Date: 08/09/2004
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: N Pandor: Opening of International Literacy Conference & Awards Ceremony
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, NALEDI PANDOR, AT THE OPENING OF THE INTERNATIONAL LITERACY CONFERENCE AND AWARDS CEREMONY, CAPE TOWN INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE, 8 September 2004
Director of Ceremonies, Mr. Vuyo Mbuli
President of the General Conference of UNESCO,
Professor Michael Omolewa
Director General of the UNESCO Institute of Education, Dr Adama Ouane
Managing Director of Brandhouse, Mr Simon Litherland
International guests
Officials from our departments of education
Recipients of awards
Ladies and gentlemen
I am delighted to join you this evening to mark International Literacy Day, and to celebrate the achievements of the South Africans who will be honoured for making a contribution to improving adult literacy and basic education and training. I am particularly pleased that the compatriots who will be honoured tonight will share their moment of recognition with guests from beyond our borders.
As you all know, this evening's function is part of our celebration of Adult Learners' Week, which will end with the international conference that begins tomorrow morning. It is a great honour to co-host the conference with UNESCO in the year in which we celebrate 10 years of our freedom.
I wish to thank the UNESCO Institute of Education for showing such confidence in our country and our region. Our officials have found it most fulfilling to have worked closely with your office, Dr Ouane.
In putting together the programme for the conference, our Department, the Adult Learning Network and the UNESCO Institute of Education put a strong emphasis on identifying speakers from the developing world, including our own continent. We could not do otherwise if we were to highlight the challenges of illiteracy, in particular adult illiteracy, facing the developing world. I am most pleased that the majority of the speakers who were identified responded positively to our invitation.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank Brandhouse for hosting tonight's awards ceremony. It is through public-private partnerships such as these that we are able to strike significant blows for progress in our country and our continent.
I am aware that not only has Brandhouse sponsored this event and other adult literacy projects, but I am also aware that Brandhouse answered a call made by former President Mandela to build a skills development centre in Colesberg, Northern Cape. I wish to commend you for this wonderful contribution to the improvement of literacy and much needed practical skills for our youth and adults.
Ladies and gentlemen, in our country the importance of adult literacy cannot be overemphasised. Under apartheid many of our people were deprived of the opportunities for acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary for them to live full lives as citizens. The doors of learning remained closed to them.
Our key goals in post-apartheid education are equity, quality, access, and redress. We have had much success in all these areas, but the greatest measure of our success remains that of transforming education in our country from a sector serving the privileged few to a sector serving all our people.
Despite progress made, the number of illiterate adults in South Africa is still too large. Progress in creating a better life for all among uneducated adults has been slower than we anticipated.
Even though significant strides have been made in reducing the absolute number of adults with no education at all, there are still too many adults who only have a primary school education. This creates a huge participation barrier in social and economic development, as well as in strengthening the democratic processes of governance in this country.
It is difficult to live the full life expected of a citizen in a modern democracy if you are illiterate. The state largely communicates the rights and responsibilities of citizens through written regulations, statutes and correspondence. Illiteracy places many of our citizens outside this world of the written word, forcing them to rely on third parties for information on their basic rights and responsibilities.
The theme of the international conference, 'Adult learning and literacy for democracy and citizenship', is most appropriate in highlighting the role of literacy in promoting democratic participation and responsible citizenship among all our people, especially the marginalised sections of our population.
Those who have never experienced illiteracy cannot begin to imagine the full freedom and personal autonomy that one acquires on becoming literate.
Literacy gives you a full sense of dignity. Illiteracy strips you of that dignity. When you have to rely on someone else, in many cases a child, for, as simple an activity as, reading a letter written to you, you lose a part of your dignity.
In a society where the dignity of the majority of our people was systematically undermined by successive apartheid governments, we must intensify our actions towards eliminating illiteracy.
In the education sector we have made changes that stress the important role of parents in school governance and in the educational progress of their children. A parent's lack of basic education, literacy, and numeracy also seriously undermines a parent's ability to assist his or her children with their own school work, and this leads to poor performance for many children of illiterate parents. The campaign for literacy among adults is therefore also a campaign for improved performance among the children of the poor.
It is for these reasons that we sincerely commend all the role-players who are lending a hand to this worthy cause of improving literacy levels in our country and our region.
Some of the partners who have joined hands with the government to improve literacy levels in our country have heightened our awareness of the possibilities presented by new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to increase significantly our capacity to reach larger numbers of adults in the most remote of areas.
One such partnership is the Bridges to the Future Initiative (BFI). This initiative seeks to provide skills for out of school youth and adults in ICT and adult education. The intervention is meant to bridge the digital divide in South Africa and targets the poor. The development of literacy software featuring local content is a key element in ensuring that the ICT intervention is responsive to the poor.
The BFI is a public-private collaboration of corporate, national, and international agencies, non-profit institutions, and foundations whose main focus is to remove the joint barriers of functional and technological illiteracy, thereby assisting the world's poorest peoples to gain a stronger foothold in determining their own social and economic future. Parties involved in the initiative are the Department of Education, Multichoice Africa Foundation, SchoolNet South Africa, UNISA and the International Literacy Initiative, whose chairperson, Professor Omolewa, is with us this evening.
The initiative has three overlapping components: (1) the development of community learning and technology centres (CLTCs) for lifelong learning and income-generation, (2) the development of tools to improve basic education and literacy through teacher training in government selected nodal areas; and (3) the development of ICT-supported improvement in the quality of human development (e.g. health, agriculture, HIV/AIDS prevention, etc.).
I am pleased to note that a memorandum of understanding was signed in June 2004 between the Limpopo Department of Education, SchoolNet South Africa, and the International Literacy Initiative to launch the project in Limpopo on a pilot basis. Lessons learned from the implementation of the project in Limpopo will be used as a guide for taking the project further.
I am sure that we will enter into similar partnerships with other role-players in the private sector.
Director of Ceremonies, please allow me to remind all those who are literate that you should actively participate in ridding the country of the scourge of a-literacy. In this regard, we should build a strong culture of reading among all ages, and make relevant reading materials available for all our people. Already, the government has built and renovated hundreds of libraries since 1994 and provided thousands of books, journals and magazines.
In closing, allow me to congratulate the award winners tonight. Well done! I hope the awards act as an incentive for you to work even harder.
I also wish to encourage those who entered the competition but did not win to set themselves new goals and to work hard towards achieving those goals.
To me, everyone is a winner today as your hard work means the opening of the doors of learning to the many adult learners who yearn for literacy and basic education and training.
I wish you well for tonight's function and for the conference over the next three days.
I thank you.
Issued by: Ministry of Education
8 September 2004
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: N Pandor: Opening of International Literacy Conference & Awards Ceremony
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, NALEDI PANDOR, AT THE OPENING OF THE INTERNATIONAL LITERACY CONFERENCE AND AWARDS CEREMONY, CAPE TOWN INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE, 8 September 2004
Director of Ceremonies, Mr. Vuyo Mbuli
President of the General Conference of UNESCO,
Professor Michael Omolewa
Director General of the UNESCO Institute of Education, Dr Adama Ouane
Managing Director of Brandhouse, Mr Simon Litherland
International guests
Officials from our departments of education
Recipients of awards
Ladies and gentlemen
I am delighted to join you this evening to mark International Literacy Day, and to celebrate the achievements of the South Africans who will be honoured for making a contribution to improving adult literacy and basic education and training. I am particularly pleased that the compatriots who will be honoured tonight will share their moment of recognition with guests from beyond our borders.
As you all know, this evening's function is part of our celebration of Adult Learners' Week, which will end with the international conference that begins tomorrow morning. It is a great honour to co-host the conference with UNESCO in the year in which we celebrate 10 years of our freedom.
I wish to thank the UNESCO Institute of Education for showing such confidence in our country and our region. Our officials have found it most fulfilling to have worked closely with your office, Dr Ouane.
In putting together the programme for the conference, our Department, the Adult Learning Network and the UNESCO Institute of Education put a strong emphasis on identifying speakers from the developing world, including our own continent. We could not do otherwise if we were to highlight the challenges of illiteracy, in particular adult illiteracy, facing the developing world. I am most pleased that the majority of the speakers who were identified responded positively to our invitation.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank Brandhouse for hosting tonight's awards ceremony. It is through public-private partnerships such as these that we are able to strike significant blows for progress in our country and our continent.
I am aware that not only has Brandhouse sponsored this event and other adult literacy projects, but I am also aware that Brandhouse answered a call made by former President Mandela to build a skills development centre in Colesberg, Northern Cape. I wish to commend you for this wonderful contribution to the improvement of literacy and much needed practical skills for our youth and adults.
Ladies and gentlemen, in our country the importance of adult literacy cannot be overemphasised. Under apartheid many of our people were deprived of the opportunities for acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary for them to live full lives as citizens. The doors of learning remained closed to them.
Our key goals in post-apartheid education are equity, quality, access, and redress. We have had much success in all these areas, but the greatest measure of our success remains that of transforming education in our country from a sector serving the privileged few to a sector serving all our people.
Despite progress made, the number of illiterate adults in South Africa is still too large. Progress in creating a better life for all among uneducated adults has been slower than we anticipated.
Even though significant strides have been made in reducing the absolute number of adults with no education at all, there are still too many adults who only have a primary school education. This creates a huge participation barrier in social and economic development, as well as in strengthening the democratic processes of governance in this country.
It is difficult to live the full life expected of a citizen in a modern democracy if you are illiterate. The state largely communicates the rights and responsibilities of citizens through written regulations, statutes and correspondence. Illiteracy places many of our citizens outside this world of the written word, forcing them to rely on third parties for information on their basic rights and responsibilities.
The theme of the international conference, 'Adult learning and literacy for democracy and citizenship', is most appropriate in highlighting the role of literacy in promoting democratic participation and responsible citizenship among all our people, especially the marginalised sections of our population.
Those who have never experienced illiteracy cannot begin to imagine the full freedom and personal autonomy that one acquires on becoming literate.
Literacy gives you a full sense of dignity. Illiteracy strips you of that dignity. When you have to rely on someone else, in many cases a child, for, as simple an activity as, reading a letter written to you, you lose a part of your dignity.
In a society where the dignity of the majority of our people was systematically undermined by successive apartheid governments, we must intensify our actions towards eliminating illiteracy.
In the education sector we have made changes that stress the important role of parents in school governance and in the educational progress of their children. A parent's lack of basic education, literacy, and numeracy also seriously undermines a parent's ability to assist his or her children with their own school work, and this leads to poor performance for many children of illiterate parents. The campaign for literacy among adults is therefore also a campaign for improved performance among the children of the poor.
It is for these reasons that we sincerely commend all the role-players who are lending a hand to this worthy cause of improving literacy levels in our country and our region.
Some of the partners who have joined hands with the government to improve literacy levels in our country have heightened our awareness of the possibilities presented by new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to increase significantly our capacity to reach larger numbers of adults in the most remote of areas.
One such partnership is the Bridges to the Future Initiative (BFI). This initiative seeks to provide skills for out of school youth and adults in ICT and adult education. The intervention is meant to bridge the digital divide in South Africa and targets the poor. The development of literacy software featuring local content is a key element in ensuring that the ICT intervention is responsive to the poor.
The BFI is a public-private collaboration of corporate, national, and international agencies, non-profit institutions, and foundations whose main focus is to remove the joint barriers of functional and technological illiteracy, thereby assisting the world's poorest peoples to gain a stronger foothold in determining their own social and economic future. Parties involved in the initiative are the Department of Education, Multichoice Africa Foundation, SchoolNet South Africa, UNISA and the International Literacy Initiative, whose chairperson, Professor Omolewa, is with us this evening.
The initiative has three overlapping components: (1) the development of community learning and technology centres (CLTCs) for lifelong learning and income-generation, (2) the development of tools to improve basic education and literacy through teacher training in government selected nodal areas; and (3) the development of ICT-supported improvement in the quality of human development (e.g. health, agriculture, HIV/AIDS prevention, etc.).
I am pleased to note that a memorandum of understanding was signed in June 2004 between the Limpopo Department of Education, SchoolNet South Africa, and the International Literacy Initiative to launch the project in Limpopo on a pilot basis. Lessons learned from the implementation of the project in Limpopo will be used as a guide for taking the project further.
I am sure that we will enter into similar partnerships with other role-players in the private sector.
Director of Ceremonies, please allow me to remind all those who are literate that you should actively participate in ridding the country of the scourge of a-literacy. In this regard, we should build a strong culture of reading among all ages, and make relevant reading materials available for all our people. Already, the government has built and renovated hundreds of libraries since 1994 and provided thousands of books, journals and magazines.
In closing, allow me to congratulate the award winners tonight. Well done! I hope the awards act as an incentive for you to work even harder.
I also wish to encourage those who entered the competition but did not win to set themselves new goals and to work hard towards achieving those goals.
To me, everyone is a winner today as your hard work means the opening of the doors of learning to the many adult learners who yearn for literacy and basic education and training.
I wish you well for tonight's function and for the conference over the next three days.
I thank you.
Issued by: Ministry of Education
8 September 2004
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