The Premier of the Northern Cape province Mrs. Hazel Jenkins and the Provincial Executive have visited a number of schools in the province as part of the official opening of the new academic year. As is customary at this time of the year all our schools are again witnessing an avalanche of MPL’s, parents, members of the community, officials of Government and indeed other stakeholders. The Provincial Government of the Northern Cape do this because our government continues to ensure that education is prioritized as one of the most important activities in the lives of our people.
Premier indicated that Honourable President JG Zuma has called on all of us to ensure that the education of our children becomes a societal issue that must continue to occupy the energies of all of us. The focus should not just be for the opening of schools or the release of grade 12 results but every day of the academic year.
The Premier highlighted that the biggest challenge faced by education stakeholders is to ensure that we achieve the necessary and expected objective of improving on our grade 12 pass rate. She also alluded to the fact that the home should offer the first lessons of what is right and what is wrong and if this foundation is lacking, then it becomes an uphill battle for our schools and teachers. In the same breath and in the spirit of our Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign we call on our educators to ensure that they do what they must do in our schools and particular our classrooms. The Honourable Premier furthermore pleaded with parents to ensure that children do their home work and engage on a daily basis with their work books.
On behalf of Provincial Government the Premier pledges to continue to support all educators and schools with available resources at our disposal, to enable them to discharge their responsibilities more efficiently and more effectively.
The main purpose of the visits to schools was to offer and pledge support to the teachers and to encourage and motivate them to perform better than the previous academic year.