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Date : 17/07/2003
Source: Eastern Cape Provincial Government
Title: Jajula: Careers exhibition, Eastern Cape


SPEECH BY DELIVERED BY THE EASTERN CAPE MEC FOR EDUCATION, MRS N JAJULA, AT A CAREERS EXHIBITION WORKSHOP, Cape College, Fort Beaufort, 17 July 2003

Master of Ceremonies
Director-General
Honourable Mayor
Heads of Departments
Managers in Commerce and Industries
Representatives of Eastern Cape Higher Education Institutions
Educators, Parents, and Students from the length and breadth of this province

I wish to greet you all

This is a historic and critical day for us as Department of Education and government in particular. Historic because we have managed to assemble stakeholders to share their views, ideas, experiences and more importantly avail knowledge and information to our learners who would never have entertained any hope of accessing it.

Our province is significantly rural in character and the greatest number of our schools is located in the remote areas where it is by stroke of chance that there are pockets of comfort zones.

It is today common knowledge that the previous racist regime took a conscious decision to marginalise our province in the context of the overall political agenda of seeking to break what they regarded as the backbone of the liberation movement in South Africa. This agenda had disastrous consequences for our province and the effect thereof was felt mostly in the rural areas. The province was isolated from any form of development, particularly on the economic front. Very limited resources were channelled to this province, least of all, the rural areas. Some of the greatest harm meted by this agenda has been the starving of our areas of knowledge and information. In general, the curriculum offered in the schools of previously disadvantaged learners was calculated to funnel our kids to specific professions: teaching, nursing, policing etc. There was never any effort to prepare a black child to be one day a chief executive officer of the Industrial Development Corporation or Telkom or financial manager at Daimler-Chrysler or even an HOD in the public sector.

Most of our kids even passed matric without having any idea or dream in life by way of a career. They had to contend with a situation where there was no information available to help them exercise options for careers in future. Some did not even know what tertiary institutions were available, let alone what they offered. Children of poor parents entertained the idea that they could never study beyond matric. There existed only one option for them - to go and work. Those who by chance happened to know about financial aid never knew how to access it.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, such is the environment we have emerged out of from the previous regime. All these GAPS of knowledge mark the scars of the legacy of the past.

When our democratic government took power, it found itself confronted with innumerable challenges of a varied nature; all of them needed a radical change from the past, namely TRANSFORMATION. Our government had to move in a direction where transformation was placed at the centre of whatever we set out to do. We had to transform our minds, our thinking, our way of doing things etc. Our government had to transform inter alia the economy of this country, the human resource base patterns which invariably assumed a racist and/or sexist nature.

One of the facets of our lives, which has inevitably required urgent attention and transformation, was EDUCATION. Those of us involved in the task of education have had to realize that the most important outcome thereof should be the broadening of the human resource base in all our communities and making it available to the entire economic sector and other sectors of our lives. This challenged the department to produce curricula for learners to prepare them for tertiary institution on their onward journey to their realization of their divergent and varied goals and dreams in life. It is therefore bridging these historical gaps and empowering them with knowledge to prepare them as future leaders in this country. It is through this sharing of information that we can ever hope to push back the frontiers of ignorance and widen our children's horizons in order for them to occupy their rightful stations in life.

This is a mammoth task, hence as government we realized that we couldn't go it alone. Cooperation with our stakeholders is central to work. We can only succeed if we forge partnerships with our stakeholders. Today we called on you to help us in empowering our children.

We hope that the private sector will expose our learners to the opportunities and careers available out there, what these entail, what academic requirements are essential, etc. We hope that you learners will be exposed to courses available in the Eastern Cape institutions. These institutions, we hope, will be able to drive home to our learners that there are sufficient institutions within the province to cater for their needs and that, save for exceptional cases; there is no need to look outside of the province. Higher Education Institutions seize the moment to explain what sets you apart from institutions in other provinces.

I'll be failing if I do not mention our expectation as the department that at the end of these three days our learners will leave this place armed with the knowledge that there is financial aid out there, the nature thereof and how to access it.

All of you gathered here today have displayed your unwavering support to all that government is trying to do. Some of you have taken concrete steps towards what we are doing today. We have called on you because you have capacity to help us. We do not doubt that. In your usual manner rise to this challenge and meet our expectation. We know we can count on you.

To you learners, this is an opportunity of a lifetime. Seize the moment with both hands! Listen attentively, ask questions, discuss. Remember matric exams are looming on the horizon. In six months' time you will be in tertiary institutions. Arm yourselves now! Distinguished guests, on behalf of the Province of the Eastern Cape, the Office of the Premier and the Department of Education, I wish to express our sincere gratitude to you for having found it possible to come to share with us and our learners your precious time, invaluable knowledge and experience in spite of your tight schedules. I hope that we will all leave this place satisfied that we have made a difference in the lives of these learners and they will leave worthy to meet the challenges ahead.

Thank you.

Source: Eastern Cape Provincial Government ( http://www.ecprov.gov.za)

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