and where they come from; in that way their
road to the future will be informed and hopefully they will be inspired to
stand up and be counted!

It is also important for you to understand the importance of our national
symbols, national anthem, coat of arms and to understand their meaning and
historic significance. For those things are meant to build a sense of identity
among our people and are instruments of nation building and reconciliation,
without this social cohesion all of us we can have no peace and harmony and
nation to boast about. What each one of us does counts!

It is important that as you stay in this island of bliss far from the
turbulence that many public schools face you identify, integrate and embrace
your country and its national symbols and its challenges.

As it was expressed by the founding father of this institution, founder
Canon James Cameron Todd, on Speech Day 1897 when he said (I quote): "Our aim
is to make not accountants, not clerks, not doctors, not clergymen but men -
men of understanding, thought and culture," close quote.

In a recent award-winning book about Anglican schools in Natal, the author
Robert Morrell writes as follows:

“Michaelhouse [founded 1896] was built along the lines of Eton and
Winchester to ‘promote the idea of a learning community’ not individual and
recluse scholars or individualistic. James Todd, believed that classics and
maths were essential for ‘producing men of understanding, thought and culture’.
On the other hand and I disagree with him, he had a deep disdain for applied
subjects like shorthand and bookkeeping.”

Education was an integral part of social engineering in colonial times and
these schools were the cradles of masculinity and the subordination of
women.

It is not difficult to understand why I would feel excluded from such a
school tradition!

Many independent schools played an important role in education under
apartheid and most have embraced our new constitutional order with enthusiasm.
It is this tradition and ethos of independent schools that we are here to
celebrate.

Twinning

In the new South Africa we seek to build bridges between the public and
private schools. I firmly support the “twinning” projects that are currently in
place between various schools. Especially if they are focused and of a
strategic intervention nature. For instance when every partnership utilises the
strengths of each partner as part of a well-crafted process of learning and
development for all sides.

Entrenching interdependence and understanding must mean caring for others
less fortunate than you and understanding their circumstances, thought culture
and predicament. Because if you understand the circumstances you will be able
to help them in the manner they wish to be assisted. You will do things with
them and not for them. You will not patronise them after all some of them may
in future be your leaders in business, government and society.

The Department of Education has to focus on consolidation and the provision
of quality education. Quality improvement throughout the system will remain
high on the agenda over the next five years.

Our vision is of a quality education system in which all our people will
have access to lifelong education and training. Implementation of this vision
requires that all our children enjoy access to well-resourced schools run by
enthusiastic teachers. It also requires creating conditions for ensuring that
South Africa has the high-level skills that will encourage innovation,
creativity and growth in our economy. But of that innovation is producing young
people as envisaged by Todd, who will leave school with higher ambition that
getting a university degree or to be employers. Further we face a challenge of
moving our attention from universities to Further Education and Training (FET)
colleges and to respond to scarce skills as per Joint Initiative on Priority
Skills Acquisition (JIPSA).

Our young people need to emerge from our schooling system proudly South
African and with the potential to compete globally. We intend to create a
further education and training system ready to equip youth and adults to meet
the social and economic needs of the 21st century. Starting with identified
scarce skills which are:

* High level, world class engineering and planning skills for the ‘network
industries’ transport, communications and energy all at the core of our
infrastructure programme.
* City, urban and regional planning and engineering skills desperately needed
by our municipalities.
* Artisan and technical skills with priority attention to those needs for
infrastructure development.
* Management and planning skills in education, health and in
municipalities.
* Teacher training for mathematics, science, information and communication
technology (ICT) and language competence in public education.
* Specific skills needed by the priority Accelerated and Shared Growth
Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) sectors starting with tourism and business
process outsourcing (BPO) and cross-cutting skills needed by all sectors
especially finance, project managers and managers in general.
* Skills relevant to local economic development need of municipalities
especially developmental economists.

* The vision is to produce leaders through education and to enhance the
potential of young people. We also know good education does not produce best
and good leaders but it helps to do that.

You must know and learn about your country, love it and understand its
challenges and have the will to find solutions using the talents, skills and
passion to uphold the values of our new South Africa as reflected in our
constitution. Fight against the assault decay. Passing on these values is a
challenge to us in the education system. The challenge is to overcome the
racial and cultural divisions of the past. The challenge is to transcend race,
language, religion and culture.

Reconciliation, nation building and social inclusion are the values that we
must aim to promote in our schools. As parents, educators and learners being
proud South Africans and keeping your brother is part of the process of
creating an inclusive and sustainable democracy.

The promotion of the values of non-racism, non-sexism, gender equality,
equity, Ubuntu and respect are entrenched in the Department’s manifesto of
values. The challenge is to bring all these values to life and make them a way
of life.

Our languages need to have a special place.

In the past and currently, African languages are undervalued and
underdeveloped. Black South Africans had little choice over the language in
which they would be instructed. It has been crucial to redesign our language
policy so that it reinforces an inclusive approach to cultural identity and
better vision. We now have a policy of mother tongue instruction in the
foundation phase and the encouragement of multilingualism throughout a child’s
school career. The absence of such a policy a policy has had a negative impact
on our language policy seeks to achieve a number of important imperatives.

The policy recognises that past policy and practice has disadvantaged
millions of children and it also promotes the effective learning and teaching
of the previously neglected indigenous languages of South Africa.

The policy has not enjoyed a prominence similar to that given to other
policy shifts in education. The policy does not, as some have claimed, deny
children the opportunity to acquire English or any other second language.

Rector, we need to assist the children to grasp better complex concepts in a
language they understand better.

Second, all young people should be able to speak and write in a language
other than their mother tongue.

Third, young people need to have the ability to communicate in a third
indigenous language.

The development of communicative ability, in at least, one African language
for all South African children is a goal we must embrace as part of building
our nation and building capacity to effective citizenship.

The major obstacles we face in promoting mother-tongue learning are that the
many of parents still prefer their children to be taught through the medium of
the English language and the elite attitude of schools and governing bodies
towards African languages is backwards.

So, what have I been trying to tell you?

1. Understanding that thought and culture is important. It means that your
education must be a stepping stone not towards getting a job but to make you a
better person.

2. You must aim to create a path not follow one. Education must help you to
be a job creator rather than a job-seeker. You must find a niche in life.
Education is not everything, values are more important.

3. It must mean that you must be your brothers’ keeper and that you can make
a difference in your society. With good education you can go very far for
yourself but with good education, thought, culture you can change the lives of
many people.

4. We know that many people who are our torch bearers today, who have given
us a democratic country, did not have as much education but they had thought
they stepped in the forefront with limited education but they have made a
tremendous difference. The light in you must shine for others. You can even go
further in future if you dare! You can make that choice teachers and parents
can help or inhibit you so you have to want to be more than a footnote.

The world is waiting for you to be a great South African to make a valuable
contribution in your country and a valuable member of society. We say you have
to enjoy your life and make a difference. You‘ve got time on your side.

God bless!

Issued by: The Presidency
17 August 2006