Issued by: Ministry of Education
14 October 2002
Director of Ceremonies,
The Management of the Careers Exhibition and Information Association,
Members of the Colleges and Higher Education Institutions present,
Representatives from the Private Sector, NGOs, and Government Departments,
Ladies and Gentlemen
Your theme, "Together we can make a difference", promises to make this Annual General Meeting a memorable event in the life of your association. The potential for what could be achieved when a number of influential role players come together with the sole aim of making a meaningful contribution towards making a difference in shaping of the future of our young people is enormous. The Department of Education was mindful of this when it selected the theme for its five-year plan as Tirisano.
Allow me to thank this organisation for the role you are playing in motivating and mentoring students and learners and providing them with the information that is vital to their making informed career choices. Our students are an invaluable asset to the country. We need to do everything possible to facilitate their smooth transition into the world of work. Without the vital information and support provided by organisations such as yours we would continue to waste a lot of resources and the potential in our young people. It does not matter how much money and resources are injected into the education system, if there are no civil society structures such as yours to support government or private sector efforts in this regard, all will come to nought.
Together we must now gear ourselves to meet especially the economic challenges brought about by the dynamic changes of today. We have met the political challenges, but still cannot claim that we have made sufficient strides in confronting obstacles in the economic field. Too many people still live under conditions of abject poverty and lack of basic resources. Too many are without clean water, electricity and basic education.
In his State of the Nation address this year the President stated categorically that government would vigorously pursue the acceleration of the reconstruction and development objectives across all departments to ensure that we push back the frontiers of poverty and under-development. The achievement of this objective is imperative for the development of the country's greatest resource - people.
The national framework for improving our Human Development Index by reducing inequality, enhancing social development and increasing our international competitiveness is in place. The overarching goals of the legislative framework are to produce skilled workers that have the capacity to improve productivity in the public and private sectors and to effectively transform the country by reducing poverty and underdevelopment. Core policies include the Human Resource Development Strategy and the National Skills Development Strategy that were adopted by cabinet in January and February 2001. The National Skills Development Strategy sets out bold and ambitious objectives, rigorous timelines and success indicators to foster skills development across all sectors and to develop a culture of lifelong learning. The strategy aims to register 70% of workers on Level 1 on the NQF by the year 2004.
The HRD Strategy sets out the vision, mission and the strategic objectives, which include targets and performance indicators for the country. The purpose of the strategy is to provide a comprehensive, implementation plan spanning across the public and private sectors to ensure that our citizens are adequately equipped to participate in the country's economic activities, to find or create employment and to benefit fully from the fruits of our nascent democracy. The operative word in the statement is "EMPLOYMENT". This word must be understood to refer to the full range of activities that have the potential of translating into the restoration of the individuals' sense self-worth and self esteem. It is only through gainful employment that individuals can develop a sense of value for their own and other people's lives. Human dignity stems from one's ability to be self-sufficient enough to live one's life in the manner one deems fit.
The biggest obstacle still to be overcome in the fight against poverty and underdevelopment is the high rate of unemployment. The unemployment rate according to recent official statistics is 37,5% and the vast majority of those affected are black and women. The unemployment levels are also highest in the age category 25 to 29 years, closely followed on either end of the scale by the 20 to 24 and 30 to 34 age categories. In short, our unemployment statistics for school leavers is truly alarming. We plan to use an updated information system from the Departments of Education and Labour and the Sector Education Training Authority system to assist our youth in making informed career choices. Such information has to be available to institutions and schools to help place the youth in careers that are now available or have been neglected in the past by the formal education system.
Many reasons have been put forward for the prevalence and persistence of poverty and our high unemployment figures. This situation has largely to do with the past unequal distribution of the resources and productive assets where opportunities for the majority racial group to become highly skilled were deliberately limited. Many of our people in the economically productive age category are under skilled, but not all of them lack the capabilities of acquiring the necessary competencies. In response to this reality the HRD Strategy aims to correct this situation by ensuring that those who were negatively discriminated against in the past should be affirmed in terms of the allocation of resources for development. But the main thrust of the strategy still remains the enhancement of the capabilities of all our citizens.
Another major factor that is bound to have a devastating impact on our economy is the rapid spread of HIV and AIDS, especially among the economically productive age group already alluded to. A large number of deaths, or absenteeism due to illness, will not only result in the overall under-performance of the workforce, but will also exacerbate the impact of the existing shortage of skilled people. A report released by MG-Levy in April this year has shed some light on this matter. The report predicts that the country's life expectancy, now standing at 54,7 years, will drop to 37 years for men and 38 years for women by 2010. The implications of this for the future of our people and the growth of the economy are gloomy considering that the population that is under the greatest risk is the 20 - 40 age group. The prognosis is that our economically active population would be reduced by 35% more people by 2015 in comparison to the situation that would have obtained if our country had remained AIDS-free.
The Human Resource Development Strategy sets targets and indicators for the development of our human resources to ensure that the supply of skills matches the labour market demand within the 25 Sector Education Training Authorities operating across the entire economic spectrum. The Strategy further aims to guarantee inter-departmental co-ordination in planning and implementation. Effective interaction and communication between government and all the education and training sectors is imperative. The HSRC has been appointed as a support agency to foster and strengthen the linkages by collecting and analysing the relevant data on an ongoing basis to ensure an integrated HRD planning and implementation at the national, provincial, regional and sectoral levels.
Bearing co-responsibility with the Ministry of Labour for overseeing of the implementation of the HRD Strategy, the Ministry of Education will be co-ordinating the supply side of the agreed scarce skills across the 25 economic sectors by increasing the relevant student numbers in the Further Education and Training and Higher Education bands and by facilitating their placement in the employment sector. The Department of Education has also taken the lead in the first objective by meeting the targets relating to the provision of Early Childhood Development, literacy, adult education and General Education. The department has a further responsibility for the skills development of its own employees according to its own workplace skills plan.
The need for lifelong education arises from the need for frequent updating and renewal of skills required by the new technologies in the job market. In this environment of continuous change we cannot expect the knowledge and skills that we receive in formal schooling to last us a lifetime. What we have learnt in school would have to be continually reviewed, updated and expanded throughout our lives.
Rapid technological developments have led to the demise of old industries and the birth of new knowledge intensive industries. Students of today therefore need to continually retrain themselves throughout their working lives to acquire new skills to remain employable. Providing continuing educational opportunities provides those who could not, during their youth, pursue their studies or realise their aspirations with a second chance.
We also need to change the one-job for life mindset among our youth. If we want to survive in today's economic climate we need to rid our minds of such backward-looking tendencies because in this information-driven age many of the traditional work practices and employment patterns have changed or are about to undergo drastic changes. Although job titles are still maintained, the work place or the job market places emphasis on the tasks and assignments that need to be fulfilled rather than on careers.
We all need to update our professional skills to cope with the changing and shifting job markets. All those who want to remain competitive need to acquire specialised skills to keep abreast of developments in their respective fields. In a sense everyone has to become an entrepreneur for we are now required to change jobs more frequently than ever before. The shift now is towards more temporary work because the new world of work entails more frequent transitions that are better suited to contract and consultancy work. You as the service providers for the education system will also not be spared the trauma.
Choosing a career and finding a job are thus no longer once-off events, but uncertain and stress-laden processes we have to cope with. Some of us would have to go right back to the beginning to choose totally new careers to meet the current demands. We would require broader perspectives to make the decisions that would assist us to manage our lives and ourselves in more meaningful ways. We need to teach our students to think and act holistically in order to cope with the following critical tasks:
Choosing appropriate subjects and further education and training options for the job has thus become the major preoccupation for all of us working in the field of education. Although schools begin as early as Grade 7, the best levels for meaningful preparation for careers are within the FET colleges and HE institutions. Therefore, the importance of a strategic and significant partnership between the department and all the service providers in this field and consumers of such service - the private & public sectors - can hardly be overemphasised. As service providers you need all the information to assist you to tailor-make your programmes so that they stay relevant and market related. In today's competitive job market it is those students that have acquired specialist and marketable skills through the up-to-date education and training system that would have the greatest chances of getting employment after qualification. Your member organisations are therefore tasked with the responsibility to ensure that their programmes equip our students for the job market of the 21st century and beyond.
The past few years have seen steady and heartening developments in the academic performance of learners in our schools. This points to an encouraging improvement in the learners' attitudes towards their studies, the teachers' guidance and encouragement of the learners entrusted upon them as well as the parents' and communities' support for their children. Parents certainly have a critical role to play in this aspect. The attitudes of parents towards their children's studies and the values they inculcate make a vital difference to the children's performance and behaviour in school. If parents are able to fulfil their responsibilities in developing good habits in their children, act as good role models and encourage their children to work hard, more than half the battle is won. Schools can only succeed in developing good character and instilling sound values if parents reinforce the same values imparted by the schools.
None of us can argue against the fact that in order to bring about Africa's development we need our home grown professionals in the areas of science, engineering, technology, economics, business, management, education and other humanities. The department has stated this imperative explicitly in the National Plan for Higher Education. While conceding the reality that there is a huge backlog to be covered in order to produce the critical mass of the human resources to enter some of these important areas of study in higher education, there remains an obvious need to get the education system to work successfully from the schooling level.
We have already begun to make our schools effective sites of learning. As part of this approach, we are putting emphasis on the production of more high quality Grade 12 learners with Maths and Science who would be able to enter higher education fully prepared for its rigours. The problem we are faced with in mathematics and science has not only to do with the numbers that pass these subjects on the Higher Grade and obtain matric exemption; in general mathematical and scientific literacy are extremely poor in the entire school system. We need to put our shoulders to the wheel to rectify the situation. This is not something we expect to achieve overnight; it is going to take some time, possibly a whole generation of school-going learners.
The National Strategy for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education launched in June 2001 is a flagship initiative of the Department of Education. The ability of all learners to succeed in today's world of work is increasingly dependent on their performance in these learning areas and the application of their scientific knowledge and skills in practical situations. In effect, mathematics and science have become essential subjects for all learners. They are not only required by those preparing to become technicians, engineers and business people, they are needed generally for developing a scientifically, mathematically and technologically literate citizenry.
In conclusion ladies and gentlemen, I am convinced that if we all work together no problem would be too big to prevent us from taking our country forward.
I wish you well in your deliberations.