Programme Director,
President of NATU: Mr SL Ngcobo,
NATU National Executive Committee,
Leadership of NATU,
Members of NATU,
Distinguished guests,
Fellow compatriots
It gives me great pleasure to participate in this important event on behalf of the President of South Africa, Mr Jacob Zuma, who wanted to be here personally but is unable to and has thus deployed me to represent him.
We are aware of the important role that the National Teachers Union (NATU) plays in representing the interests of its members and teachers in general – a history which goes back to 1918 – the year marking the end of the First World War.
Programme Director; allow me, therefore, at the onset to congratulate NATU on turning 96 years. Happy Birthday to you all! We look forward with excitement to your centenary celebrations in four years’ time.
It is important that at a time when trade unions are often unfairly criticised that we remind ourselves of the critical work that they do in maintaining good labour relations and ensuring channels of communication between employer and employees remain open. A recent example is the dangerous reaction to misinformation regarding proposals for pension reform – when public servants were under the wrong impression that unless they resigned they would lose access to the lump sum payment upon retirement. It was crucial that unions – such as NATU - led the way in informing members of the facts. Those members are much more likely to believe union leaders – who they trust – than accept what the officials tell them.
I think, in general, that there is a growing realisation amongst employers that well-run unions are key to good labour relations. At the same time unions that are well-organised and united are more likely to win gains on behalf of their members.
Today as we share with you our understanding of opportunities and challenges facing the education sector in our country we are pleased to note that teachers unions have begun to heed the call made at a summit focusing on teacher development five years ago.
One of the critical outputs of the 2009 Summit on Teacher Development was to ensure that we build capacity to train teachers by all stakeholders. The 2009 summit and subsequent Teacher Development Framework, we have seen the five unions, heeding the call that was made at the time, by launching or re-establishing their Teacher Development Institutes.
Equally pleasing is that NATU launched its own Teacher Development Institute just last month. I congratulate you again on this milestone in the history and development of an excellent educator in democratic South Africa.
The launch of the NATU Institute for Professional Development is symbolic such that it sends a very powerful message to our people and the international community. It says as we celebrate 20 years of peace, democracy and freedom, NATU is contributing to nation-building and is choosing to do so by launching a Teacher Development Institute.
Government recognises that quality education is the most important weapon to empower citizens in the fight against the triple challenges facing our country: poverty, unemployment and inequality. And that investment in the development of human capital, including the strengthening of programmes for massification of skills development, academic training, promotion of research and development in various fields is critical in achieving a new growth trajectory. This will enable our country to play a leading role in the global economy.
The whirlwind of change taking place seeks to hasten the delivery of a Better Life for All our people. We have replaced the divided apartheid education system that discriminated against black people by one system for all regardless of race, with appropriate curricula and funding. Twice as many students attend university and graduate – three quarters are now African. We have added a year of schooling to prepare children (Grade R). The matric pass rate is up from 57% in 1994 to an average of 75% in 2013. Over Nine million learners get fed nutritious meal once a day at school through the National School Nutrition Programme. Indeed, South Africa is a better place to live in today than it was pre-1994.
To continue on this trajectory we need to galvanise strong partnerships with all sectors of society. Precisely because we strongly contend that education is a societal issue. This means parents must play an active role in the life of schools in particular and education of their children in general. Parents must ensure that children do their homework and arrive at school on time. Teachers must teach and learners must pay attention during the learning process, respecting the school property and teachers as well. The community must look after the school and provide a safe environment for education to take place by not allowing liquor to be sold to school children and other bad influences. Most importantly it is the responsibility of the Department of Basic Education to provide an enabling environment for quality education to take place – classrooms, desks, chairs, learning materials as well as training and development for teachers.
Fellow compatriots,
The government developmental blueprint the National Development Plan (NDP) has set key targets in respect of education.
These are:
- gradually introduce free education up to undergraduate level
- test all grade 3, 6 and 9 learners each year to measure improvement and identify problems
- ensure that Educators are in class on time, teaching at least seven hours a day and that all schools have textbooks
- eradicate mud schools and improve toilets, electricity and water
- train more Educators and use bursaries to get qualified Educators to rural areas
- achieve 100% within a year for text books to all children in all subjects
- improve student finance and accommodation to enable poor students to complete degrees
- double the number of people in technical education (FET) and colleges.
These targets are attainable as long as we work together for the benefit of all South Africa’s children.
We have since 2009 declared education as an apex priority for this administration. Programme Director we did this so that we may once and for all banish the legacy of apartheid education in our country. However, I want to talk more about why education is a societal issue.
Firstly, the economic and personal empowerment that education provides allows women and girls to make healthier choices for themselves and their families. The United Nations Population Fund says that the benefits of education for girls include a reduction in poverty and an improvement of the health of women and their children, as well as the potential to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS (UNFPA, 2010).
According to the Bread for the World Hunger Report (Bread for the World, 2005), expanding education for girls is also one of the most powerful ways of fighting hunger.
Secondly, education contributes to improving child survival and maternal health: Research undertaken by the World Bank (2004) indicates that a child born to an educated mother is more than twice more likely to survive to the age of five than a child born to an uneducated mother. Educated mothers are also 50% more likely than mothers with no schooling to immunise their children against diseases (World Bank, 2004).
Thirdly, a report by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE, 2004) asserts that educated people are healthier people. HIV/AIDS infection rates are halved among young people who finish primary school. Thus, if every child received a complete primary school education, at least seven million new cases of HIV could be prevented during the course of a decade.
Fourthly, education is a prerequisite for tackling poverty and promoting short and long-term economic growth. No country has achieved continuous and rapid economic growth without at least 40% of adults being able to read and write (GCE, 2010). At an individual level, a person’s earnings increase with each additional year of schooling especially at tertiary level enabling them to support their families.
Finally, education is an essential building block in the development of an inclusive and peaceful democratic society. According to a report by Save the Children (2009), every year of schooling decreases a male’s chance of engaging in violent conflict by 20%.
Our mandate as the ANC-led government is to once and for all implement the rallying call of the Freedom Charter which proclaimed boldly that: “The Doors of Learning and Culture Shall Be Opened to all.” Some people may argue that we have had twenty years to do what we are doing today. The reality is that 20 years in a life of an individual is a long time but in a life of a nation is a very short time. Since the advent of democracy in 1994, only one generation has been produced by our new education system introduced in 1996.
The year 2014 marks a turning point as we finally implement the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) throughout our schooling system. This breakthrough requires a legion of committed Teacher Unions such as NATU; active parents, dedicated teachers and focussed learners. If we manage to fuse all these ingredients together, learning outcomes will improve greatly. As government, we are committed to assist in whatever manner possible to ensure quality education for all. I invite NATU to continue to engage and work with us in this journey towards quality education for all. We dare not fail.
I thank you.
