Programme Director, Mr Yousef Gabru: Chairperson: SA National Commission for UNESCO
UNESCO Director and Representative, Prof Rukingama
Representatives of Higher Education institutions,
Representatives of Stakeholder Organisations,
Representatives of Government Departments
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen.

It is a privilege to be given the opportunity of addressing this UNESCO Post general Conference Stakeholder meeting.

The South African delegation led by Minister Angie Motshekga to the 37th session of the UNESCO General Conference held at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris from 5 to 20 November 2013 was indeed a success for South Africa as a country. The delegation consisted mainly of nominated members of the various government departments whose work coincides with UNESCO’s fields of operation.

This last general conference was particularly successful because it was the first time that South Africa was elected onto four UNESCO subsidiary bodies: Man and Biosphere (MAB); Management of Social Transformation (MOST); Bureau of Education (IBE) and the Intergovernmental Committee for Physical Education and Sport (GICEPS).

In addition to this Minister Motshekga was elected as the President of the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) during their ninth session of the Assembly of Ministers. This session was held as a side event at the UNESCO General Conference.

UNESCO is an important Multilateral organisation, part of the United Nations system that South Africa enjoys full membership to. The UNESCO General Conference which takes place every two years is attended by Member States and Associate Members, together with observers for non-Member-States, intergovernmental organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The general conference is an important platform where delegates determine the policies and the main lines of work of the Organisation discussing all the issues concerning the general policy of the Organisation, and occasionally by focusing on certain major themes; adopting for the next two years a programme and budget, the draft of which is submitted to the General Conference and is the outcome of a consultation process between the Member States and the Secretariat; electing the Members of the Executive Board; appointing, every four years, the Director-General; and adopting the (six-year) Medium-Term Strategy of the Organisation.

The South African delegation’s participation during the General Conference in the deliberations on the programme and budget took place in five sector-specific commissions that included: Education, Natural Sciences, Social and Human Sciences, Culture as well as Communication Information and Informatics.

During the General Conference the Education for All Agenda was of particular importance to us. Since 2012, UNESCO, as the global coordinating agency of the EFA movement, has played a lead role in facilitating consultations of Member States, civil society and other key stakeholders on the vision and position of education in the post-2015 agenda.

This involves a series of consultation meetings at regional and global level as well as with civil society and thematic online discussions. The Global Thematic Consultation on Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda proposed “Equitable, Quality Education and Lifelong Learning for All” as the overarching goal for education.

UNESCO, as lead agency for education for sustainable development (ESD), has been actively promoting the role of education in the follow-up to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) and the current process for setting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and is working with partners to generate recommendations and define next steps to inform the post-2015 development agenda. It is now urgent to increase the engagement of line ministries, especially ministries of education, as well as other stakeholders from all regions in the goal-setting process. UNESCO will facilitate and support Member States in engaging in this process.

As you know Nigeria has now been confirmed as the biggest economy on the continent and of course several African countries are experiencing sustained economic growth. This is indeed great news which must be complemented by the support of programmes for the development of science, technology and engineering skills, especially for women, as well as the celebration and promotion of Africa’s history, heritage, arts and cultures.

Since the advent of democracy in our country, the government has placed education high on the list of national priorities. The democratic government resolved to improve education quality from the formative years to matric and beyond.

Such a strategic shift had meant that more evidence-based focus should equally be dedicated to upping foundational skills from the lower grades.

We are already seeing a steady improvement in performance as a result of this direction we’re taking with positive output from those learners who’ve already been through the new Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements.

The results of international studies including Trends in Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMSS) have corroborated our observations that sections of the education system are responding positively to the many interventions we have made. The latest TIMSS’ results (of 2011) showed that schools at the lower end of the performance spectrum, mainly schools in the less advantaged contexts, registered impressive improvements.

In respect of our country, 2011 TIMSS pointed to improvements in mathematics and science competencies of Grade 9 learners when compared to Grade 9 learners tested in 2002.

South Africa’s improvement in mathematics of 67 TIMSS’ points between 2002 and 2011, or 7 points per year on average, is among the steepest seen by any TIMSS participant. Only Ghana has seen a steeper improvement over this period. Our improvement is comparable to that experienced by Brazil in the last decade, probably the fastest and most consistent improver in any international testing system in recent years.

As part of the UNESCO community, we are especially concerned about those children of primary school age who are not in school. The plight of the many young people who leave school without a level of literacy and numeracy adequate for productive and active participation in their societies, the persistent gender gap and plight of people living with disabilities needs to be addressed urgently.

We pledge our support to efforts such as Education for All (EFA) and the Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) that are directed at addressing these gaps. We are convinced that coordinating the synergies between MDG 2, Education For All and the Global Education First Initiative will strengthen the movement for achieving quality education for all beyond 2015.

We recognise that great strides have been made towards the achievement of MDG 2 on universal primary education. However, much more needs to be done in this regard and we support various efforts that are underway to accelerate the achievement of the MDGs before 2015.

South Africa believes that the development agenda beyond 2015 must build on the existing development agenda, and that education must feature prominently in the post-2015 development agenda.

We look forward to the intergovernmental process that will finalise the development agenda beyond 2015 so that the quest for a better world for all our people can become a reality. In this, we all have a collective responsibility, for our current and future generations.

Today we will receive the final report of the General Conference as stakeholders within the Education Sector. I invite you all to scrutinise the final report tot eh 37th UNESCO General Conference and to vigorously discuss its content and to once more make insightful inputs.

Working together we can do more to realise Right to Education and Rights within Education.

I wish you a successful meeting.

Thank you.