Chairperson, hon Ministers, MEC Grant and hon members, Hannah Arendt said that education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for and by the same token save it from ruin. Furthermore, through the education we provide we can decide whether we love our children enough to prepare them in advance for the task of renewing a common world, or whether through our failure to provide them with educational opportunities we expel the children from our world and leave them to their own devices by striking from their hands their chances of making something new, something unforeseen by us.
These words were said by a famous educationist, one Hannah Arendt; and they could well have been said to all of us seated here today about the situation with regard to higher education in the Northern Cape.
Education is an investment for the future. It is a delivery system that transfers wisdom, culture, norms, values, expectations and the vision of one generation to the next. It is through education that the development of our human resource capital, which is so critical in our country and in our province at this point, can be enhanced, thus making it possible for us to fight and defeat poverty and adequately redress past inequalities and discrimination.
It is against this background that we have embarked on a path to advocate for the establishment of a university in the province. Amongst the main aims of this drive is a desire to develop innovative and critical thinkers, producers and users of knowledge with the capacity to shape the future of our province, our country, the whole of Africa and the world at large.
The recent global recession made it blatantly clear to many of us that the success of our country depends on the innovativeness of our people rather than on the abundance of labour or its natural resources, as was evident with our major banks in the country.
We need to continue to develop a critical mass of human resources possessing skills that are required to compete favourably in the global economy. That is the surest way of building a strong economy that is growing and sustainable, and capable of creating the jobs we need to drastically alter the socioeconomic conditions under which many of our people continue to live.
To this end we have just identified as our starting point the establishment of a university in the province. It is of particular significance that the call for the establishment of such an institution should be in resonance the 20th anniversary of the release of Nelson Mandela. It is in line with the collective honour that we, together with the whole world, continue to bestow on this iconic symbol of freedom and democracy that we shall accordingly, together with the members of this House, intensify our efforts to establish an institution of higher learning.
We are fully aware of the enormity of the challenge that still lies ahead of us. But working together with our communities, the private sector stakeholders and other formations, we remain convinced that the initiative for which we plead for your support today will go a long way in ensuring that higher education, in the form of a university education, becomes accessible to more and more of our young people.
Hon members, we are of the firm belief that, upon completion, this university must and will become a centre for educational excellence and diligence. Out of this university must come engineers, geologists, artisans and mine managers who will take full advantage of the emerging mining potential in our province, the Northern Cape.
We shall overcome the obstacles relating to the provision of quality education especially for the poor and the vulnerable. Again, out of this university there should come agricultural economists and animal health inspectors who will take full advantage of our province's strong agricultural sector.
This institution of higher learning must also help us in addressing the scarce skills currently experienced in our province as well as the rest of the country by producing doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health practitioners so that we are able to provide quality health care to all our people.
It must also help us to produce educators, school managers, subject specialists, and so forth, so that we do not suffer from a shortage of teachers to teach our children. We also need social workers and other community-based workers to help us address many of the social ills within our communities; and accordingly this university must also produce these critical skills.
The message we are communicating today in this House is that, upon completion, this institution of higher learning must not and will not become a white elephant. It must in a real sense seek to instil values and skills that can only take our province and our country forward. If we educate our nation, and in particular our young people, we would have won a greater cause for our social and economic transformation agenda, and such a university will offer us the best opportunity of doing so.
The pass rate that we achieved in our province in the 2009 Grade 12 examination is well documented, as have been the reasons for the decline. It is certainly not my intention to proffer any excuses for the steep decline in the results. However, the most compelling factor that influenced learner performance was the inevitable cost-containment measures required to offset projected and real over-expenditure as articulated in our earlier statement.
It is certainly my intention to lead a turnaround strategy, central to which is our refocus on taking educational decisions on basic school functionality. We are determined to improve the management of our schools as well as ensuring that the non-negotiables, as articulated by our President, are strictly adhered to: Managers must manage, teachers must teach, learners must learn, and parents must take a keener and deeper interest in their children's education.
Accordingly, our officials at district and provincial offices will ensure that learner and teacher support materials are delivered to schools on time. Furthermore, we will introduce and roll out our matriculation intervention programme, as well as intensify our programme for learner achievement, focusing on literacy and numeracy outcomes in Grades 3 and 6, and strengthening the Foundations for Learning Campaign.
We will further ensure that our district offices are appropriately capacitated to roll out support to schools. In line with our premier's directives in the state of the province address, we will continue on our path to stabilise the administration of the department to ensure that sufficient and effective support and administrative systems are in place to guarantee learner performance. Learner performance, as was emphasised, must and will be by design and not by default.
As one of the major medium- to long-term strategies of ensuring that the province never again records such a poor statistic, we reviewed the establishment of a university as one area that will further assist us to ensure that every classroom has a competent and qualified teacher in all the critical subject areas.
Such a university, through its development programmes, will enable our educators to continue to sharpen and deepen their subject knowledge and enable them to deliver a quality education to our learners. We remain optimistic about the success of such a university because of the various programmes that our National Institute for Higher Education has already put in place. They will assist us to make a smooth transition to the establishment of a university.
Hon members, your valued support for this cause will ensure that thousands of young people are given hope for a brighter and a better tomorrow, born out of investment in a good education. Your tangible support in this regard will ensure that we avert the sad and gloomy picture of reality that is currently being experienced by many of our young people, as portrayed in a poem written by a young boy when he says:
Reality is the long walk home And tired feet that hurt. It's back to the grime And the dust and the dirt. It's back to the home Where nobody cares. It's back to where Hardship is common And knowledge is rare.
It is our collective belief that your efforts, voices and support will in the not too distant future enable this boy to proclaim and say: "Thank you, hon member, for always making me strive to be my best. It was you, hon member, who made me always smile. I am now educated to think critically. I am equal to my peers and can walk with dignity. I have learnt to be a reasonable and active citizen for what I see and understand, and that has changed me and made me a better citizen." I thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]