Programme Director
MEC Donald Grant
Manager: Chevron Refinery, Mr Haymis Paulse,
Principal of Inkwenkwezi, Mr Kutu and staff
Librarians
Officials from Chevron and Department of Basic Education (DBE)
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am very delighted to be with you today on this propitious occasion, the launch of the Chevron sponsored Library and Learning Centre. This ceremony is a celebration of a sustainable literacy intervention for the Du Noon community.
The involvement of Chevron in the Upgrade Programme as part of its Energy for Learning Programme has indeed reinforced national efforts aimed at raising levels of literacy and numeracy particularly in historically disadvantaged communities.
Our sincere gratitude goes to Chevron Refinery for affording learners in Du Noon the golden opportunity to have access to a fully equipped state of the art library and learning centre.
You have given our learners access to reading materials they need in order to grow into critical and avid readers. I cannot over emphasise the importance of books and reading. Illiteracy is a national threat.
Chevron has indeed moved Inkwenkwezi from the proverbial ‘dark ages’ of a library dreadfully haunted by various capacity challenges to an essential learning resource of the 21st century. Without resources of this magnitude, like these that Chevron has responsibly provided for our children, the goal of quality education for all would not be feasible in our lifetime.
Without books and other learning materials, turning South Africa into a truly and prosperous developmental state would remain a dream never to be attained.
Building such a state that is committed to the creation of a better life for all our people needs young people who can read and write, add and subtract, reason and pontificate.
This can only be possible when we work together as government, the private sector and communities together making ‘education a societal issue’. All of us have a duty to ensure we have learners who can read, write and calculate.Our department has observed in Action Plan to 2014: Towards the realisation of Schooling 2025 that:
“Research has shown that many learners who complete Grade 6 are not able to write even simple sentences, or to do basic arithmetic. This problem of an unacceptably low level of learning can be found across all grades. But above all, there are too many learners who, after many years of school, have not mastered the skills they should have mastered.”
Our mission remains that of a South Africa in which all our people have access to lifelong quality education which will in turn contribute towards improving the quality of life and building a peaceful, prosperous and democratic society.
We need to ask ourselves this question: “What added-value do school libraries bring to schools and learners?”
The answer is simply that school libraries are essential for survival in today’s information and knowledge-based society. Without proper management of access to and dissemination of information, schools cannot perform optimally and learners’ achievements are most likely to be compromised.
Research has shown that learners with access to library resources deliver higher achievements, improved literacy levels and have a greater success rate.
Learning resources are intrinsically linked to the development and production of life-long learners. With adequate levels of connectivity, libraries and information literacy programmes, schools can best prepare learners to meet the challenges of the knowledge economy.
The Chevron initiative is central in this regard. It reflects a carefully considered and strategic corporate social responsibility. Addressing the education needs of any country is the best way of tackling poverty, underdevelopment and want.
In the long term, initiatives like the Chevron Energy for Learning Programme are critical for the provision of skills vital for both the country’s development needs and for the human resources needs of companies.
My message to Chevron is that it makes business sense to invest in education. This goes for other companies.
On our part, we have given the country a comprehensive sector-based action plan for improving schooling in South Africa: Action Plan to 2014: Towards the realisation of Schooling 2025. It has been sent out for public comment.
Its overriding purpose is to contribute, in concrete ways, to the realisation of a better schooling system, one which adequately prepares young South Africans for the challenges of a rapidly changing society.
We are working hard at addressing the backlogs in library resource provision and have opted for an incremental approach to the provisioning of library resources.
The strength of this approach lies in its developmental nature allowing for different models of resourcing rather than relying purely and exclusively on centralised school libraries.
Our National Guidelines for School Library and Information Services advise on other models beside the centralised school library. These are classroom libraries, cluster libraries, school community libraries and mobile libraries.
We see this as a way of increasing access to information and library services in a flexible and incremental manner. This project supports that approach.
We have gazetted, in June 2010, a National Policy for an Equitable Provision of an Enabling School Physical Teaching and Learning Environment.
This policy, which will be followed by the Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure, is aimed at guiding the provision of enabling physical teaching and learning environments that are sustainable and equitable for all learners in South Africa.
The Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure will make it mandatory for all new schools to have basic teaching and learning spaces like libraries and laboratories.
Our department’s multi-faceted approach to combating illiteracy includes a National Reading Strategy for schools. The strategy is aimed at developing learners ‘who read to learn, and read for enjoyment and enrichment’. The availability of libraries is one of the enabling factors for achieving this goal.
There is no better time to start promoting reading and the value of books than now. I therefore commend the Western Cape Education Department for providing this opportunity for our partner, Chevron Refinery, to invest in a disadvantaged community through this magnanimous gesture a fully resourced library and learning centre for the Du Noon community.
This gift will go a long way in affording learners a better and brighter future. But, there is a catch here. Teachers, learners, and school management teams, in fact, everybody, must ensure this facility does not degenerate into a ‘white elephant’. What would be the point of a library with no visitors or users?
Lastly, we remain committed to strategic partnerships with all stakeholders sharing a steadfast commitment to creating a literate and working society. Together we can do more to improve the quality of learning and teaching.
To the class of 2010 whose examinations commenced yesterday, I wish you all the best. Stay focused and prioritise your studies during this testing period.
To the community and parents, let us all tirelessly support our Grade 12 learners during these crucial days of their lives.
Their success is our success! And so we say in our languages: ‘umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’.
Ngiyabonga!
