Date: 07/05/2005
Source: Department of Education
Title: Pandor: Healdtown’s 150th Anniversary celebration
Address by the Minister of Education, Ms Naledi Pandor, MP, at Healdtown’s 150th Anniversary Celebration
Director of Ceremonies
Alumni of Healdtown
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentleman
Very few institutions in South Africa enjoy the distinction of being able to celebrate 150 year birthdays. Few of those that can would be able to lay claim to such a history of proud achievement and distinguished achievers.
Although we meet here to recall Healdtown, we must not forget to look back with pride at all the institutions that contributed positively to what we are. Former students from institutions such as Adams College, Ohlange High School, Marianhill High, Orlando High School and Lovedale have led us in struggle and in freedom. It is exciting to see them also leading the way in supporting and sustaining these schools.
These institutions are our living heritage; they bear testimony to the resilience of our spirit during the dark of oppression and discrimination. They deserve to be restored and preserved.
As we meet here today it is important to spend a few moments recalling that will of our forebears, the Freedom Charter and its perspective on education.
A group of young writers wrote essays twenty ago in a book titled “Thirty Years of the Freedom Charter”. Their reflection on the Charter and education asserts the following:
“From whatever angle you view apartheid; it remains the same thing - a statement of evil. When you are denied even such basic things as education and cultural development, then you start wondering why some people somewhere in the world still accord South Africa some measure of recognition. The Nats and their supporters have taken education in their hands to maintain the relations of domination at all levels. They had to devise a system of education to de-educate the majority of the oppressed and exploited so as to maintain the myth of superiority." (1986: 216-217).
We are fortunate that Healdtown pre-dated apartheid and had a full opportunity to provide South Africa a worthy pool of national leadership and professional intellectual resources. The first attack of apartheid was against mission schools that offered Africans a credible education opportunity. These days, many of us fail to acknowledge the immense contribution that many church communities made to the full education of African people.
Progressive education academics tend to describe the church and mission institutions as having perpetuated the training of African into subdued and compliant beings. This is a patent misreading of the history of mission schools and their impact on South Africa and on South Africans.
If it were true, mission schools would not have produced great freedom fighters such Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Robert Sobukwe and Raymond Mhlaba - all former scholars at Healdtown. Former President Mandela put his authoritative stamp on the issue of mission schools when he spoke at the annual conference of the Methodist Church in 1994. He praised the church for the role it played in the struggle for freedom, and said this in particular about mission schools:
“Your church has a proud record of commitment to the development of Africa’s sons and daughters in more areas than one. The great institutions of learning, which spread from Reverend William Shaw’s ‘Chain of Mission Stations’ in this regard shaped the minds and characters of generations of our people as well as many of our present leaders.
Although the dark night of apartheid sought to obliterate many of these institutions, the impact of their academic and moral teachings could not be trampled on. We who passed through them will not forget the excellent standards of teachings and the spiritual values which were imparted to us”.
This proud testimony clearly sets out the reasons for the celebration we are here to acclaim. The words are probably reminders that have strongly influenced Advocate Dabi Khumalo (class of 1961 and 1962), Chairman of the Healdtown Community College Foundation who leads the ambitious campaign that seeks to restore Healdtown.
The work that he and his team and the church are doing signals a number of important developments in our society.
First, it calls on us all to consider our role in re-establishing community and national pride. It begins a necessary South African movement towards local philanthropy, towards us giving to the community, towards giving to national development.
Second, it confirms that our identity does not begin and end with our apartheid history. Africans had institutions associated with pride and positive practice and the time has arrived for us to reject our deficit-dependent identity and to embrace affirmation, independence, and community philanthropy.
I am hopeful that the foundation will receive sufficient public attention to become part of a national drive that will draw the interest of all past alumni of heroic institutions and encourage them to give back in some way to South Africa. There are many corporate CEOs and political leaders who could lend their influence, money, and support to causes such as these.
Third, this revival asserts our call for excellence to be restored to the education of Africans. It is clear from the living examples we see in our daily lives that the heart of any nation’s success lies in education that promotes intellectual development, the acquisition of positive values, and the creation of a commitment to nationhood and community.
It is not unreasonable to anticipate that a future, restored Healdtown will not permit students to neglect mathematics and science, that it will promote the knowledge and development of a wide range of languages, that it will teach African history, and the study of African literature.
The restored school will most certainly instil values of respect for human dignity and the rights of all, of love, of liberty. It will teach concern for national development, for world and human security. It will inculcate intellectual rigour and honestly assert non-sexism, democracy and a united South Africa.
A school that inherits a proud history is likely to attract many students who will be keen to receive a good education; its leaders will have to ensure children of all races are welcome and that such opportunity is firmly linked to academic ability and academic performance.
Given South Africa’s readmission to Africa and the world, the school will have to look to providing skills that allow students to live and work anywhere on the continent. So students will have to become speakers of Kiswahili, French and Portuguese. These are very challenging agenda items.
South Africa needs to set her educational sights high. Our education history has been dismal for many years. We have begun a recovery in the first decade of freedom, and the pace has to be accelerated because knowledge production is becoming the most important world commodity.
The Healdtown Foundation signals hope that we can recover. Our history of struggle has shown us how effective we can be, that joint effort works. We now have to shape our own schools for the future. We should take the history and values of Healdtown and use them as building blocks for a future beyond apartheid education.
Allow me conclude by thanking the Independent Development Trust for the contribution they have made to developing the school. Thanks too to the leaders of the church who have given the support and great influence; we welcome their role of carrying on the progressive developmental work of the church in education in South Africa.
We call on all who schooled on these grounds to generously give back to the school and South Africa, in order to advance the positive legacy that we have recalled and celebrated today.
Issued by: Department of Education
7 May 2005
Source: Department of Education
Title: Pandor: Healdtown’s 150th Anniversary celebration
Address by the Minister of Education, Ms Naledi Pandor, MP, at Healdtown’s 150th Anniversary Celebration
Director of Ceremonies
Alumni of Healdtown
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentleman
Very few institutions in South Africa enjoy the distinction of being able to celebrate 150 year birthdays. Few of those that can would be able to lay claim to such a history of proud achievement and distinguished achievers.
Although we meet here to recall Healdtown, we must not forget to look back with pride at all the institutions that contributed positively to what we are. Former students from institutions such as Adams College, Ohlange High School, Marianhill High, Orlando High School and Lovedale have led us in struggle and in freedom. It is exciting to see them also leading the way in supporting and sustaining these schools.
These institutions are our living heritage; they bear testimony to the resilience of our spirit during the dark of oppression and discrimination. They deserve to be restored and preserved.
As we meet here today it is important to spend a few moments recalling that will of our forebears, the Freedom Charter and its perspective on education.
A group of young writers wrote essays twenty ago in a book titled “Thirty Years of the Freedom Charter”. Their reflection on the Charter and education asserts the following:
“From whatever angle you view apartheid; it remains the same thing - a statement of evil. When you are denied even such basic things as education and cultural development, then you start wondering why some people somewhere in the world still accord South Africa some measure of recognition. The Nats and their supporters have taken education in their hands to maintain the relations of domination at all levels. They had to devise a system of education to de-educate the majority of the oppressed and exploited so as to maintain the myth of superiority." (1986: 216-217).
We are fortunate that Healdtown pre-dated apartheid and had a full opportunity to provide South Africa a worthy pool of national leadership and professional intellectual resources. The first attack of apartheid was against mission schools that offered Africans a credible education opportunity. These days, many of us fail to acknowledge the immense contribution that many church communities made to the full education of African people.
Progressive education academics tend to describe the church and mission institutions as having perpetuated the training of African into subdued and compliant beings. This is a patent misreading of the history of mission schools and their impact on South Africa and on South Africans.
If it were true, mission schools would not have produced great freedom fighters such Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Robert Sobukwe and Raymond Mhlaba - all former scholars at Healdtown. Former President Mandela put his authoritative stamp on the issue of mission schools when he spoke at the annual conference of the Methodist Church in 1994. He praised the church for the role it played in the struggle for freedom, and said this in particular about mission schools:
“Your church has a proud record of commitment to the development of Africa’s sons and daughters in more areas than one. The great institutions of learning, which spread from Reverend William Shaw’s ‘Chain of Mission Stations’ in this regard shaped the minds and characters of generations of our people as well as many of our present leaders.
Although the dark night of apartheid sought to obliterate many of these institutions, the impact of their academic and moral teachings could not be trampled on. We who passed through them will not forget the excellent standards of teachings and the spiritual values which were imparted to us”.
This proud testimony clearly sets out the reasons for the celebration we are here to acclaim. The words are probably reminders that have strongly influenced Advocate Dabi Khumalo (class of 1961 and 1962), Chairman of the Healdtown Community College Foundation who leads the ambitious campaign that seeks to restore Healdtown.
The work that he and his team and the church are doing signals a number of important developments in our society.
First, it calls on us all to consider our role in re-establishing community and national pride. It begins a necessary South African movement towards local philanthropy, towards us giving to the community, towards giving to national development.
Second, it confirms that our identity does not begin and end with our apartheid history. Africans had institutions associated with pride and positive practice and the time has arrived for us to reject our deficit-dependent identity and to embrace affirmation, independence, and community philanthropy.
I am hopeful that the foundation will receive sufficient public attention to become part of a national drive that will draw the interest of all past alumni of heroic institutions and encourage them to give back in some way to South Africa. There are many corporate CEOs and political leaders who could lend their influence, money, and support to causes such as these.
Third, this revival asserts our call for excellence to be restored to the education of Africans. It is clear from the living examples we see in our daily lives that the heart of any nation’s success lies in education that promotes intellectual development, the acquisition of positive values, and the creation of a commitment to nationhood and community.
It is not unreasonable to anticipate that a future, restored Healdtown will not permit students to neglect mathematics and science, that it will promote the knowledge and development of a wide range of languages, that it will teach African history, and the study of African literature.
The restored school will most certainly instil values of respect for human dignity and the rights of all, of love, of liberty. It will teach concern for national development, for world and human security. It will inculcate intellectual rigour and honestly assert non-sexism, democracy and a united South Africa.
A school that inherits a proud history is likely to attract many students who will be keen to receive a good education; its leaders will have to ensure children of all races are welcome and that such opportunity is firmly linked to academic ability and academic performance.
Given South Africa’s readmission to Africa and the world, the school will have to look to providing skills that allow students to live and work anywhere on the continent. So students will have to become speakers of Kiswahili, French and Portuguese. These are very challenging agenda items.
South Africa needs to set her educational sights high. Our education history has been dismal for many years. We have begun a recovery in the first decade of freedom, and the pace has to be accelerated because knowledge production is becoming the most important world commodity.
The Healdtown Foundation signals hope that we can recover. Our history of struggle has shown us how effective we can be, that joint effort works. We now have to shape our own schools for the future. We should take the history and values of Healdtown and use them as building blocks for a future beyond apartheid education.
Allow me conclude by thanking the Independent Development Trust for the contribution they have made to developing the school. Thanks too to the leaders of the church who have given the support and great influence; we welcome their role of carrying on the progressive developmental work of the church in education in South Africa.
We call on all who schooled on these grounds to generously give back to the school and South Africa, in order to advance the positive legacy that we have recalled and celebrated today.
Issued by: Department of Education
7 May 2005
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