Programme Director, Sizwe Nxasana,
Minister of Basic Education, Ms Angie Motshekga,
Deputy Minister EnverSurty,
Patron of the Umlambo Foundation and former Deputy-President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka,
Ministers and Members of Provincial Executive Councils,
Secretariat Convenor, Mr Godwin Khosa,
James Motlatsi,
Bobby Godsell,
Members of the National Education Council,
Mayor of Tshwane, Councillor Kgosientsho Ramokgopa,
Distinguished guest,
Ladies and gentlemen.
I am honoured to address you on this occasion to launch the National Education Collaboration Framework.
This launch takes place in the wake of the historic speech to the United Nations by the 16-year old education activist MalalaYousafzai from Pakistan, who had just recovered from the gruesome head injuries inflicted by the Taliban men who are dead set against education for women and girl children.
MalalaYousafzai said:
"...we want schools and education for every child's bright future. We will continue our journey towards our destination of peace and education for everyone. No one can stop us. We will speak for our rights and we will bring change through our voice. We must believe in the power of our words. Our words can change the world. One Child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first!”
These awe-inspiring words must deepen our appreciation for education as a societal responsibility as well as its centrality in providing our nation with the wherewithal to lift itself from the morass of ignorance, poverty, inequality and unemployment.
Nothing can be more important than the responsibility of providing education to all children with the aim of optimally developing their latent talents. Today's occasion represents a high-point in the collaboration between government and non-governmental organisations representing labour, parents, business and other education sector stakeholders.
We therefore wish to commend and congratulate the Trust for taking this bold step and we look forward to working with you. Like you, we believe that "both the government and the non-governmental groupings have a common goal of improving the quality of education, but do not as yet share a common understanding of the roles that they expect of each other or have to play towards achieving this common goal”.
This model will therefore multiply opportunities for collaborations that allow government and education stakeholders to execute their respective duties in a co-ordinated fashion.
Ladies and gentleman,
The 2011 Census Report on Education highlights amongst others, inequalities along racial and class lines inherited from the past, which still arrest and retard the realisation of the full potential of many a learner, particularly those in rural and township communities.
As such, the widespread support from the broadest cross-section of stakeholders in civil society, labour and business has helped us to improve the learning outcomes in our schools. Interventions by the private sector have demonstrated that even those learners that attend poorly resourced schools can achieve excellent results if provided with the requisite support.
A good example of this is the achievement of Madikgetho Ngwanapedi Komane, a student from Glen Cowie Girls High School in Limpopo who matriculated as one of the top performers who passed with a distinction in mathematics and science after having benefited from BP South Africa's education support programme.
As such we appreciate the private sector's corporate social investment spend in education totalling R3 billion per annum. We equally appreciate the human-resources contributions that are made through mentoring and tutoring programmes.
We are therefore encouraged that you are taking these programmes further by launching this Framework to improve co-ordination. This is most important for improving the quality of education by implementing the collaboration framework through social partnerships focused on:
- The rapid approval and disbursement of funds to where they are needed most, thus offering government and education stakeholders the flexibility to build consensus on how contributions to the Trust should be spend;
- by providing for a central disbursement of resources to ensure that overall co-ordination resides with the Trust, thus reducing duplication and wastage;
- Ensuring that private financial and human resources are used to unlock innovation and identify best practices to be incorporated into the schools reform agenda.
Programme Director,
We support the phased approach, which will also help monitor and evaluate performance in the identified districts over the next 10 years. I wish to express our gratitude to those who have laid the groundwork for this historic collaboration.
Our special thanks go to the founding trustees led by Mr Sizwe Nxasana and the other founding trustees who have, over and above performing their day-to-day jobs, still found time to work with our colleagues Minister Angie Motshekga, Deputy Minister Enver Surty and their team to prepare for this launch.
We also thank the Patrons of the Trust former Deputy President Phumzile Mlabo-Ngcuka, Cyril Ramaphosa, Bobby Godsell and James Motlatsi for the invaluable time and energy they continue to invest in these efforts.
We also take this opportunity to congratulate Former Deputy President Pumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka on her appointment as the Executive Director for UN Women and we trust that as a patron of the Trust she will promote its noble aims internationally.
I wish the Trust and the Education Council all the success. May this collaboration grow from strength to strength in furthering the goals of quality education in our country.
This collaboration should grow from strength to strength in furthering goal of quality education for all learners.
I thank you!
