CAPE TOWN, 22 February 2001
VALUES, EDUCATION & DEMOCRACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
The Minister of Education Cabinet Ministers and MEC’s Government Officials Representatives of the Diplomatic Corps Ladies and Gentlemen Allow me to begin by thanking the Department of Education for producing the Values, Democracy and Education report which highlights the role that education can play in the entrenchment of democracy in South Africa.
This is an important initiative that can only enhance the contribution which our schools and our education system can make in the building of a common, harmonious South African nation. Why, you may ask, is it important for us to redefine our values when the guiding principles of our young society have been enshrined in the South African constitution?
Education in South Africa was successfully used by the apartheid government to ensure that blacks occupied an inferior position on the social structure of our country.
For the majority of South Africans, education was geared mainly for service related professions: teaching, nursing, the police force etc. This report is necessary because there is a need for us to take a long and hard look at our society.
We see in South Africa a degree of materialism, anger and callousness that finds expression in many forms and is to be found in many spheres of our society including our schools.
We see also the meanness, fear, indifference and cruelty of some members of our society jealously guarding their privileges. Our schools as an integral part of our society have not been spared from the consequences of our unfortunate past.
Ladies and gentlemen, although a nation is generally regarded as broadly defined by its borders, the question "What constitutes a nation?" is relevant in South Africa in 2001 as it ever was pre 1994. We have a constitution of which we can be most proud, we have put in place the organs of a genuine democracy and we can safely say that our government is one that has been elected by a broad mass of South Africans.
But - to what extent are we a nation? President Mbeki said in his state of the nation address two weeks ago that we share a legacy that we did not desire: a legacy of segregation, of oppression and violence. Yet as a nation we have much to celebrate: The achievement of a peaceful political settlement and the development of a diverse civil society are but some of these.
Yet we must ask the question whether these achievements have succeeded to mould us into a single nation that is bound by all that is held dear by people in a state of nationhood. It is important for us to contextualise the origins of our problem as stemming from the distortion of our value system by the apartheid regime. Information on how this came about is well documented.
I believe that any attempt at correcting this distortion has to first deal with what has gone before to better deal with what is happening now. To be able to address the challenges of our country, we cannot ignore the impact that our past has had on our present.
The role played by the state in creating racially defined value systems that divided our country into separate nations cannot be over-emphasised. Because education was used as a tool for subjugation, it was only natural that resistance to the apartheid state would also come from this direction. Over six years into democracy South Africa is still grappling with the mammoth task of correcting the wrongs of the past in education.
The first phase of this was creating a single education system. The many education systems that now constitute our Department of Education came with varying value systems that we are now trying to bring together to form a single value system for our schools.
Education is very essential to addressing many of our social ills that extend from general society to our schoolrooms and there find nurturing and become firmly entrenched as part of our future. For this reason we cannot have an education system that is abstract from our reality.
One of our greatest challenges during this period of transition is that of attempting to transform our country through an education that itself needs transformation. Educators thus have a challenge to understand this reality and position themselves appropriately for their task. Educators are custodians of our value systems in the school environment.
We entrust our children, the future of our country to educators and therefore we have a responsibility to pay special attention to their working environment. I believe that teaching is more than just the mere imparting of textbook knowledge from a teacher to a pupil.
It requires a special commitment that is lacking in some of our educators. Educators must be in the forefront in helping to shape the ideal of a common South African nation through the values that they emphasise in our children. To do this successfully they need support from the communities in which they work. Parents in particular have a responsibility to be more active in this regard.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am sure you will all agree that values and nationhood cannot be legislated but have to evolve from a common understanding of who we are and a sharing of what we are about -through a process of socialisation. As a nation in making, we need to go forward and to unshackle ourselves from anger, alienation and fear.
The Values, Education and Democracy Report suggests that one of the ways to achieve 'tolerance' is via an understanding of who we are, of our past, and thus suggests the importance of unlocking our collective memory. This is a collective memory of fear, hatred and desolation - but as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission demonstrated to us, we must face this legacy if we want to move forward with forgiveness and solidarity.
The collective memory is also one of heroism, and the triumph of the will over adversity.
These are proud traditions that provide a strong basis for building a common future. One of the outcomes of the Values in Education Report has been the establishment of a reference group on History and Archaeology in Education, which I believe has produced an excellent report on memory and History in Education.
You might well ask, if we have a proud tradition espousing values of 'equity', 'tolerance', 'multilingualism', 'openness', 'accountability' and 'social honour', why do we need a report on Values, Education and Democracy? The answer is simple; we cannot sit back with our hands folded, now that we have an outstanding constitution, and statutory institutions that are entrusted with realising the principles of this constitution.
Ladies and gentlemen, the time to make our constitution work, to take these ideas and discuss them, advocate them and implement them is now. This is the challenge that I put to you gathered here tonight: how are we going to take the values of equity, openness or accountability, and to realise them in our daily practices as professionals, civil servants, educators and learners? One way suggested by the Values, Democracy and Education Report, is through dialogue. There are a few issues dealt with in the Values, Democracy and Education Report I would like to refer to before closing.
These are to do with how education can play an important role in the achievement of democracy and prosperity in South Africa. In the section on 'openness' the report stresses the importance of a culture of reading, openness to new ideas and debate, which are essential qualities for citizens in order to participate fully in a flourishing democracy.
In a country where six years ago there were approximately 3 million adults with no education at all, the importance of extending education to all our citizens cannot be underestimated.
Being able to read and write, being familiar with the language and conventions of power makes it easier to participate in institutions of power, be it parliament, the local civic organisation or the bank.
At the same time I wish to issue a challenge to our young learners, university graduates and professionals: Do not disrespect those who developed insight and wit from our oral traditions and communal gatherings. Do not use your school knowledge to alienate you from indigenous knowledge and the wealth of culture embedded in our African ways of life.
Knowledge and literacy means power - but to be wise or ethical comes from experience, being in touch with the soul of one's community, kinship and solidarity.
The section on openness in the report also stresses the importance of numeracy, the scientific approach to problem-solving and technology. Whether we like it or not, there exists a worldwide arena of global economic and scientific interdependence.
This competitive world dictates that education must provide our learners with the motivation, skills and reflective understanding to work with technology, understand scientific phenomena and to compete in the international arena. We have no choice: global forces determine what happens in our own backyard. We remain innumerate and techno-phobic at the cost of our own security and safety, and at the cost of the development of our nation.
You should all be aware of the Human Resource Development Strategy launched by Government, with the Departments of Labour and Education as principal players. This strategy makes it clear that numeracy, scientific thinking, information and communication technology are of paramount importance in the information age.
It stresses the importance of high levels of general education amongst a flexible workforce that is able to adapt to the rapidly changing global markets.
The Values, Democracy and Education Report acknowledges that a problem solving approach to life does not develop in the head alone, but in the heart as well. Success in education is achieved via literacy and numeracy, but also through creative and communal activities; as the report states in the introduction:
"The will and courage to approach life in this manner does not simply reside in science, but in the spirituality of humanity that defines our attitude to life". Democracy is achieved when we value human life- our own lives and those of others; when education unlocks the treasure within.
The significance of the Values, Democracy and Education initiative is not, as I indicated earlier, in coming up with something new: it is to remind us of the vision yet to be achieved, and of the challenges that still lie ahead. It is to focus our minds on the role of education in achieving our ideals for a united, democratic and peace loving nation.
And finally, it is to set in motion a dialogue about these values, which should occur at this conference, in your organisations and offices and above all, in your classrooms. I wish you well in your deliberations over the next two days. In closing, let me reiterate the importance of a gathering of this nature.
Educators, by the nature of their profession, have the best opportunity to help shape this ideal in our children for a better future. The very act of getting together and talking: talking about what values we want to inculcate in our children, and about how we want to make education a more effective institution, represents an important part of the African Renaissance and of making our constitution a living document.
I thank you.