Date: 31/01/2004
Source: Department of Education
Title: Asmal: KwaDukuza Class of 2003 Awards
Speech by the Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal, MP, at the KwaDukuza Class of 2003 Awards Presentations Ceremony Stanger High School, KwaDukuza
The Mayor, Councillor SS Gumede
Council Speaker, Councillor SW Mdabe
Members of Parliament
The Municipal Manager, Mr Nathi Mthembu
School principals
Teachers and parents
Boys and girls
Ladies and gentlemen
Good afternoon. Sanibonani. Molweni. Namaste. Vannakum. Asalaam Alaikum.
Ngiyajabula ukuba nani namhlanje. Ngiyazi ukuthi usuku olukhulu kini nonke lolu. Usuku lwenjabulo emphakathini waKwaDukuza. Ngize lapha ukuzojabula nani.
Abanye benu bayazi ukuthi angikwazi ukukhuluma IsiZulu. Noma kunjalo, ngisithanda kakhulu IsiZulu, njengoba ngithanda zonke izilimi zaseNingizimu Afrika. Yingakho ngizokhuluma ngesiNgisi manje.
It is always a pleasure for me and for anyone to come back home. KwaDukuza is my home. It always was and always will be. Many of you know that I was born here, and I went to Stanger Secondary School, which is one of the schools we shall be honouring this afternoon. I also taught here for a few years before I left teaching in protest against being limited to teaching only ‘Indian children’. I wanted to teach CHILDREN, and not ‘children with an adjective’.
When I was last here in KwaDukuza in August last year, I went to pay my respect at the grave of my mentor, father and leader, Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli. It was Chief Luthuli who taught me the politics of non-racialism and guided me in my early years of fighting for freedom in this country. I wish to greet members of his family who are here today.
As early 1962, Chief Luthuli remarked that “there can be no question of a different system of education for the different racial groups in the country. … The monstrosity of Bantu education and Indian education will have to go.”
Chief Luthuli’s message to all of us present here is very clear. We cannot allow ourselves to be divided along racial lines. The diversity of our languages and cultures should never be a basis for division. Instead, as our Coat of Arms says, !KE E: /XARRA //KE – we should strive to unite in our diversity. We should base our unity on our common humanity and our common heritage as South Africans.
We should follow in the footsteps of Albert Luthuli, Nelson Mandela, and Thabo Mbeki, who captured our unity in diversity in his famous 1996 speech, ‘I am an African’, which I urge all of you, especially the children, to read.
Chief Luthuli also inspired many of us to work for a non-racial, non-sexist, humane and democratic system of education which would “free the potential of each person”, as our Constitution states.
Our presence here today is evidence of the results of a freed potential among our students and teachers. It is only when one is given opportunities to blossom that one achieves genuine excellence in what one does. We are here then to celebrate that achievement and excellence among our schools and students in the area of KwaDukuza.
We take great pride in the achievements of the Grade 12 class of 2003, in KwaDukuza and across the length and breadth of our country. The 2003 results clearly show that the tide has turned for our education system. We have continued to move from the despair of our past to hope, prosperity and progress for the future. Through focused and targeted interventions, we have, once again, made significant gains in improving the national pass rate, as well as ensuring that many of the schools, which had previously been characterised as dysfunctional, have now shown considerable improvement.
A closer look at the overall pass rate in the Lower Thukela Circuit, in which KwaDukuza is located, shows clearly that the national pass rate has been matched in the poorest of schools here. It is pleasing to see that this circuit obtained a 73.67% pass rate, up from 71.28% in 2002. I am also happy to note that in 2003 there was no school in KwaDukuza that achieved a pass rate below 20%, in the category of schools my Department calls ‘dysfunctional’. In fact, with the exception of one school which had a pass rate of 39.39%, all the schools in this town achieved a pass rate of more than 40%.
After I released the national Senior Certificate results on 30 December last year, a few doubting Thomases and some sections of the media climbed on the silly season bandwagon and tried, unsuccessfully, I might add, to discredit the results. The results were certified by UMALUSI as representing the true performance of the matric class of 2003. UMALUSI is an independent statutory body responsible for monitoring the quality of our system. The time has come for all of us to respect the independent statutory bodies that were set up to strengthen our democracy, unless we bring concrete evidence of wrong-doing.
Those of us who work with teachers, students and parents on a daily basis, know that the improvement in the education system is a result of Tirisano – working together – among all key role players in education.
To illustrate this point, I will tell you the story of a miracle school that I visited almost six months ago. In 1999 the school had a Senior Certificate pass rate of 4%; almost every window was broken; the buildings were neglected; the school yard was overgrown; the average age of the students was 21 years; teachers and students arrived late for school; and there was hardly any teaching going on during school hours.
When I visited the school last year, all this was history. The school had been completely turned around. The Senior Certificate pass rate was just under 80%; not a single window was broken; the buildings had been repainted; new toilets had been built; there were well-kept lawns; flowers had been planted; a new sports field had been built through a sponsorship from the private sector; teachers and students arrived on time; there was clear evidence of learning and teaching; and the community was closely involved in the affairs of the school.
You will be pleased to know that the school I am talking about is right here in KwaDukuza, in Groutville specifically – Nonhlevu High School. When I looked at the figures for all the schools in KwaDukuza, I got a distinct impression that there are many more schools like Nonhlevu around here. For example, I can also mention Groutville Secondary School that improved its pass rate from 10.71% in 1998 to 88.71% in 2003!
We know that Nonhlevu was turned around because of a truly remarkable partnership between the principal, Mr Roy Naicker, the teachers, and the community represented by the School Governing Body ably led by its former Chairperson and former Umkhonto weSizwe commander, Comrade Howard Nduli and the ANC stalwart, Comrade Fred Dube, a retired professor at the State University of New York.
This is an illustration of how the community, in the spirit of Vuk’uzenzele, can reclaim its destiny and redirect everyone’s efforts for the greater good of its children. I have said before, and I repeat it here this afternoon, that a good school is one in which the relationship between teachers and the community is good, one in which the community takes ownership of the school and gets integrally involved in its activities, a school where the children and the teachers are happy and always look forward to another school day.
The progress in developing young people at many schools I have visited, and I am sure also in schools here in KwaDukuza, is further evidence of their success, because we cannot judge success only by the Senior Certificate pass rate. Rather we need to look more deeply at the type of students a school is producing. We need to look at whether the students are well-rounded in the way in which they are prepared to meet the challenges of adulthood and a life of work, being parents, and members of the community. From everything I have seen in many of the schools I have been to during my tenure as Minister of Education, I am sure that they are succeeding also in this area.
Those who consistently speak ill of our achievements in education deliberately choose to turn a blind eye to the genuine efforts of our teachers, our parents, our students and our Government to improve the system.
As we celebrate the performance of the schools of KwaDukuza, let us not forget the people who are quoted as statistics in our reports – the students, the matric class of 2003. It is the students who have brought pride to all the schools of KwaDukuza. They worked very hard during the year, and they sacrificed their leisure.
I am aware that some of the students were thrust into the role of parenthood so early in their lives because their parents succumbed to illnesses, including HIV and AIDS. I salute these child-parents for their achievements. In passing matric, they have demonstrated strong character and have shown that with a will to succeed, no amount of hardship and misfortune can stop a person of great determination.
To all of you my children who succeeded in the Senior Certificate in 2003, I say congratulations. You have made your parents, your teachers, your community and your Government proud. The top five students who will be honoured from each school today should see themselves as representatives of all members of the class of 2003 in KwaDukuza because we do not see the results as a competition between students and between schools.
To the children who did not succeed in 2003, I urge you not to give up. That you did not succeed last year, does not mean the end of the world. You should turn failure into an opportunity to reflect on what you have already achieved in life, where you are currently, and where you want to be in a few years’ time. Such a reflection could point you to many more opportunities elsewhere.
There are indeed many alternative opportunities. The Government has established a number of Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs). These SETAs have several learnerships registered with them, which offer opportunities for workplace learning, which can provide the necessary intermediate and higher vocational skills required for economic growth, and personal and social development. I would therefore encourage you to explore these new opportunities, which the SETAs offer.
Also, we have restructured the Further Education and Training (FET) band to provide a route through the FET colleges, which have been revamped in the past year. There are now 50 multi-campus public FET colleges which resulted from the merging of the previous 152 single-campus colleges. The mega-colleges offer new and relevant career-based courses, which the young people should seriously consider doing.
We have not only restructured FET colleges, but we are also in the process of transforming higher education, including giving a higher status to the old technikons, which we now call Universities of Technology. We want to build up vocational education and move it from its past Cinderella status.
So those of you who passed in the Senior Certificate and those of you who are still at school should not only aim to go the traditional universities. You should consider going to the Universities of Technology.
The North Coast from Tongaat to St Lucia provides wonderful career opportunities which the young people here can follow. There is a large sugar cane industry, large-scale crop farming, a significant wood processing industry, a booming tourism industry around the sand dunes in St Lucia, which were declared a World Heritage Site. And, of course, we also have the new aluminium smelter in Richards Bay. Choosing relevant vocational careers would facilitate your entry into these industries.
I said earlier that I am aware of the many children who have become child-parents through no fault of their own. I also know that many of the children we are honouring here today have achieved despite coming from very poor homes. The Government is determined to assist these children so that they can realise their dreams of proceeding to higher education.
In this regard, the Government established the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to assist students who are in need. The NSFAS now administers nearly a billion rands in loans and bursaries. I am pleased to announce that in 2004, nearly 110 000 deserving students are being assisted at higher education institutions across the country. As a result the enrolment of black students, who represent the overwhelming majority of needy students, has increased by over 65% over the last 10 years.
To those needy students who have been admitted to any one of our universities (including universities of technology), if you have not done so yet, you should approach the Financial Aid Bureau at your institution to make inquiries about NSFAS.
In bringing my address to a close, I would like to say that the steady improvement we are seeing in the performances of the secondary schools of KwaDukuza epitomises a general consolidation of social progress in our country as we celebrate ten years of freedom.
Through transforming our education system to go beyond concerns with the matric pass rate, like were are doing with our Values in Education project, we are steadily but surely realising the dream of Chief Albert Luthuli in his saying that “Education provides a common language, creates common attitudes and norms for citizens. It is an important unifying factor in building national consciousness and pride – a healthy community spirit.”
It is this directive from our father and leader that we all need to commit ourselves to in the next decade of freedom. Let us, through our schools, build a strong national identity and solidarity, free from the shackles of colonialism and the racial divisions of the past. We should make it our mission to learn to live together and to learn from each other in our common South Africanness.
I thank you.
Ngiyabonga
Department of Education
January 31, 2004
Source: Department of Education
Title: Asmal: KwaDukuza Class of 2003 Awards
Speech by the Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal, MP, at the KwaDukuza Class of 2003 Awards Presentations Ceremony Stanger High School, KwaDukuza
The Mayor, Councillor SS Gumede
Council Speaker, Councillor SW Mdabe
Members of Parliament
The Municipal Manager, Mr Nathi Mthembu
School principals
Teachers and parents
Boys and girls
Ladies and gentlemen
Good afternoon. Sanibonani. Molweni. Namaste. Vannakum. Asalaam Alaikum.
Ngiyajabula ukuba nani namhlanje. Ngiyazi ukuthi usuku olukhulu kini nonke lolu. Usuku lwenjabulo emphakathini waKwaDukuza. Ngize lapha ukuzojabula nani.
Abanye benu bayazi ukuthi angikwazi ukukhuluma IsiZulu. Noma kunjalo, ngisithanda kakhulu IsiZulu, njengoba ngithanda zonke izilimi zaseNingizimu Afrika. Yingakho ngizokhuluma ngesiNgisi manje.
It is always a pleasure for me and for anyone to come back home. KwaDukuza is my home. It always was and always will be. Many of you know that I was born here, and I went to Stanger Secondary School, which is one of the schools we shall be honouring this afternoon. I also taught here for a few years before I left teaching in protest against being limited to teaching only ‘Indian children’. I wanted to teach CHILDREN, and not ‘children with an adjective’.
When I was last here in KwaDukuza in August last year, I went to pay my respect at the grave of my mentor, father and leader, Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli. It was Chief Luthuli who taught me the politics of non-racialism and guided me in my early years of fighting for freedom in this country. I wish to greet members of his family who are here today.
As early 1962, Chief Luthuli remarked that “there can be no question of a different system of education for the different racial groups in the country. … The monstrosity of Bantu education and Indian education will have to go.”
Chief Luthuli’s message to all of us present here is very clear. We cannot allow ourselves to be divided along racial lines. The diversity of our languages and cultures should never be a basis for division. Instead, as our Coat of Arms says, !KE E: /XARRA //KE – we should strive to unite in our diversity. We should base our unity on our common humanity and our common heritage as South Africans.
We should follow in the footsteps of Albert Luthuli, Nelson Mandela, and Thabo Mbeki, who captured our unity in diversity in his famous 1996 speech, ‘I am an African’, which I urge all of you, especially the children, to read.
Chief Luthuli also inspired many of us to work for a non-racial, non-sexist, humane and democratic system of education which would “free the potential of each person”, as our Constitution states.
Our presence here today is evidence of the results of a freed potential among our students and teachers. It is only when one is given opportunities to blossom that one achieves genuine excellence in what one does. We are here then to celebrate that achievement and excellence among our schools and students in the area of KwaDukuza.
We take great pride in the achievements of the Grade 12 class of 2003, in KwaDukuza and across the length and breadth of our country. The 2003 results clearly show that the tide has turned for our education system. We have continued to move from the despair of our past to hope, prosperity and progress for the future. Through focused and targeted interventions, we have, once again, made significant gains in improving the national pass rate, as well as ensuring that many of the schools, which had previously been characterised as dysfunctional, have now shown considerable improvement.
A closer look at the overall pass rate in the Lower Thukela Circuit, in which KwaDukuza is located, shows clearly that the national pass rate has been matched in the poorest of schools here. It is pleasing to see that this circuit obtained a 73.67% pass rate, up from 71.28% in 2002. I am also happy to note that in 2003 there was no school in KwaDukuza that achieved a pass rate below 20%, in the category of schools my Department calls ‘dysfunctional’. In fact, with the exception of one school which had a pass rate of 39.39%, all the schools in this town achieved a pass rate of more than 40%.
After I released the national Senior Certificate results on 30 December last year, a few doubting Thomases and some sections of the media climbed on the silly season bandwagon and tried, unsuccessfully, I might add, to discredit the results. The results were certified by UMALUSI as representing the true performance of the matric class of 2003. UMALUSI is an independent statutory body responsible for monitoring the quality of our system. The time has come for all of us to respect the independent statutory bodies that were set up to strengthen our democracy, unless we bring concrete evidence of wrong-doing.
Those of us who work with teachers, students and parents on a daily basis, know that the improvement in the education system is a result of Tirisano – working together – among all key role players in education.
To illustrate this point, I will tell you the story of a miracle school that I visited almost six months ago. In 1999 the school had a Senior Certificate pass rate of 4%; almost every window was broken; the buildings were neglected; the school yard was overgrown; the average age of the students was 21 years; teachers and students arrived late for school; and there was hardly any teaching going on during school hours.
When I visited the school last year, all this was history. The school had been completely turned around. The Senior Certificate pass rate was just under 80%; not a single window was broken; the buildings had been repainted; new toilets had been built; there were well-kept lawns; flowers had been planted; a new sports field had been built through a sponsorship from the private sector; teachers and students arrived on time; there was clear evidence of learning and teaching; and the community was closely involved in the affairs of the school.
You will be pleased to know that the school I am talking about is right here in KwaDukuza, in Groutville specifically – Nonhlevu High School. When I looked at the figures for all the schools in KwaDukuza, I got a distinct impression that there are many more schools like Nonhlevu around here. For example, I can also mention Groutville Secondary School that improved its pass rate from 10.71% in 1998 to 88.71% in 2003!
We know that Nonhlevu was turned around because of a truly remarkable partnership between the principal, Mr Roy Naicker, the teachers, and the community represented by the School Governing Body ably led by its former Chairperson and former Umkhonto weSizwe commander, Comrade Howard Nduli and the ANC stalwart, Comrade Fred Dube, a retired professor at the State University of New York.
This is an illustration of how the community, in the spirit of Vuk’uzenzele, can reclaim its destiny and redirect everyone’s efforts for the greater good of its children. I have said before, and I repeat it here this afternoon, that a good school is one in which the relationship between teachers and the community is good, one in which the community takes ownership of the school and gets integrally involved in its activities, a school where the children and the teachers are happy and always look forward to another school day.
The progress in developing young people at many schools I have visited, and I am sure also in schools here in KwaDukuza, is further evidence of their success, because we cannot judge success only by the Senior Certificate pass rate. Rather we need to look more deeply at the type of students a school is producing. We need to look at whether the students are well-rounded in the way in which they are prepared to meet the challenges of adulthood and a life of work, being parents, and members of the community. From everything I have seen in many of the schools I have been to during my tenure as Minister of Education, I am sure that they are succeeding also in this area.
Those who consistently speak ill of our achievements in education deliberately choose to turn a blind eye to the genuine efforts of our teachers, our parents, our students and our Government to improve the system.
As we celebrate the performance of the schools of KwaDukuza, let us not forget the people who are quoted as statistics in our reports – the students, the matric class of 2003. It is the students who have brought pride to all the schools of KwaDukuza. They worked very hard during the year, and they sacrificed their leisure.
I am aware that some of the students were thrust into the role of parenthood so early in their lives because their parents succumbed to illnesses, including HIV and AIDS. I salute these child-parents for their achievements. In passing matric, they have demonstrated strong character and have shown that with a will to succeed, no amount of hardship and misfortune can stop a person of great determination.
To all of you my children who succeeded in the Senior Certificate in 2003, I say congratulations. You have made your parents, your teachers, your community and your Government proud. The top five students who will be honoured from each school today should see themselves as representatives of all members of the class of 2003 in KwaDukuza because we do not see the results as a competition between students and between schools.
To the children who did not succeed in 2003, I urge you not to give up. That you did not succeed last year, does not mean the end of the world. You should turn failure into an opportunity to reflect on what you have already achieved in life, where you are currently, and where you want to be in a few years’ time. Such a reflection could point you to many more opportunities elsewhere.
There are indeed many alternative opportunities. The Government has established a number of Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs). These SETAs have several learnerships registered with them, which offer opportunities for workplace learning, which can provide the necessary intermediate and higher vocational skills required for economic growth, and personal and social development. I would therefore encourage you to explore these new opportunities, which the SETAs offer.
Also, we have restructured the Further Education and Training (FET) band to provide a route through the FET colleges, which have been revamped in the past year. There are now 50 multi-campus public FET colleges which resulted from the merging of the previous 152 single-campus colleges. The mega-colleges offer new and relevant career-based courses, which the young people should seriously consider doing.
We have not only restructured FET colleges, but we are also in the process of transforming higher education, including giving a higher status to the old technikons, which we now call Universities of Technology. We want to build up vocational education and move it from its past Cinderella status.
So those of you who passed in the Senior Certificate and those of you who are still at school should not only aim to go the traditional universities. You should consider going to the Universities of Technology.
The North Coast from Tongaat to St Lucia provides wonderful career opportunities which the young people here can follow. There is a large sugar cane industry, large-scale crop farming, a significant wood processing industry, a booming tourism industry around the sand dunes in St Lucia, which were declared a World Heritage Site. And, of course, we also have the new aluminium smelter in Richards Bay. Choosing relevant vocational careers would facilitate your entry into these industries.
I said earlier that I am aware of the many children who have become child-parents through no fault of their own. I also know that many of the children we are honouring here today have achieved despite coming from very poor homes. The Government is determined to assist these children so that they can realise their dreams of proceeding to higher education.
In this regard, the Government established the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to assist students who are in need. The NSFAS now administers nearly a billion rands in loans and bursaries. I am pleased to announce that in 2004, nearly 110 000 deserving students are being assisted at higher education institutions across the country. As a result the enrolment of black students, who represent the overwhelming majority of needy students, has increased by over 65% over the last 10 years.
To those needy students who have been admitted to any one of our universities (including universities of technology), if you have not done so yet, you should approach the Financial Aid Bureau at your institution to make inquiries about NSFAS.
In bringing my address to a close, I would like to say that the steady improvement we are seeing in the performances of the secondary schools of KwaDukuza epitomises a general consolidation of social progress in our country as we celebrate ten years of freedom.
Through transforming our education system to go beyond concerns with the matric pass rate, like were are doing with our Values in Education project, we are steadily but surely realising the dream of Chief Albert Luthuli in his saying that “Education provides a common language, creates common attitudes and norms for citizens. It is an important unifying factor in building national consciousness and pride – a healthy community spirit.”
It is this directive from our father and leader that we all need to commit ourselves to in the next decade of freedom. Let us, through our schools, build a strong national identity and solidarity, free from the shackles of colonialism and the racial divisions of the past. We should make it our mission to learn to live together and to learn from each other in our common South Africanness.
I thank you.
Ngiyabonga
Department of Education
January 31, 2004
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