Awards
15 May 2007
Programme Director
Superintendent-General, Mr Rakometsi
Members of Executive Management
Members of Senior and Broad Management present
Members of District Management present
Departmental officials
Principals
Members of School Governing Bodies (SGBs)
Educators
Distinguished guests
Parents
Learners
Members of the media
It is a great pleasure and indeed an honour for me to be part of this event
that will contribute towards improving the quality of education of the Free
Staters, as we present Awards to the Best Performing FET Schools. Today we
recognise, affirm and celebrate those schools that have demonstrated
outstanding performance and consistency in terms of the National Senior
Certificate results. We are gathered here to celebrate the achievements of
schools that have refused to be labelled perpetual failures, schools that have
changed their course and improved their performance. These are the schools that
make us proud to be Free Staters and to be part of the momentous task to
reconstruct our province and country. Thus we are proud to be here taking part
in celebrating your excellence in the face of hardships.
Through these awards we wish to invigorate the school communities, bring a
sense of pride, confidence, focus, as well as a shared agenda for change and
improvement to all. The main purpose of the Best Performing FET Schools Awards
is to give recognition and reward those schools that are doing their best to
improve the quality of education despite the challenges that they have to
confront on a daily basis. The intention of this initiative is to stimulate
creativity and to release the potential of all our schools. We do this with the
full knowledge that demoralisation thrives in environments where good work is
not rewarded. Schools that raise the expectations of their learners have and
will achieve success.
The Best Performing FET Schools Awards is therefore an important part of all
our combined efforts to motivate and inspire our educators and learners in
order to raise the quality of education and to encourage individual schools to
innovate and improve their performance. These awards have truly left an
indelible mark to those who have received them before and inspired many more to
make their humble contribution towards the development of learners.
Ladies and gentlemen, the task of turning our education system around has
proved to be both long and onerous. Yet these awards prove that despite the
challenges we confront, we can and will achieve our goal of ensuring that all
our children have access to high quality education. I wish to point out that we
are paying so much attention to education because we believe that 'our freedom
as a nation would be incomplete without education and that our vision of
prosperity and sustainable development would also not materialise if we fail to
invest in education.'
To the schools that are receiving the awards this evening, I hope this
serves to motivate your teachers and students to do better in the future. I
would like to encourage you to go back to your districts and communities and
share with other schools your best practice. Your achievements must serve as a
source of inspiration to neighbouring schools. You must share selflessly and
work tirelessly to improve your performance as well as that of the schools
around you. You will be surprised to find just how much you will also learn
from them. To our educators present here and those that are at home, we are
fully aware of the challenges that you face. We salute your commitment to our
children and country. Your sacrifices do not go unnoticed by our department and
communities. Your support of our schools is an investment in the prosperity of
the future of our youth and country.
To the winners of the Best Performing FET Schools Awards, we say that this
award is an indication of your hard work and determination to succeed for the
betterment of our province and country. Let us also congratulate you for the
way in which your schools have been managed. We all know that without that
discipline you would not be here today. It is this discipline that you
cultivate in the minds of our youth that will make them responsible adults and
good citizens of our country. We are proud of you and there is a lot that other
schools can learn from you. We therefore urge you to be prepared to share your
experiences and tactics.
Programme Director, I have mentioned this before that our focus as the Free
State Department of Education is gradually shifting from merely producing
quantities towards quality education as well as quality results. It is
therefore, not just quantity we are concerned about, but also most importantly
the quality. It is important for us as a province to ensure that as our
learners graduate from high school, the value of their certificates is
recognised and therefore opens doors for them, thus making them the best among
the best.
By continuing to produce quality results, this will enable our learners to
qualify for entrance at institutions of higher learning and it could make
things easier for them in attracting sponsorship. Let us, therefore, as a
province, continue to instil confidence and a spirit of hard work and
dedication in our learners so that they will be able to face the outside world
as true ambassadors of this lovely province.
Quality education will empower us as a nation to raise our living standards,
to participate in the economic growth of the country and to compete in the
global economy. Indeed, there have been noticeable changes that confirm to us
that we are on the right track. We have continued to see effective teaching and
learning taking place in the majority of our schools, a rise in the quality of
the support provided to the schools and an improvement in the levels of
accountability throughout the system. The impact of these changes across the
education system cannot be underestimated.
Programme Director, one of our priorities as the Free State Department of
Education and as part of government, is to ensure that our children are given
the skills to empower them to compete at the highest level, with the best that
the rest of the world has to offer. We therefore need to inculcate the attitude
in our children from a very young age that education has value, that education
means empowerment, but that it also means hard work, dedication and sacrifice.
We all have to understand that education is a life long activity. In
conclusion, I wish to reiterate that in building our strengths and in tackling
our weaknesses we must clearly be guided by our own experience and knowledge
and by our vision of the institutions and the society we are trying to create.
At the same time, we need to have the wisdom and humility to draw on the
knowledge and experience and the resources of our partners and friends, both
locally, provincially, nationally, continentally and internationally.
I thank you
Issued by: Department of Education, Free State Provincial Government
15 May 2007
Source: Free State Provincial Government (http://www.fsdoe.fs.gov.za)
