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Date : 26/04/2003
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: Asmal: Opening of Ephes Mamkeli Secondary School


SPEECH BY PROFESSOR KADER ASMAL, MP, MINISTER OF EDUCATION, AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF EPHES MAMKELI SECONDARY SCHOOL, Wattville, Benoni, 26 April 2003

MEC for Education in Gauteng, Ignatius Jacobs
The former Mayor of Benoni, Mr Ronnie Kuta
The Senior Manager of the D5 District, Mr Dennis Molaba
The Principal
Members of the SGB
Teachers, learners and parents, I greet you all.

On behalf of the Ministry of Education, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the Principal and members of the School Governing Body for their fine gesture in extending an invitation to me on this important occasion. It is indeed my pleasant privilege to join you all in celebrating a very important milestone in the school's history. I am always pleased to be visiting Wattville, a township which is also well known as the burial place of our former leader and ANC stalwart, Dr Oliver Tambo, who died 10 years ago this week, just a year before our freedom was won. And, appropriately we celebrate Freedom Day on Monday.

The official opening of the school today symbolises the collective will of the people to succeed despite enormous disadvantage. The achievement of the community therefore, in bringing to fruition its cherished dream of a fully-fledged secondary school is proof of the sterling efforts of the School Governing Body and the school community at large. In this regard the members of the School Governing Body, the School Management Team, the staff, learners and the broader community must be commended for their determination and dedication.

But while we celebrate, it is important for us to pause awhile to reflect, nostalgically, on the pioneering efforts of all those who reflected with hindsight and planned with foresight to establish the school and nurture its growth. In this respect, I am told, the names of Mr Maphasa the first principal of the school, Mr Ngwenya and Mr Riba come to mind. We note with appreciation the dedicated services rendered by these principals and members of staff who have upheld the torch of learning for the hundreds of learners who have passed through its doors. In the ten years that have passed many learners have contributed towards the traditions, conventions and practices that your school and community cherish today.

I have been informed of the determination of the first principal to establish a secondary school in 1994 and thus prevent learners from leaving school after their primary education or face having to walk long distances for secondary education. I have also learnt that the school started from very humble beginnings with only standards 6 and 7 occupying nine classes at Wattville Primary School. The burgeoning of the school saw learners and educators shuttling between Wattville Primary School, Kgothalang Primary School, Lesabe Primary School and Isaac Makau Primary Schools. Such a situation of having learners in different settings did not augur well for sound educational practice.

The Gauteng Department of Education's intervention of renting the Dorbyl Company space, although a short-term solution at that time, did not fully solve the accommodation problem. This new school building was completed at the end of 2001 and handed over to the present principal, Mr Riba. I listened to this account with a deep appreciation of the efforts of dedicated and committed people in this community and admiration for their stamina not to give up. I am always amazed at and thankful of the capacity of ordinary South African to do extra ordinary things.

When one examines the reasons for the increased enrolment which had necessitated the move to various Primary Schools, a myriad of reasons come to mind but none so compelling as a secondary school's success and matric pass rates. There is a steady improvement in pass rates from 1997 when the first batch of matriculants achieved a 42% pass rate, to 1998 and 1999 when learners achieved a 52% pass rate, to the year 2000 when there was a dramatic increase to 78.65%, to 2001 when the school achieved a 84.93% pass rate, to the year 2002 when the school achieved an outstanding and enviable 100% pass rate. For this you deserve our heartfelt congratulations.

Foremost amongst the school's achievement is the academic achievement of Raymond Maseko in 1997, a township lad who had produced 6 distinctions in all the subjects he wrote. Raymond's splendid achievement stands out as a beacon to all township youths and rebuffs the theory that a lack of resources will never produce excellence. Raymond has shown that hard work and diligence will always triumph over adversity and economic hardship. Raymond's success has no doubt acted as a catalyst to the rest of the learners of this school and has motivated them to excel.

The school's results in subsequent years bear testimony to this. These results are silent testimonials in themselves and speak louder than any propaganda for an institution. The results reinforce the academic achievement of the school at a time when parents in some other areas are removing their learners in from township schools and are placing them in suburban schools. It reaffirms our belief that if the playing fields are levelled then township schools can perform just as well as, if not better than the schools in the suburbs.

The results that Ephes Mamkeli has obtained over the past six years reflect the unremitting endeavours of the Principal and the dedication and commitment of the teachers to uplift the community through providing the youth with a good start in life. These results lend credence to and exemplify the school's motto: "Labora Vincit Omnia" - Success through hard work.

The history of Ephes Mamkeli Secondary School truly symbolises the perseverance and vision of a community that is determined to provide their children with the best possible education they could afford. It is schools like Ephes Mamkeli that attest to the quiet heroism of our country's ordinary men and women who are prepared to make great sacrifices towards building an educational system that we can be proud of.

One has to agree with Mary Hatwood Futrell, President of Education International, when she says that in today's society, nations that do not invest in educating their citizens will be left behind in the global economy. Nor can nations of the 21st century simply educate 20 or 30 percent of their citizens. A key obligation of a democratic society is to educate all of its citizens and educate them well. If a nation fails or refuses to do so, it will simply be written off by the rest of the world as not having the intellectual capacity or desire to be a player in the global arena."

There is an old Chinese Proverb that wisely suggests:
If you are planning for a year, sow rice.

If you are planning for a decade, plant trees.

But if you are planning for a lifetime - educate people!

Our Government understands this and has made education one of its top priorities. The Government acknowledges that education has two key roles in nation building. First, it grooms our young citizens for their roles as working adults. Education equips our children with knowledge and skills to contribute to South Africa's economic activities. I believe it was Michelangelo, who once said that inside every piece of Carrera marble, there is a beautiful sculpture. The sculptor's art is to knock away the surrounding stone with hammer and chisel to release the beautiful sculpture. Every learner has inherent talents and innate potential. It is the task of education and the teacher in particular to exploit this potential and allow Nature's endowment to bloom and flourish.

Education also has another key role in nation building. It provides a common experience for our children, an understanding of our history and the challenges that we face as a nation. It also imparts values and moulds the character of the next generation to become honest, upright and responsible citizens. Through education, we strengthen our social bonds and national resilience. But even this is not enough.

There are two more dimensions of education for the modern world about which I would like to make a few remarks. The first relates to inquisitiveness, critical thinking, and problem solving. Katherine Patterson, author of Gates of Excellence, says that we fail our children if all we give them are the platitudes, the clich

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