The Minister of Basic Education, Mrs AM Motshekga, MP, wishes to recognise the contribution of all teachers, past and present on the occasion of World Teachers’ Day on 5 Oct. the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Oganisation/International Labour Organisation (UNESCO/ILO) inaugurated this day to commemorate the status of the teaching profession in 1966.
Across the world, all teachers who have made sacrifices, often under very trying circumstances and hardships, which ensure that their learners get quality education are recognised on this day. Their contributions to generations of learners should inspire all teachers to strive towards making a difference in their schools and to look forward to doing their work with pride, dedication and sense of duty that befits this noble profession.
The Minister, on behalf of the people of South Africa, wishes to recognise the significant role that teachers play in the upliftment and transformation of our society. This year, the Council of Education Ministers (CEM) has proposed that all teachers should celebrate not just one day in October but the whole month as a Teachers’ Month.
The Department of Basic Education is working hard to address the multiple and complex challenges that the education sector faces. The Department is working in close partnership with other key stakeholders in education and proactively creating opportunities to address these challenges.
The department looks forward particularly to strengthening its support for teachers. Last year, the department had a Teacher Development Summit which recommended that the country should develop a teacher development plan. A draft plan for teacher development arising from the summit has been developed that sets out ways of closing those gaps that we have in our schooling system. We hope all teachers will support the plan as it represents the outcome of collaborative work involving a range of role players across the teacher education and development spectrum in South Africa.
We also applaud the Education Labour Relations Council for spearheading the Teacher Laptop Initiative (TLI). We urge all teachers to avail themselves of this opportunity that has the potential to enhance their subject knowledge and their teaching in the classroom.
The Minister is also pleased that there has been a marked increase in the number of young teachers who are joining the profession having been assisted by the provision of full service bursaries through the Funza Lushaka Bursary Scheme. This initiative will go a long way towards assisting our schools with a sufficient supply of well trained teachers.
Finally, a day like this inspires us to focus attention on issues in education that are of national importance and to provide a platform to share experiences and best practices. Nationally, we all agree that the quality of education relies on the availability of quality teachers.
Teachers’ Month comes at a time when we have launched Let’s Support the Class of 2010 Campaign. This is a time when all South Africans should work together to support not only our learners but our teachers as well. As a society, we need to ensure that the goals we have set in our Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign are realised through making education a societal issue.
The Minister calls on fellow South African teachers and all education stakeholders to use this World Teachers’ Day commemoration to recommit ourselves to continue to build quality education for our learners and future generations.
Enquiries:
Hope Mokgathle
Cell:071 680 6849
Minister of Basic Education, Mrs AM Motshekga, MP, on the occasion of World Teachers’ Day, 05 Oct
