Address by MEC for Education Ishmael Kgetjepe on the occasion of official launch of Vhembe Nect District Development Programme, Christ Worship House, Shayandima, Thulamela Local Municipality, Vhembe
Programme Director, Cllr Tshifiwa Dali
Khosikhulu ya Venda, King Toni Mphephu Ramabulana Executive Mayor of Vhembe, Cllr Tshitereke Matibe Mayor of Thulamela, Cllr Grace Mahosi
Our Councillors
NECT CEO, Mr Godwin Khosa
District Senior Manager, Dr Rambiyani
Chairperson of the NECT District Steering Committee, Judge Raulinga Traditional leaders
Religious leaders Organised labour Business community SGBs
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
This official launch of National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT) development programme for the Vhembe district coincides with our 2015 matric examinations which started in earnest just yesterday. It is a busy time for the department as we wrap the year to ensure the smooth running of this important exercise. The learners on the other hand are equally hard at work preparing every day and getting into those exam rooms eager to prove sceptics wrong.
We can’t afford slipups on our part and we also cannot afford any forms of disruptions.
You will most certainly agree with me that we are always a soft target when it comes to disruptions even when the concerns have nothing to do with education. It is against this background that we must work together during this period as various stakeholders to support the process so that the examinations take place as planned and conclude as scheduled. Let us also give our learners the necessary support and motivation by ensuring that we afford them time, space and the right tranquil the study.
We appeal to our traditional leaders to lay down the law in as far as the loud music that gets played from taverns and shebeens until late at night to at least take the future our learners into consideration. We must all be concerned about our fellow young brothers and sisters who are much occupied with their studies at this point in time. They really need that support and peace right now. We plead with everyone on this aspect because education remains that critical means of promoting good citizenship as well as preparing our people for the needs of modern economy and a democratic society.
Programme director, A couple of weeks ago we were launching the Waterberg NECT District Development Programme in Mokopane. We are here today in one of our best performing districts launching a similar intervention programme. The CEO has adequately outlined the purpose why this district. The launch itself or rather this intervention by NECT is a clear indication of our intention to break new ground in meeting the development needs of our province. Perhaps given the peculiarities of our past, we most certainly need a programme launch of this kind to identify key weaknesses as well as rethink approaches and strategies to sustain our education’s reconstruction and development programme. Most importantly we need this
development programme whose noble objective is to consolidate support of the Department, unions, civil society and community stakeholders to improve education. We most certainly need continuity in terms of the support we must give to schools even after NECT would have concluded its programme in this district.
One of the most heartening things about our new South Africa; is our people’s commitment to work towards quality education. By people, I mean ordinary men and women, big corporates, small business, non-profit sector, faith based organisations, traditional leaders, state-owned entities and international bodies amongst others. All these partners are playing a crucial role in supporting government in fulfilling the Freedom Charter’s clarion call that “The doors of learning and culture shall be opened”. With this kind of commitment, they are enabling us to provide quality state funded education in our lifetime.
Indeed, we are a province at work and this launch here today represents a high point of collaboration between government and non-governmental organisation, labour, parents, business and other education stakeholders. This historic collaboration lays the necessary groundwork for our education system to take off, especially in the areas of mathematics and science. You will agree with me that lack of collaboration robs our province of the benefits which would accrue from such an exercise. Today with this collaboration we will be able to understand certain failures in governance and how we can best address such challenges as a collective with interest and a common goal of improving the quality of education.
Programme director, When NECT was launched in July 2013, the singular goal was to strengthen partnerships in order to achieve the education goals of the National Development Plan (NDP). Since then government has made available resources to support the work of the NECT for a range of programmes that seek to unlock the potential of the basic education sector
as a whole.
The ANC Led government developmental blueprint, the NDP; implores us to improve the performance of the South African education system. On top of the NDP policy injunction is that we must improve literacy, numeracy, maths and science outcomes. It further enjoins us to improve learner performance in international comparative studies. It also calls upon the whole basic education sector to stem the tide of learner drop outs.
In essence, through the National Development Plan, government has laid out the parameters within which each social partner can make a contribution towards the achievement of our shared vision. This shared vision entails the reduction of poverty, stimulating economic growth, effecting economic transformation and creating employment. We know too well the indispensability of education if we must deliver on the critical mandate of addressing inequality, poverty and unemployment. This reality places enormous responsibility on government and all its social partners to improve education of our people, with particular attention to primary and secondary school levels.
We must bear in mind that no modern society has scaled the heights of social progress without education more especially science and technology as the innately driving impulse. Only a sound and quality system with strong emphasis on mathematics and science can serve as a reliable feeder to tertiary institutions, which will in turn be able to produce top-notch graduates geared to the needs of the country. It is therefore encouraging to note that, notwithstanding several challenges dogging our education system, our country has always striven to find creative ways to bring us together, through the National Education Collaborative Trust, to improve our education in this district. Once again, we are relying on social partnership and continued dialogue among all stakeholders to ensure an improved education system responsive to our needs as a province
As we have stated before and still stating today that education is a societal issue. Society is a powerful instrument of inculcating in the young minds of our children, the norms, culture, traditions and values of the new democratic society as we build a new nation. Through the Trust, which brings together stakeholders including business and labour, we are working to achieve the education vision we set out in the National Development Plan. Through quality education, we will move our province forward; through education we will succeed in building a truly non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous society.
It is in this context that we cannot continue to expect teachers to promote quality learning and teaching alone. All of us must work together in unity to promote effective learning and teaching in our schools. The notion of education as a societal matter is finding full expression in the NECT programme, it is important to work with business community to support the work of NECT.
The singular aim of this partnership is to improve quality of teaching and ultimately increase the number of learners taking science and pure maths thus resulting in an improvement in the quality of matric results.
Just like in Waterberg, It is so gratifying to know that a lot of work has been done in this district in profiling schools to get a deeper understanding of school operations and develop responsive school implementation plans. We also note with a sense of satisfaction that a curriculum gap analysis report was completed for maths in order to inform interventions to improve teaching and learning.
With all these achievements to date and the NECT’s plans for the next six months; we certainly place a premium value on the partnership of this kind, we are aware that part of the plan is the adoption of a Memorandum of Understanding between the district and the NECT on the minimum school support visits by Subject Advisors to Fresh Start Schools with Curriculum Change Agents.
We appeal and invite all stakeholders to join hands around these ideals and to participate in supporting schools in this district as targeted by NECT in order for them to achieve more swift and in-depth improvement. All these areas need urgent attention and action as pointed out in the National Development Plan and NECT is here to strengthen cooperation between stakeholders so that we are able to respond to these challenges as a collective.
While we acknowledge the gains of the past 21 years that makes us say South Africa is a better place today than it was 21years ago, we must admit that much more still needs to be done with regards to improving participation and success rate in mathematics, science and technology space. We need to transform education to ensure that through educating our children, we drive the economic growth by supporting the National Development Plan. Our aspiration is to be equal and even surpass the best in the world.
In conclusion, a programme launch of this nature is indeed critical in enabling us to take stock, to share ideas as stakeholders and most importantly to explore new ways of addressing our challenges. I am therefore encouraged by this initiative that brings us together under one programme with the goal of improving education outcomes in our district. As a country, our vision of creating a united, non-racist, non-sexist, just and prosperous society will only see the light of day if and only if it is fertilised by economically lush conditions of social progress and education holds that key.
Together let us educate the nation and move South Africa forward.
I thank you.
