Date: 12/09/2004
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: N Pandor: Land handover and centenary celebrations at Tiger Kloof


ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, NALEDI PANDOR, MP, AT THE LAND HAND-OVER AND CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS AT TIGER KLOOF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION, 12 September 2004

Premier, Ms Edna Molewa
MEC Rev Tselapedi
Mayor of Vryburg Mrs Ruth Mompati
Director of Tiger Kloof Education Institution, Mr David Matthews
Old and young Tigers
Ladies and Gentlemen

"TIGER KLOOF: SCHOOL FOR PRESIDENTS AND CARPENTERS"

I am honoured to be present here today on this memorable occasion to mark the centenary of this great institution, Tiger Kloof.

Educational institutions such as Tiger Kloof illustrate the kind of educational response our country and continent need. The early history of Tiger Kloof points to a historic contribution to the development of South Africa and African intellectuals. Its experiences under apartheid provide further confirmation that it was a centre of education that actively confounded the myth that black people should be no more than labourers.

We are proud that Tiger Kloof produced leaders like Mayor Ruth Mompati, Sir Ketumile Masire, Sir Seretse Khama, and most of Botswana's first post-independence cabinet, including the Minister of Education, B.C. Thema, who had been Seretse's Tswana teacher at Tiger Kloof.

And now we are faced with the positive re-emergence of Tiger Kloof as an institution of learning that seeks to ensure quality education, community responsiveness through education, and the inculcation of attributes that will advance and sustain the development and progress of the continent.

These are noble intentions that firmly link into the programme of national, continental and world change to which President Mbeki has often referred.

We look forward to the next generation of leaders, South African leaders, to emerge from this institution.

The challenges that Tiger Kloof and its surrounding communities will face are many and varied, but the historic record of this educational institution shows that these challenges will be met.

History of Tiger Kloof: the full circle

Tiger Kloof, originally a farm 10 kilometres south of Vryburg, is called Moeding in Tswana and it means 'the place of running water'. The London Missionary Society, which bought the farm and established a school there in 1904, turned it into a place of learning and knowledge, a place that excelled at both academic scholarship and vocational training. But it was much more than this. In the 1940s it comprised not one but eight different schools: a high school, a teachers' training college, a bible school, a school for domestic science, a school for masons, a school for carpenters, a school for leather workers, and a school for skilled tradesmen.

While the state provided compulsory schooling only for white children, mission schools were left to provide education for black children. But after the apartheid government came to power in 1948, the days of independent mission education for black children were numbered. The aim of the Bantu Education Act (1954) was to destroy the education that black people enjoyed. The aim was to educate black children only for the labour needs of the apartheid state. So the churches were faced with a terrible choice: to accept the conditions the Act laid down and keep the schools open or to close them down. Most churches chose to close their schools down rather than submit to the requirements of the apartheid state. Lovedale College and Healdtown in the eastern Cape, Adams College and St Hilda's in Natal, St Peter's and Grace Dieu in the Transvaal and Tiger Kloof in the northern Cape all chose to shut down. And this they all did within a decade of the passage of the Bantu Education Act in 1954.

As you will know, Tiger Kloof was leased and then sold to the government in 1955 and a new school, Moeding College, was built across the border, north of Lobatse. Tiger Kloof limped on as a government school and was closed down when it was designated as part of a "black spot" under the Group Areas Act in1963.

Fortunately, the advent of freedom and democracy and the enterprise of David Matthews and a band of "old tigers" facilitated the resurrection of the school in 1995. The school is already a model for the new South Africa, for the new curriculum, and for the integration of head and hand in its emphasis on learning by doing.

So, we are gathered here today to celebrate ten years of freedom, to celebrate the extinction of the last traces of Bantu Education, and to celebrate the resurrection and the centenary of Tiger Kloof.

I would like to pay a special tribute to the board of trustees, to the director of this institution, Mr David Matthews, and to the MEC for Education, Rev Tselapedi. I commend you for your commitment and dedication to this institution. It serves as a model of the kind of institution capable of producing future leaders of Africa.

I also salute the Land Claims Commission for its role in transferring this land to the Tiger Kloof community.

Land restitution is a major part of our land reform programme. It is aimed at reversing the unjust effects of apartheid's Group Areas Act. The restoration of this land to the Tiger Kloof community will enable this institution to go from strength to strength.

The restitution process that we are here to witness also links with the holistic development that is increasingly part of the national reconstruction that South Africa has adopted as the 21st century agenda.

Public Schools on private property

Tiger Kloof is a public school on private property; and I would like to take a few minutes to talk about public schools on private property.

The signing of section 14 agreements, which govern relations between a landowner and education authorities, is one of the serious challenges that my department is facing.

Progress in signing these agreements has been too slow. Resistance and reluctance on the part of farmers is part of the reason. In 2003, out of 326 farm schools in this province, only 48 had signed agreements.

Farm schools have historically had poor infrastructure, poor facilities, and poor resources. We have to address this situation.

As the President announced in his state of the nation address in May this year, we are going to ensure all schools have proper water and sanitation, and by the end of the year no pupil will study under trees.

Recent research conducted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation revealed that there are serious challenges to the provision of education to rural communities. Rural schools are, the Foundation reported, almost universally short of resources, suffer high drop-out rates of learners, suffer from overcrowding, and suffer absenteeism of both pupils and teachers.

The report of my Ministerial Committee on Rural Education, comprising farmers, farm-workers, and rural education specialists, will be released by the end of this year, and should guide us in addressing the challenges facing schools in rural areas.

Although the provision of education should lead to the improvement in the quality of life of rural communities, efforts to improve the quality of life in rural communities should be part of general development programmes, that is, part of the integrated, sustainable rural development strategy that our government has implemented.

I want to invite all of you, social and business leaders, to partner with us in giving the necessary attention to rural and farm schools.

Let me therefore express my sincere appreciation to the Genesis/Solon Foundation, the Independent Development Trust and the Open Society Foundation for enabling the purchase of this land. I hope and trust that you will continue to be part of the institution.

There is something noble and exciting about supporting these historical institutions. Your contributions serve to confound the sceptics who believe that good practices cannot be replicated in emerging societies such as this one, to confound the Afro-pessimists who continue to deny that truth which shows that the African people have usually pursued education as a good through their own means with support from the religious sector and little support from colonial or apartheid governments.

Support also creates the opportunity for this institution to produce a new cadreship of leaders in a wide range of sectors. It is interesting that many of the most enduring and influential of our regional leaders came from institutions such as Tigerkloof, Lovedale and Healdtown. These schools produced leaders with intellectual depth not merely for its own sake, but a depth dedicated to African liberation, and national and community development. I hope this history will be part of the new outcomes at Tigerkloof.

Conclusion

In closing, I would like to say that the success of this institution will depend on the quality of its governance structures, its management, the availability of resources, and the quality and commitment of its teachers.

We are committed to ensuring that we improve in all these areas, but we need the participation of all role-players.

I trust that Tiger Kloof will provide access to all needy children, and that no deserving child will be excluded, especially not on the basis of their inability to pay school fees. We want this institution to be a model public school that offers high quality education, even to the poorest of the poor. Having survived for 100 years, I am convinced that you can attain these goals and make a difference to the lives of our children, and our nation.

I congratulate all of you for your hard work in making this day a reality, and wish Tiger Kloof every success for the future.

Thank you

Issued by: Ministry of Education
12 September 2004