I had the honour of being a speaker at an education conference on Thursday (11 August 2011) in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, where the Minister of Basic Education was also a speaker. Unlike the normal protocol process, I was given an opportunity to speak before the Minister, and therefore she had to listen to what I had to say. In total astonishment, during my deliberations and when it was her speaking time, she agreed with the sentiment raised that our education system is in a crisis. In fact, she repeated this statement more than once, and sometimes called it a "major, major crisis". It was such a delight to hear her speaking mostly 'not from the words on the speech page' but rather 'from her heart'. I certainly believe that she has the commitment to change our current education crisis, and therefore I have decided to work with her as far as she finds my work (turning around dysfunctional and under-performing schools) useful.
The times we find ourselves in are calling for people who are brave and selfless enough to stand up and be counted. Our children are desperately in need of a significant amount of adults in education who are prepared to serve education rather than 'taking for themselves' what is in the offering. They need adults in education who are not prepared to sacrifice the interest of the children of South Africa, in exchange for their short-term, material gains that might go up in flames soon as seen in other countries in the world. They need you and me to focus on 'giving' instead of just 'taking' from education.
Are you up for it? Let me know what you think of such an 'eduction movement'.
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