Programme Director
Gauteng Education MEC, Ms Barbara Creecy
CEO of ArcelorMittal, Ms Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita
Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Mr Sputla Ramokgopa
Director General of Basic Education, Mr Bobby Soobrayan
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am delighted to be with you as we officially open Meetse-a-Bophelo Primary School, a product of cutting-edge technology, courtesy of ArcelorMittal South Africa.
The architecture of this school is a first for South Africa, using insulated panels technology. We are indebted to and warmly thank ArcelorMittal for being the lifeblood of our developing nation.
This outstanding investment in Mamelodi demonstrates clearly ArcelorMittal’s commitment to genuine partnerships with communities and countries in which it does business.
A warm ‘thank you’ to patriotic ArcelorMittal South Africa and its Foundation. With your core business being to produce steel, allocating R250 million on a school building project aimed at giving our people 10 new schools is no mean fit, especially during the current global financial situation.
Today’s occasion represents the culmination of a successful partnership between the Department of Basic Education and ArcelorMittal. This is what President Jacob Zuma meant when he said education is ‘a societal issue’.
Over and above the R34.8 million budgeted by ArcelorMittal for the building of a school for Mamelodi, this achievement goes to show that working together we can do more to create a prosperous, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic state.
Without the provision of education, which is a democratic right guaranteed by our Constitution, there is no way to lay the foundation for the creation of a better life for all our people.
Informed by our government’s focus on education as the apex programme, our Department has rightly committed to improving the quality of basic education, among others things, through the delivery of adequate resources for all our learners.
Accelerating infrastructure development has been a mammoth task for us in government since the dawn of democracy. As you well know, facing us has been many disparities created by the past system.
But, in spite of all those challenges, we have made huge inroads in collaboration with our key stakeholders, including the private sector. Our great advances include replacement of dilapidated structures and building of completely new schools.
Since 1996, over 2 233 new schools have been constructed, 73 214 additional classrooms have been provided, 6 297 schools have been provided with water and 2 242 with sanitation and 11 574 with electricity.
To take this work forward, we have prepared a comprehensive sector-based plan for improving schooling – Action Plan to 2014: Towards the realisation of Schooling 2025. Its overriding purpose is to contribute, in concrete ways, to the realisation of a better schooling system, one adequately preparing young South Africans for the challenges of a rapidly changing society.
The Action Plan, our weapon of change, will help us strengthen weak areas in the education system. One of its underlying principles is that effective schooling requires ‘teachers, textbooks and time’. We chose therefore to focus on enhancing the role of key players in education, that is, the learners, the teachers, the principals and the parents, all these, in addition to attending urgently to learning resources and infrastructure.
Through the Action Plan, we want to ensure that learners attend school every day, and on time. We want to have properly trained teachers committed to the teaching profession and ever ready to improve their skills.
We want to ascertain that all our schools have principals committed to ensuring that quality teaching takes place in their schools, and according to the national curriculum.
We want to see parents who are actively involved in the education of their children. We would have succeeded in implementing this plan when we know that every learner has access to at least one textbook per subject, that can be taken home after school. By 2025,we would like to see school buildings and facilities that are spacious, functional, safe and well maintained. The Action Plan must and will help us deliver improved quality early childhood development.
I must emphasise the need to distinguish between the Action Plan and the curriculum. Action Plan to 2014 is the overarching plan for achieving systemic change. Curriculum review is only one aspect of our turnaround strategy. The Action Plan, or Schooling 2025, is not the curriculum.
In June 2010, we gazetted a National Policy for an Equitable Provision of an Enabling School Physical Teaching and Learning Environment. This policy, to be followed by Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure, will guide the provision of enabling physical teaching and learning environments that are sustainable and equitable for all learners.
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.
To its credit, the ArcelorMittal-sponsored school has these resources, plus a media centre, a computer room, a workshop and a nutrition centre.
Our country still requires increased investment in school infrastructure, both to deliver on the right to basic education as well as to improve education quality and learning outcomes.
You would be familiar with research evidence pointing to a clear correlation between learner achievement and the richness of teaching and learning materials and resources.
The noble act of corporate social responsibility demonstrated by the ArcelorMittal Foundation is so essential to us, and I’m certain, also to the community of Mamelodi.
It is these fundamental issues that have pointed to us the logic of focusing more and more on school infrastructure as we will be doing from 2011 better to improve on the overall performance of the education system.
We support strongly and call for more Public-Private-Partnerships because these will help to improve the quality of the education system. This time the stakes are even much higher.
We have shown our commitment as government by committing to measurable delivery agreements and ensuring an inter-governmental approach to achieving our outcomes.
I took advantage in June this year to invite education MECs to join me to view this school. When we got here, we could only say “Wah!”. We could not believe our eyes. We were excited about the design, finishing touches, time it took to construct, and most importantly, the cost. Thank you ArcelorMittal!
MECs in the other eight provinces must be waiting patiently for their turn to receive this beautiful artefact. I have been informed that planning for the Eastern Cape has commenced, and we could see construction starting early next year.
I am also told the contractor who built this school, Lexkon, has donated a ride-on lawn mower to the school. Also, GEA Air-cooled Systems has provided equipment and chemicals for the science laboratory. Arivia.com/T-Systems is providing computers for the Adult Resource Centre. A big ‘thank you’ to all these companies.
I thank from the bottom of my heart the workers of Mamelodi, both men and women, whose sweat and toil often constitute the untold story behind the success of many a project. Our challenge is now to ensure that this facility is well maintained and that every attempt is made to preserve it.
I sincerely hope this new facility will challenge learners, educators and parents to a renewed and intense commitment to the importance of education, and that other companies will emulate this phenomenal example, set by ArcelorMittal. Let’s work together in ‘transforming tomorrow’.
I thank you.
Source: Department of Basic Education
