Date: 19/03/2004
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: K Asmal: Opening of Dominican Convent School S&T Centre
SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, PROFESSOR KADER ASMAL, MP, AT THE OPENING OF THE DOMINICAN CONVENT SCHOOL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTRE, BELGRAVIA, JOHANNESBURG, 19 March 2004
Director of Ceremonies, Mr Michael Leeming
MEC for Education, Mr Ignatius Jacobs
The Bishop of Johannesburg, Bishop Buti Tlhagale
Trustee of the Anglo American Chairman's Fund, Mrs Margie Keeton
Chairperson of the Board of Governors, Mr Simon Morule
Representatives of the Embassy of Japan
Representatives of Sasol
Representative of the Dominican Sisters, Sister Aloysia
Staff of Dominican Covent School
My dear children
Ladies and gentlemen.
I would like to thank you for inviting me to share in your joy and happiness as you officially open your Science and Technology Centre. It is indeed a wonderful occasion, especially for the boys and girls who will now have the necessary tools to enable them to follow careers in science and technology. The new centre will certainly open new vistas for the students of the Dominican Convent School.
About a month ago, a young fourteen year-old student, Nomathemba Kontyo, from Gugulethu in Cape Town, visited the National Aeronautical Space Administration (NASA) in Pasadena in the United States. As one of sixteen Student Astronauts selected from all over the world by the Planetary Society, Nomathemba went to the United States, not as a tourist, but as a working scientist. She earned this distinction by submitting a winning essay to the society's programme, "Red Rover Goes to Mars." In that essay, Nomathemba outlined the experiments she would like to conduct with the two robotic space vehicles called rovers, which are exploring life on the planet Mars.
For two weeks, Nomathemba worked at mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, analysing the images and data as they came back to Earth from the rovers on Mars. Along with the other student astronauts, she reported to the rest of the world about what she learned inside mission operations.
Ironically, Nomathemba comes from a very disadvantaged background. She lives with her mother in a modest dwelling in Gugulethu. In fact my department donated a laptop and a R2 000 clothing allowance for her trip. However, Nomathemba did not allow her disadvantaged background to prevent her from dreaming - dreaming about a prosperous future as the first female astronaut on the African continent.
It is my hope therefore that all the boys and girls in this school will learn from Nomathemba Kontyo, and always look to reach the outer limits of their potentials. As they do so, I hope the teachers here will walk with them, encourage them, and as the preamble to the Constitution says, draw on their potential.
Drawing on the potential of our people, especially young people, requires a sea change of the way in which we teach and interact with our students. The days of the rote learning are really and truly over. The idea that students are empty buckets waiting to be filled belongs to a bucket of a special kind, the dustbin of history.
Children possess rich experiences and knowledge, which should be drawn upon in the teaching and learning situation. They are reservoirs of possibility, which should be valued and tapped upon.
The opening of the Science and Technology Centre here augurs well for our National Strategy for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. When we launched the strategy two years ago, I said that schools serving the majority of students lacked appropriate physical infrastructure, such as laboratories, libraries and computer centres, had inadequate teaching and learning support materials and were often in remote localities with little or no support and contact with good practice.
While your school is certainly not located in a remote part of our country, it did not have a modern science and technology centre. I hope that now that you have such a wonderful facility, you will take good care of it, use it to its full potential, and indeed share it with other nearby schools which might not be as fortunate as you are.
The Government has also been systematically addressing other elements of the National Strategy for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. One of those aspects is the curriculum.
At present neither mathematics nor mathematical literacy is compulsory in our secondary schools. Historically, students have been discouraged from enrolling for subjects in the natural sciences. This legacy has contributed directly to the shortage of people with medium and high knowledge and skills in science and technology, much to the detriment of our country's social and economic development.
It is this situation, which we inherited from apartheid education that made us to develop the National Curriculum Statements for Grades R to 9 and for Grades 10 to 12. As you will know, we introduced this revised curriculum in the foundation phase in January this year, and we aim to introduce the curriculum in Grade 10 in 2006.
One of the exciting features of the new curriculum is that all students graduating with a General Education and Training Certificate (GETC) will be competent in mathematics, natural sciences and technology. The revised curriculum, then, will set a firm foundation for numeracy, literacy, the sciences and technology.
Also, every student graduating with a Further Education and Training Certificate (FETC) will be mathematically literate. Students will be required to enrol for either Mathematical Literacy or Mathematics in order to qualify for the certificate.
This is a great innovation by the Government. We have developed a curriculum, which clearly matches the demands of the twenty-first century.
However, the Government will not be complacent. We know that we still have a long way to go. As a well-known Chinese leader once said, "the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step". We have taken the first few steps. Now have begun the rest of our journey in earnest.
As we travel on this journey, we will meet the following challenges head-on, but with our collective strength and determination, we are assured of ultimate victory.
First, we know that we will have to improve the teaching of English as a second language. There is sufficient evidence, which tells us that a lack of proficiency in the language of teaching and learning is a major factor contributing to poor performance in mathematics, science and technology.
Secondly, we have to place a qualified and competent teacher in every Mathematics, Science and Technology classroom. I am looking forward to the report of the Ministerial Project Committee on Teacher Development, which I set up last year, to advise me appropriate strategies to improve the supply of qualified and competent teachers in these and other subjects.
Thirdly, I am considering setting performance targets for all schools. One of the lessons we have learnt from the Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Strategy is that setting realistic targets for the system can yield favourable results. Such targets could relate to increases in participation and performance rates for schools and in certain target groups such as Africans and girls.
Fourth, we want to make interactive digital content on mathematics, science and technology available via satellite television, the Internet, and print supplements. We have linked this goal to a huge roll out of ICT hardware, soft ware and connectivity to schools. In our White Paper on e-Education, we set ourselves the target date of 2013 for all students in general and further education and training to be able to use ICTs confidently and creatively in their appropriate ages.
Fifth, my Department and Umalusi, the good shepherd, will be evaluating and regulating programmes operating in and out of school to ensure broader equity and access as well as to ensure that such programmes are of good quality.
Finally, the Government will continue its programme of entering into a social contract with various communities, partners, networks, and professional bodies to find the required resources and to mobilise the required technical support and expertise for the teaching and learning of science and technology in our schools.
It is in this respect that I thank and commend Anglo American, the Japanese Embassy, the Frick Family, Sasol, Dell Computers, the Dominican Sisters, and the Dominican Convent School in Pretoria for responding to the call for Tirisano, working together, to the better lives of all our people. It is through your generous contribution that we can today officially open the Science and Technology Centre at the Dominican Convent School with great pride. It is through initiatives such as this one that we can address the legacy of apartheid education.
I also wish to thank the management and staff of this school, past and present, for the role that the school has played in uplifting the lives of our people since its birth almost 100 years ago.
I am pleased to note that this is one of the first schools, which opened their doors to communities that were prevented by apartheid from studying outside their apartheid-created so-called group areas. I know that this came with consistent harassment from the apartheid bureaucrats and police. But despite this, you persevered and continued to fulfil your mission with great dedication.
I am also very pleased to note that you have not only excelled academically as a school, but you also excelled in extra-mural activities such as music and sports.
Arts, culture and sports are very important parts of what goes on in a school. These activities help to develop fully rounded citizens, and I don't refer to your physical appearance here. Because children are born into communities, they have to be taught to live as integral parts of those communities.
Sports, arts and culture can make a significant contribution to social integration. Less than a week ago, we launched the national Tirisano Youth Choir, the national youth choir in our country. The choir has black and white students from all over the country. The talent that makes the choir is breathtaking. Very soon, the youth choir will compete at the international youth choir festival in Bremen, Germany. Such is the coming together of our young people for the common good of our country and our people.
It is also pleasing to note that the school runs community programmes, such as providing a home and accommodation for street children and HIV/AIDS orphans. Such contributions, undertaken in the spirit of Vuk'uzenzele, make us proud as South Africans.
As you approach your centenary of continued service to our people, I am sure you look back with pride at the work you have done, and look forward with an even greater determination to make your contribution to the people's contract to build a better life for all our people.
I thank you
Ke a leboga
Ngiyabonga
Issued by: Ministry of Education
19 March 2004
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: K Asmal: Opening of Dominican Convent School S&T Centre
SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, PROFESSOR KADER ASMAL, MP, AT THE OPENING OF THE DOMINICAN CONVENT SCHOOL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTRE, BELGRAVIA, JOHANNESBURG, 19 March 2004
Director of Ceremonies, Mr Michael Leeming
MEC for Education, Mr Ignatius Jacobs
The Bishop of Johannesburg, Bishop Buti Tlhagale
Trustee of the Anglo American Chairman's Fund, Mrs Margie Keeton
Chairperson of the Board of Governors, Mr Simon Morule
Representatives of the Embassy of Japan
Representatives of Sasol
Representative of the Dominican Sisters, Sister Aloysia
Staff of Dominican Covent School
My dear children
Ladies and gentlemen.
I would like to thank you for inviting me to share in your joy and happiness as you officially open your Science and Technology Centre. It is indeed a wonderful occasion, especially for the boys and girls who will now have the necessary tools to enable them to follow careers in science and technology. The new centre will certainly open new vistas for the students of the Dominican Convent School.
About a month ago, a young fourteen year-old student, Nomathemba Kontyo, from Gugulethu in Cape Town, visited the National Aeronautical Space Administration (NASA) in Pasadena in the United States. As one of sixteen Student Astronauts selected from all over the world by the Planetary Society, Nomathemba went to the United States, not as a tourist, but as a working scientist. She earned this distinction by submitting a winning essay to the society's programme, "Red Rover Goes to Mars." In that essay, Nomathemba outlined the experiments she would like to conduct with the two robotic space vehicles called rovers, which are exploring life on the planet Mars.
For two weeks, Nomathemba worked at mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, analysing the images and data as they came back to Earth from the rovers on Mars. Along with the other student astronauts, she reported to the rest of the world about what she learned inside mission operations.
Ironically, Nomathemba comes from a very disadvantaged background. She lives with her mother in a modest dwelling in Gugulethu. In fact my department donated a laptop and a R2 000 clothing allowance for her trip. However, Nomathemba did not allow her disadvantaged background to prevent her from dreaming - dreaming about a prosperous future as the first female astronaut on the African continent.
It is my hope therefore that all the boys and girls in this school will learn from Nomathemba Kontyo, and always look to reach the outer limits of their potentials. As they do so, I hope the teachers here will walk with them, encourage them, and as the preamble to the Constitution says, draw on their potential.
Drawing on the potential of our people, especially young people, requires a sea change of the way in which we teach and interact with our students. The days of the rote learning are really and truly over. The idea that students are empty buckets waiting to be filled belongs to a bucket of a special kind, the dustbin of history.
Children possess rich experiences and knowledge, which should be drawn upon in the teaching and learning situation. They are reservoirs of possibility, which should be valued and tapped upon.
The opening of the Science and Technology Centre here augurs well for our National Strategy for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. When we launched the strategy two years ago, I said that schools serving the majority of students lacked appropriate physical infrastructure, such as laboratories, libraries and computer centres, had inadequate teaching and learning support materials and were often in remote localities with little or no support and contact with good practice.
While your school is certainly not located in a remote part of our country, it did not have a modern science and technology centre. I hope that now that you have such a wonderful facility, you will take good care of it, use it to its full potential, and indeed share it with other nearby schools which might not be as fortunate as you are.
The Government has also been systematically addressing other elements of the National Strategy for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. One of those aspects is the curriculum.
At present neither mathematics nor mathematical literacy is compulsory in our secondary schools. Historically, students have been discouraged from enrolling for subjects in the natural sciences. This legacy has contributed directly to the shortage of people with medium and high knowledge and skills in science and technology, much to the detriment of our country's social and economic development.
It is this situation, which we inherited from apartheid education that made us to develop the National Curriculum Statements for Grades R to 9 and for Grades 10 to 12. As you will know, we introduced this revised curriculum in the foundation phase in January this year, and we aim to introduce the curriculum in Grade 10 in 2006.
One of the exciting features of the new curriculum is that all students graduating with a General Education and Training Certificate (GETC) will be competent in mathematics, natural sciences and technology. The revised curriculum, then, will set a firm foundation for numeracy, literacy, the sciences and technology.
Also, every student graduating with a Further Education and Training Certificate (FETC) will be mathematically literate. Students will be required to enrol for either Mathematical Literacy or Mathematics in order to qualify for the certificate.
This is a great innovation by the Government. We have developed a curriculum, which clearly matches the demands of the twenty-first century.
However, the Government will not be complacent. We know that we still have a long way to go. As a well-known Chinese leader once said, "the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step". We have taken the first few steps. Now have begun the rest of our journey in earnest.
As we travel on this journey, we will meet the following challenges head-on, but with our collective strength and determination, we are assured of ultimate victory.
First, we know that we will have to improve the teaching of English as a second language. There is sufficient evidence, which tells us that a lack of proficiency in the language of teaching and learning is a major factor contributing to poor performance in mathematics, science and technology.
Secondly, we have to place a qualified and competent teacher in every Mathematics, Science and Technology classroom. I am looking forward to the report of the Ministerial Project Committee on Teacher Development, which I set up last year, to advise me appropriate strategies to improve the supply of qualified and competent teachers in these and other subjects.
Thirdly, I am considering setting performance targets for all schools. One of the lessons we have learnt from the Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Strategy is that setting realistic targets for the system can yield favourable results. Such targets could relate to increases in participation and performance rates for schools and in certain target groups such as Africans and girls.
Fourth, we want to make interactive digital content on mathematics, science and technology available via satellite television, the Internet, and print supplements. We have linked this goal to a huge roll out of ICT hardware, soft ware and connectivity to schools. In our White Paper on e-Education, we set ourselves the target date of 2013 for all students in general and further education and training to be able to use ICTs confidently and creatively in their appropriate ages.
Fifth, my Department and Umalusi, the good shepherd, will be evaluating and regulating programmes operating in and out of school to ensure broader equity and access as well as to ensure that such programmes are of good quality.
Finally, the Government will continue its programme of entering into a social contract with various communities, partners, networks, and professional bodies to find the required resources and to mobilise the required technical support and expertise for the teaching and learning of science and technology in our schools.
It is in this respect that I thank and commend Anglo American, the Japanese Embassy, the Frick Family, Sasol, Dell Computers, the Dominican Sisters, and the Dominican Convent School in Pretoria for responding to the call for Tirisano, working together, to the better lives of all our people. It is through your generous contribution that we can today officially open the Science and Technology Centre at the Dominican Convent School with great pride. It is through initiatives such as this one that we can address the legacy of apartheid education.
I also wish to thank the management and staff of this school, past and present, for the role that the school has played in uplifting the lives of our people since its birth almost 100 years ago.
I am pleased to note that this is one of the first schools, which opened their doors to communities that were prevented by apartheid from studying outside their apartheid-created so-called group areas. I know that this came with consistent harassment from the apartheid bureaucrats and police. But despite this, you persevered and continued to fulfil your mission with great dedication.
I am also very pleased to note that you have not only excelled academically as a school, but you also excelled in extra-mural activities such as music and sports.
Arts, culture and sports are very important parts of what goes on in a school. These activities help to develop fully rounded citizens, and I don't refer to your physical appearance here. Because children are born into communities, they have to be taught to live as integral parts of those communities.
Sports, arts and culture can make a significant contribution to social integration. Less than a week ago, we launched the national Tirisano Youth Choir, the national youth choir in our country. The choir has black and white students from all over the country. The talent that makes the choir is breathtaking. Very soon, the youth choir will compete at the international youth choir festival in Bremen, Germany. Such is the coming together of our young people for the common good of our country and our people.
It is also pleasing to note that the school runs community programmes, such as providing a home and accommodation for street children and HIV/AIDS orphans. Such contributions, undertaken in the spirit of Vuk'uzenzele, make us proud as South Africans.
As you approach your centenary of continued service to our people, I am sure you look back with pride at the work you have done, and look forward with an even greater determination to make your contribution to the people's contract to build a better life for all our people.
I thank you
Ke a leboga
Ngiyabonga
Issued by: Ministry of Education
19 March 2004
Advertisement
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE SAVE THIS ARTICLE FEEDBACK
To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
