KEYNOTE speaker KZN Premier Senzo Mchunu congratulated the district for being the best educational achiever of 2013 at the uThungulu District Education Department Excellence Awards held at the Umfolozi Casino Resort last week.
The event, funded by KZN Tronox Sands, was held to honour principals, teachers and school governing bodies for their outstanding efforts in helping the pupils to obtain between 80% and 100% in the recent National Senior Certificate results.
Aimed at acknowledging excellence and encouraging twinning, the occasion is designed to uplift non-performing schools to increase the Bachelors’ merit and overall pass rate.
‘Between 2012 and 2013 there has been a great improvement. We call on business communities and relevant partners to support this district initiative. Education is a societal matter and forms part of the five key elements of government,’ said uThungulu District Education Department Director David Chonco.
‘One of the key elements of providing quality education has been the performance of teachers. Clearly, the impressive results that have been recorded would not have been possible without mentorship and the continuous training of teachers. I want to applaud the school principals for guiding teachers,’ said KZN Premier Senzo Mchunu.
‘It should be noted that these efforts have resulted in the production of skills that will help this province leapfrog stages of economic development. The economic competiveness of the country is measured not only by the aggregate skills of the workforce, but perhaps more importantly, by the capacity to continuously produce skilled school leavers through quality education,’ he said.
‘I must point out that for the country, and KZN in particular, to produce highly capable individuals; a high quality cadre of teachers is required. It is for these reasons that we say educators must be developed as facilitators of knowledge, as managers of innovation and also as lifelong-learners.
‘We are grateful that the dedication and resourcefulness that was shown by many schools in 2012, continued in 2013. Sometimes, as human beings, we do not realise the full value of efforts by others until the results are publicised,’ said Mchunu.
