Date: 15/03/2004
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: K Asmal: Handing over ceremony of Africa's Best Books of 20th century


SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, PROFESSOR KADER ASMAL, MP AT THE HANDING OVER CEREMONY OF AFRICA'S BEST BOOKS OF THE 20TH CENTURY AND GRAPHIC CALCULATORS KOPANONG CONFERENCE CENTRE, BENONI, 15 March 2004

Honoured guests, including the author of Third World Express, one of Africa's best books of the 20th century, Dr Wally Mongane Serote;
Dignitaries
Teachers and Learners
Ladies and gentlemen.

Dumelang, sanibonani, goeienaand, good evening.

Firstly, I welcome all the teachers and learners who are with us today. I hope and believe that the educational activities that you were engaged in during the day were helpful and enriching.

Secondly, I like to thank the schools principals, district managers, and provincial co-ordinators for smoothly facilitating the arrangements for these learners and teachers to be with us today. Ke ya le leboga.

Our purpose today is to hand over sets of Africa's best books to the teachers of various Dinaledi schools, and also to reward learners who performed extremely well in their grade 11 Maths and Science exams.

As we hand over these books, we need to understand their significance in the history of South Africa. In 2001, the Zimbabwean International Book Fair launched a list containing Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century. The list contained 19 South African titles, one of which is Third World Express by Dr Wally Mongane Serote, who is with us tonight.

As part of the promotion of reading through Masifunde Sonke, a project of the department of Education, we have selected 40 titles from the list, including the 19 South African titles to hand over to schools. This is done firstly to expose them to expose them to literary works that emanated from African authors during the 20th century. Secondly it is to encourage other schools to build a resource collection of reading materials. We hope that the books that we are giving them, plus a dictionary, will encourage them to collect even more materials.

The handing over of these books today is a symbol of my government's commitment to honour and celebrate our literary heroes and heroines. For those of you who have not seen the list, it includes the following South African titles and authors just to name a few:

* Third World Express by Dr Wally Mongane Serote
* Cry, the beloved Country by Alan Paton
* Indaba my children by Credo Mutwa
* Life and Times of Michael K by JM Coetzee
* Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
* A Question of Power by Bessie Head
* A Dry White Season by A Brink
* The Blood Knot by A Fugard
* Burgers' Daughter by Nadine Gordimer
* Inqumbo ye minyanya by AC Jordan
* Die Swerfjare van Poppie Nongema by E Joubert
* Inkinsela yase Mgungundlhovu by BV Vilakazi
* Die Siel van die Mier by E Marais
* Country of my Skull by A Krog
* Native Life in South Africa (by Sol T. Plaatje), and
* Down Second Avenue by Prof Eskia Mphahlele

The judges who selected the books were led by Professor Njabulo Ndebele, Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town. One of their difficulties was the definition of the terms "an African title" and "an African". These were deeply considered, and eventually resolved as follows: An African title was defined as a book that was written by an African on a subject matter relevant to Africa, and an African as someone who was born in Africa or who became a citizen of an African country.

Today, I focus my attention on highlighting the value and importance of a book and resource collection in schools. I direct this to the teacher librarians who are here with us, and to the provincial and district officials, who control the budgets.

The revised National Curriculum Statements for Grades R-9 and for Grades 10-12 begin with the critical, cross-field outcomes to be achieved at the end of the learning process. These include the ability to:

* Collect, analyse, organise and critically evaluate information;
* Identify and solve problems and make decisions using critical and creative thinking; and
* Communicate effectively using visual, symbolic and/or language skills in various modes.

The successful achievement of these overall outcomes depends almost entirely upon the support of learning and teaching resources. A good school resource collection, which allows for maximum access by pupils, is a vital component of any learning process. This should include a wide range of resource materials, and in various formats, including print, audio-visual and digital. Now that we have largely stabilised the budgets and procurement systems for books, we are currently in the process of developing a national policy on the selection and use of learning support materials. This will aim to measure that schools get the best possible materials, and use them to maximum effect.

By allowing the learner to use a wide range of resources, which express different ideas and experiences of life, different understandings and knowledge and different presentations of the same topic, the school resource collection exposes learners to divergent and even oppositional ideas and voices. This is necessary for the development of critical skills, and the ability to evaluate information. Similarly, by integrating these resources into learning and teaching processes, we equip learners with the necessary information skills, in order to enable them to search for their own information from a range of resources.

My special message to you therefore is that these books should be part of your resource collection. We urge you to use them effectively and manage them well to ensure that their life span is prolonged. However I also want you to be more concerned about these books being read, than worrying about their being lost or destroyed through use. They are meant to be read, not stored so they can be shown off.

I want you also to celebrate and cherish the authors of these books, because they are the people who have made us proud as a nation, as a country, and as a continent. This ceremony should be counted amongst the many events that made us proud. Last week we witnessed the special launch and handing over of the first phase of Freedom Park to the President, a wonderful symbol of our collective conscience. As the Department of Education, we will be playing our role in celebrating the ten years of freedom that we have all enjoyed, through various events, including the holding of hearings on the indignities suffered by many of our people under apartheid education. This must be part of our national record, and our memory.

Keeping the Memory Alive: Shaping the Future, is the theme of our special ceremony on 31 March in Cape Town. At this event, we will be showcasing a range of books, which will be given to all South African schools before Freedom Day. These include children's stories of our world before and after 1994, activity books for children, guides to building non-racial schools, as well as the outstanding United Nations Educational, Scientific and Scientific Organisation (UNESCO) series on the History of Africa, which is now complete, with an updated volume as well as a teachers guide. The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation has also contributed an impressive seven book series on "Turning Points in South African history", which is much welcomed.

These are the moments and people who instil in us a sense of pride as a nation. We honour all these authors with the knowledge that it was not always easy for them to write at the time. In Africa, many writers were subjected to hostile and uncongenial environments; some still are. Some valuable written materials, which contained an essential history of our African masses, were destroyed by colonial regimes, including the apartheid government.

Talking about the importance of books and writer today is fitting because it is the start of the National Library Week. Various events have been organised country wide to celebrate the role of libraries in a decade of democracy. Our ceremony today is part of such celebrations. We would like to thank the Library and Information Association of South Africa and its President, Mr Robert Moropa, for initiating such a critical initiative. We must continue to review the use of public libraries, and diminish the old patterns of using the library for study and exams only.

I urge all South African to read our African literature. Our commitment is to support and promote the importance and value of reading in schools and homes. It is vital for us to ensure that our families are not shy to read books that are written in their own languages with their children. In Africa, according to research conducted by Sandra Land in 2000, on 'The State of book development in South Africa', fewer than 5% of the population of most countries are active readers, and book production is almost entirely for the education sector. She goes on to add that nearly all bookshops in Africa are in urban areas and they are usually situated many hundreds of miles apart.

Our commissioned research reveals that the reading and writing comprehension of the foundation phase learners is low. We are attending to this as a matter of concern and urgency, but my concern is that South Africa is not yet a reading nation, which will always impede our progress. A nation that reads for pleasure, and for fun, becomes a literate nation.

Reading is still perceived as an academic obligation, and we must inculcate, by example, a culture of reading amongst our young people in schools. Let us read on the taxis, on the buses and the trains. Let us read during our lunch-breaks. Let us read in the evenings. Slowly, but surely, our children will emulate us, and the habit will remain forever.

However, while our country is celebrating its tenth year of democracy, and has moved on, the publishing industry throughout Africa is still the same vocation as it was many years ago, may do not have the opportunity to read. As shown in Sandra Land's report, business for publishers, including in South Africa, is still in education, usually in the form of prescribed texts. Very few publishers produce popular novels and other non-academic literature. England began its reading culture with "penny L'orribles". We should take a look at the music industry, for whom "local" is now definitely "lekker", despite the initial cynicism of many in the industry. Local bands far outsell anything from overseas, although the form of marketing is very different. No fancy stores - just excellent distribution networks through every store or spasa shop.

Although the level of reading and writing is cause for concern, our learners are improving, including in the fields of Maths and Science. Today, we will honour the best Grade 11 achievers in Maths and Science, in the hope they will intensify their efforts for matric. It is only when we are given opportunities to perform that we can demonstrate our excellence. We are here then also to celebrate the excellent achievements of these Grade 11 Dinaledi schools learners.

The 2003 matric results clearly show that the tide has turned for our education system. We have moved from the despair of our past to a position of hope, of greater prosperity, and the will to progress in the future. Through focussed and targeted interventions we have made significant gains in improving the quality of education in so many ways. Schools, which had been characterised as dysfunctional, have now shown remarkable improvements, justifying our continued faith in the abilities of the communities to get it right.

Those of us who work with teachers, students and parents on a daily basis know that these improvements are really the result of Tirisano - the working together of all those in the very large family of education. We have created the legislative and policy platform for this to happen, and people have rightly reclaimed education as their own.

We congratulate all the winners here tonight. But many of the children we are honouring have achieved their success despite coming from very poor homes. We must be extra proud of them. Our Government is determined to assist these children so that they can realise all of their dreams, including the ability to proceed to university, if they wish. This year alone the National Student Financial Aid Scheme is assisting over 110 000 students to attend the university of their choice.

I urge all South Africans to assist us promote the culture of reading in our homes, communities and schools. I call upon all the major stakeholders in the book industry to help us ensure access for all South Africans to books, and to the opportunity to read. A reading nation is a winning nation.

I thank you. Ngiyabonga.

Issued by: Ministry of Education
15 March 2004
Source: Department of Education (http://www.education.gov.za)