MEC for economic development, environment and tourism, Pinky Phosa has urged matric learners from Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Local Municipality to work hard in order to improve on the previous year’s results.
Last year the municipality achieved a
77,46% and this year Phosa urged learners, educators, parents and school governing bodies to work as a team in an attempt to achieve a 100 per cent pass rate.
Phosa said this while addressing over
1 130 learners from 15 high schools around Wakkerstroom and Volksrust circuits of education who attended a a career exhibition day hosted by the Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (Dedet), the local municipality, constituency office and other business stakeholders.
The day was aimed at exposing learners to a variety of careers available in the mainstream and other economies with the objective of helping them to make right and informed decisions on which career paths to follow.
“As government we have forged strategic partnerships with the private sector with one of the focus area being human capital development. High on the agenda is the issue of skills development through investments in a form of bursaries towards mathematics, science and technology which we believe will address the critical skills shortage in the country and province,” said Phosa.
The day was also marked with the presentation of 15 laptops, scanners and 3G-Internet connectivity modems to the best performing learners.
Phosa’s sentiments were echoed by the executive mayor, Cllr PV Malatji who said government has prioritised education as the single most powerful weapon to defeat poverty, unemployment and inequality in this country and as a result, his municipality would support any educational initiative aimed at improving the lives of people.
Malatji appealed to schools and educators to heed the call of government to take education seriously as “this will assist the country and the province as we implement our nation-building programmes,” he said.
Companies and entities including South African Breweries, Eskom, Glencore (formally known as Xstrata Coal), Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency, the National Institute of Higher Education, Mondi Science Centre, South African Defence Force, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), Gert Sibande FET College, Vodacom, Datacentric, Brent Oil and many other organisations participated in this event.
