We have detected that the browser you are using is no longer supported. As a result, some content may not display correctly.
We suggest that you upgrade to the latest version of any of the following browsers:
close notification
Date: 03/04/2003
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: Asmal: Dinner for Autumn Clinic of Dinaledi Schools
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, PROFESSOR KADER ASMAL, AT THE
DINNER FOR THE AUTUMN CLINIC OF THE DINALEDI SCHOOLS, Cape Town,
Holiday Inn, 3 April 2003
Chairperson
Ambassador Hume
MECs
Members of Parliament
Our partners from Microsoft, Multichoice, Telkom and USAID
Provincial Co-ordinators, principals and teachers
Ladies and gentlemen
Only a year ago we observed the launch of the National Strategy for
Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. This occasion gave
us a renewed sense of hope that we had finally found a lifeboat
with which to rescue our youth from the despair of the shameful
legacy of our past. We had renewed hope that we would begin to
attract more learners into the gateway subjects and support them to
do well. At the same time, the Ministry was (and still is) engaged
in the drive to transform our higher education system, so as to
ensure that it meets the needs of our country.
The connection between these two events may seem remote, but those
learners that are now being encouraged to enrol in Mathematics and
Physical Science represent the first group of students seeking
entry into our newly transforming institutions of higher learning.
The general improvement in the number of graduates obtaining
matriculation endorsement underscores this fact. As more and more
learners perform well in the matriculation examination, we must
ensure that they are encouraged to participate in our institutions
of higher learning.
The Dinaledi Schools project plays a critically important role in
this process. Too this end I am pleased to report that the number
of passes of African, HG Mathematics and Physical Science in 2002
is up 20% on 2001. What is more, increased numbers are beginning to
emerge from the Dinaledi schools, and the number of schools is also
increasing, at last count it was 114.
However while we celebrate these significant improvements, in such
a short period, we also recognise that much more needs to be done
to address the legacy of our past. In particular, I wish to
highlight my concerns about the performance of females in these
areas. While the overall enrolment at senior certificate level is
in the ratio 52:48 female to male, females are under enrolled in
the gateway subjects and their performance trails behind that of
males.
One may speculate that various factors are at work in driving this
under-performance, and that a combination of male pressure,
possible female reticence and school culture are the most likely
agents. Nevertheless, there is an urgent need for research on this
phenomenon to be conducted in classrooms and school communities. I
am sure you will agree that the girl child deserves better.
As teachers, you have a unique and significant contribution to make
in addressing the challenges that confront us. You should always
remember that you are making history and that your role, that of
shaping these young minds, has a direct bearing on the future
prosperity of our country. This is because it is these children, in
our science laboratories and mathematics classrooms who we look to
for leadership and innovation to secure our future. They are the
ministers and the presidents of tomorrow. They are the pathfinders
and technological masters of the generations to come. In them we
place our trust as a nation.
For us to win the technological and economic battle of the twenty
first century, teachers must regain a sense of wonder, surprise and
an insatiable quest for knowledge in their subjects. One way of
doing this is through problem solving and research. Teachers need
to conduct real investigations in areas of interest and contribute
to the construction of knowledge.
In this regard, I wish to share with you how Peggy House reveals
the contrast that she observes between Mathematics and Science
teachers and teachers of other subjects such as Art and Music. This
is what she had to say:
When I think about art teachers that I know, I find that they do
art for their own pleasure and development. They paint, do
sculpture, make pottery, take photographs, and the like. Similarly,
the music teachers I know participate in music outside school. They
sing in choirs, play instruments, and attend concerts. But I know
precious few mathematics and science teachers who do mathematics
and science on their own just for the enjoyment of it. Yet it is
this personal involvement in the subject that is the source of our
deepest sense of surprise.
Another area which I believe needs to be addressed by teachers is
that of the language in school science and mathematics classrooms.
These subjects are rich with their own precise language and
metaphors that are quite distant from everyday experience. Even
first language speakers often misunderstand the terminology. This
presents a special challenge to our teachers not to hide behind the
abstruse phraseology of science or mathematics but to develop plain
language forms that are accessible to their learners. Without an
adequate command of language and sufficient curriculum space and
resources, both science and mathematics education will be the
poorer.
From our side as Government, in recognising the importance of your
role, we have been engaged in efforts to upgrade the subject
knowledge, competencies and skills of our teachers. The first
Autumn Clinic held in Johannesburg last year and this Second Autumn
Clinic bears testimony to our commitment to ensure that every
classroom has competent and qualified Mathematics and Science
teachers, who will inspire our learners and create in them the
stars of tomorrow today. Their enthusiasm and dedication is our
pillar of strength and a beacon for a brighter future. From their
hands come the human resources that have the capacity to conduct
research to assist us to find solutions to pressing national
problems. From their hands will emerge vaccines for debilitating
epidemics such as HIV/AIDS, they will produce our own medicines,
improve our crop yields and increase the competitiveness of our
industries.
However these plans will come to nought unless we are able to
retain our teachers. Over the years we have seen the teaching corps
being depleted through natural attrition, attractive salaries in
the private sector and overseas and not least of which the
attraction of excellent teachers into more senior management and
administrative positions in education.
It is precisely for this reason that we have designed a new
career-path for teachers that will enable schools to retain the
most qualified and productive teachers in their classrooms. At the
same time we have embarked on a recruitment strategy for graduates
to train as mathematics, science and technology teachers. We will
intensify our campaign in order to ensure that more and more
quality candidates join and are retained by the system.
Ladies and gentlemen, as mathematics, science and technology
teachers you will appreciate the importance of our focus on these
disciplines in our efforts to turn our education system around.
Indeed, the quest for knowing has been a characteristic of human
society for millennia. Wanting to know is part of our make up, our
culture. The last century, especially the post second war period
has seen science and technology acquire a pre-eminence where it is
deemed to be a social necessity that governments must support. This
arose through the significant role that science played in the
Second World War, the subsequent Cold War arms race and now the
race for global competitiveness.
Science in close association with the technologies has demonstrated
a capacity to radically change the nature and quality of life, and
I should add, death. At the same time the technologies of mass
communication that started with the invention of paper and today
give us the Internet allow for education and scholarship to occur
on an unprecedented scale where even the process of learning occurs
in entirely new ways. The lone academic carrying out disinterested
research in a narrow discipline that will ultimately lead to
publication in a learned journal is now under threat. Teams spread
across the globe now create knowledge.
The boundaries between science and technology have narrowed, with
science ever more dependent on technology for its own advancement
and technology in turn feeds off scientific discovery. The new
drive is for inter-disciplinary research in turn demands a much
broader literacy of the science community. The teams of researchers
now include scientists, engineers, psychologists, sociologists,
lawyers and communicators.
Given these advances, we have now acquired the potential for
standards of living previously only held by royalty, as the fields
of energy, health, food production and communication have been
understood, quantified, and even mechanised. But with these
advances the gap between the rich and the poor has widened and we
have displayed a shameful lack of wisdom in how we manage our
environment and ourselves.
If we are fully to meet our historic developmental challenge and
engage with the emerging divide between the industrialised
countries and the emerging economies, our education system must
demonstrate at least two abilities. The first is to provide a basis
for reasonably informed debate on the social, economic,
environmental, political and ethical implications of the changes we
are experiencing. The second is to ensure that we produce the
varied personnel able to develop and transfer the technologies that
arise from this and other revolutions, social, moral and
technical.
I would therefore argue that a balanced school curriculum is
critical in this regard. We have now put the essential features of
such a curriculum in place for grades R through to 9. It is a
compulsory curriculum where all take languages, mathematics, and
science within a values-based curriculum where the full range of
capacities are developed, especially communication and reasoning
skills.
As you are all aware, the FET Curriculum Statements are in the
revision stage. I wish to note however a possible concern with the
differentiated nature of the post-compulsory curriculum, which
makes mathematical literacy a core competence, but does not also
afford the same importance to science. Nevertheless our insistence
on a core mathematics subject is a positive step, but the split
between natural and life science represented by physical science
and biology means that school leavers may potentially lack a
broader scientific literacy. Can we afford not to have a core
science? This is a matter for further debate.
In closing, ladies and gentlemen, I would be remiss if I did not
mention our partners who have supported our transformation agenda.
The success of the first year of the implementation of the National
Strategy for Mathematics Science and Technology Education is a
result of this partnership. We should celebrate these achievements
and extend our gratitude to all that have made it possible. In this
regard, I am pleased to announce that I have just now signed an
agreement with our benefactors, which will enable them to continue
to provide their invaluable assistance in bolstering our efforts in
this area. Furthermore, I also wanted to let you know that next
month a group of Cuban tutors, which have been carefully chosen,
will join us as partners in education transformation, as part of
the great tradition of international solidarity.
I would also like to thank our delegates from the nine provinces,
in particular the provincial co-ordinators, subject advisers,
principals and teachers from the 102 schools, and presenters and
facilitators. Be reminded always that you have been entrusted with
the most delicate, critical and challenging jobs. The future of
this country is in your hands and I challenge you to make the
maximum use of opportunities given to you. History will judge us
all by what we do for our country today.
Finally, I wish to highlight that the Second Autumn Clinic is the
beginning of bigger things to follow in your professional careers
and what you have gained during this clinic should and must have a
direct impact on the performance of your students.
Related Articles
