Keynote Address by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga at the 9th National Education Excellence Awards, held at ORT Premier Hotel, Gauteng
Programme Director,
Deputy Minister, Dr Makgabo Reginah Mhaule, MP Director General, Mr Hubert Mathanzima Mweli, All Education MECs and Heads of Departments, DDGs and District Directors,
Organised Labour, Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a distinct honour and privilege to address the 9th National Education Excellence Awards.
It fills me with immense pride to reflect upon our sector’s achievements over the past nine years, as showcased through the National Education Excellence Awards.
Just yesterday, the world paused to celebrate the exploits of all teachers.
World Teachers’ Day, an annual observance established in 1994, serves as a global platform to honour and appreciate the invaluable role of educators in shaping the future.
The event emphasises the profound impact teachers have on the holistic development of learners, nurturing them to be critical thinkers, global citizens, and leaders of the future.
The 2023 World Teachers’ Day theme, ‘The Teachers We Need for the Education We Want: The Global Imperative to Reverse the Teacher Shortage’, underscores a pressing global issue.
This theme not only draws attention to the importance of attracting, retaining, and supporting educators.
It also reaffirms the need to ensure every child worldwide has access to dedicated and qualified teachers, facilitating their growth in a decolonised, quality, public education environment.
Our work as education mandarins is still cut out for us. At a global level, the focus is to deal head on with the teacher shortages, promoting the teaching profession and enhancing the dignity of teachers.
Last week, the national executive (cabinet) congratulated the Minister of Basic Education for being chosen by the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Mr Antonio Guterres, to be part of the prestigious high- level panel for the Teaching Profession.
The profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has jeopardised many countries’ aspirations to achieve their UN-sanctioned Sustainable Development Goals.
In response, the UN Secretary-General held a Summit in 2022 at the UN Headquarters. Here, nations globally committed to allocating resources to revolutionise their education systems.
The Summit’s focus was primarily on addressing challenges like the shortage of qualified teachers and ensuring that vulnerable groups have access to quality education.
Additionally, they sought to mitigate school disruptions caused by pandemics, wars, natural calamities, and other repercussions of climate change.
Following the Summit, the UN Secretary-General assembled a distinguished panel to guide on strategies essential for the Summit’s recommendations’ fruition.
Two former presidents led the panel: Ms. Paula-Mae Weekes from Trinidad and Tobago and Ms. Kersti Kaljulaid from Estonia.
From a global pool of experts, only 17 of us were selected. This is a testament to our country’s standing and expertise.
The panel’s mandate was to deliberate on the insights from the prior Education Transformation summit. They zeroed in on themes such as:
- Reinventing the teaching profession.
- Directing investments towards teachers.
- Championing equity, diversity, and inclusion.
- Amplifying the prestige and dignity of the teaching profession.
- Enhancing teaching quality and promoting innovation through continuous training.
- Infusing humanity into teaching by ensuring decent working conditions.
- Cultivating leadership within teaching.
- Pushing for a student-centric approach in education technology.
- Reforming teaching via a renewed social contract for education, emphasising collective dialogue.
Key recommendations from the panel included:
- Urging governments to enact economic and social policies that bolster teaching and learning via equitable educational funding and promoting lifelong learning.
- Calling upon governments to ensure the foundational rights for education and dignified employment for teachers are upheld, in line with international standards.
- Highlighting the need for mechanisms involving pertinent financial bodies, teacher organisations, and other stakeholders to address the dearth of suitably trained teachers.
- Emphasising that the esteem and honour of the teaching profession must be safeguarded and elevated.
- Recommending the development of policies which reinforce teacher autonomy within the broader scope of education and cultivate an environment of mutual trust and respect among educators, school authorities, students, and communities.
The comprehensive set of recommendations will soon be accessible on the Basic Education Department’s website.
Still, on the topic of teachers, the ANC-led Government has made significant strides through the Funza Lushaka Bursary Scheme.
Since the scheme's inception in 2007, it has overseen the training and integration of a remarkable 52,099 teachers through to 2023.
Earlier today in Durban, I unveiled a ten-year review of the Funza Lushaka Bursary.
This is arguably one of the most positive narratives (Good Story to Tell), following the success of this government's social wage coverage and social housing policies.
Remarkably, we have successfully invested over 13 billion rands in training new educators without any wastage or the slightest hint of scandal.
Furthermore, yesterday, we celebrated the outstanding contributions of our educators through the National Teaching Awards.
This glittering event was a testament to our teachers’ dedication, passion, and excellence.
It showcased their unwavering commitment to nurturing the minds and hearts of our learners.
The ceremony not only acknowledged their efforts but also inspired many to continue this noble profession with even greater zeal.
Ladies and gentlemen, today’s awards ceremony furthers our commitment to recognising and celebrating our educators, giving them their flowers while they are still with us.
These awards have experienced significant growth since we redirected our attention to the very core of our basic educational service delivery - the education districts.
Recognising and understanding the diverse and often challenging environments from which our educational districts operate has been pivotal in shaping the Excellence Awards’ journey thus far.
Today, we unveil the ninth instalment of the National Education Excellence Awards in the backdrop of significant fiscal constraints due to our nation’s sluggish economic growth.
Yet, the essential role of equipping our youth with the skills and competencies required for an ever-evolving world remains paramount.
Globally, education has emerged as a potent tool to address the pressing challenges of inequality, poverty, and unemployment.
It’s with this understanding that we extend our heartfelt gratitude and admiration for the unwavering excellence across all our 75 education districts.
A resounding congratulations to all finalists and recipients of the 2023 National Education Excellence Awards.
Your achievements resonate not only here but echo within the school communities and districts you diligently serve across South Africa.
True to what the renowned Irish poet, playwright, and prose writer W.B. Yeats, or William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), said: “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
Ladies and gentlemen, the foundation of any thriving educational system lies in the hands of its educators.
Therefore, teacher excellence in basic education is not merely a benchmark; it’s a lifeline.
When teachers excel, they don’t just impart knowledge; they ignite passion, instil discipline, and inspire continuous learning.
Their influence extends far beyond the confines of the classroom walls, moulding the minds and characters of young individuals, preparing them not just for exams but for life’s numerous challenges.
An excellent teacher, Programme Director, armed with the right tools, techniques, and temperament, possesses the power to bridge inequalities, level the academic playing field, and ensure every child, irrespective of background, has access to quality education.
The educator’s role goes beyond teaching curriculum content; they are mentors, guides, and role models, fostering critical thinking, creativity, and a lifelong love for learning.
In basic education, mainly where foundational concepts are laid down, the role of an exceptional teacher/educator is vital.
It’s here that the trajectories of academic journeys begin that the tone for future success is set.
Still on the foundations of learning, since the Department of Basic Education was entrusted with the Early Childhood Development (ECD) function on 1 April 2022, both we and the Provincial Education Departments have been dedicated to maintaining seamless service delivery.
At the same time, we've pinpointed areas ripe for enhancement to ensure more promising developmental outcomes for our children.
Consequently, we are crafting a novel service delivery model, aiming to grant every South African child access to a comprehensive range of services, setting the stage for them to flourish.
This model is a carefully orchestrated blend, allowing families and caregivers to procure services suitable for the particular age and developmental stage of their children.
Moreover, we are actively refining registration prerequisites, positioning quality at the forefront. Simultaneously, we adopt a developmental stance, aiding ECD programmes to integrate into the government support network.
Ladies and gentlemen, at the heart of basic education reforms dubbed Education 2.0, is to address literacy foundations and ensure that by their tenth birthday our children can read for meaning.
We have since refined the reading sector plan, resulting in the development of a National Reading Literacy Strategy.
This strategy underscores African language epistemologies as the foundation for reading literacy instruction and methodologies in South Africa.
We're actively seeking input on our implementation plan and establishing its cost to the public purse.
Our updated Reading Literacy Strategy for 2024-2030 aligns with the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2021 recommendations from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).
It emphasises the significance of employing indigenous African language logic for reading instruction.
We are presently dissecting the implications of the PIRLS recommendations for our specific circumstances.
The IEA report advises a cautious approach to the South African PIRLS results, as a verification process is currently underway at the University of Pretoria.
Following a thorough review and internal dialogue about the verified data and PIRLS procedure, we will inform the public of our conclusions.
Programme director, the PIRLS report has instilled in us an immediacy to address the matter of Language in Education.
To date, African Languages haven't been adopted as languages of Learning, Teaching, and Assessment (LoLTA) beyond Grade 3, unlike English and Afrikaans.
The PIRLS outcomes empirically highlight the benefits English and Afrikaans speakers consistently derive from mother tongue education.
It's now essential for the sector to extend similar advantages to African languages, aiming for equal recognition.
Both the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996) and the Language in Education Policy (LiEP, 1997) provide the framework to champion and institute multilingual education.
It's vital for everyone to understand and back this profound change.
Meanwhile, I will liaise with the Minister of Higher Education to ensure that both Initial Teacher Education and professional development resonate with this new direction.
It's imperative for publishers, literacy organisations, and partners to gear up, ensuring the availability of age-suitable reading resources that mirror South Africa's cultural mosaic.
Therefore, active involvement of parents, stakeholders, and community figures is central to the revamped National Reading Literacy Strategy.
Each one of us has a pivotal role.
We are in the process of methodically introducing Mother Tongue-based Bilingual Education (MTbBE) per grade level annually, targeting completion by primary school end (Grade 6) across all nine provinces.
By 2025, Grade 4 will be introduced in the majority of indigenous African languages predominant in each province.
Lastly, in an age of rapid technological advancements and evolving societal norms, the importance of teacher excellence in basic education cannot be overemphasised.
Today’s teachers are preparing students for a world in continuous flux, jobs that haven’t been created, and challenges that haven’t been foreseen.
Thus, their excellence ensures not just the dissemination of knowledge but the cultivation of adaptability, resilience, and global citizenship in the leaders of tomorrow.
Your tangible differences and positive impacts on the educational landscape are commendable.
A heartfelt thank you to you, your teams of officials, teachers, support staff, and collaborative partners. The accolades you’ve received tonight testify to your dedication and the transformative results we are celebrating.
Congratulations once more to our districts and schools that consistently exemplify excellence and to those newly recognised for their outstanding performance.
I wish you continued success. Re a leboga.
