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GOLD & SILVER
AN ASSET
WELL WORTH
HAVING
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Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. author: Nelson Mandela An excerpt from Nelson Mandela's EDUCATION AFRICA speech
Speech by President Nelson Mandela at the Education Africa , Presidential and Premier Education Awards
22 November 1997, Pretoria
Master of ceremonies; Minister of Education; Premiers of provinces; Distinguished guests;
Recipients of awards.
It is a great honour to join you in celebrating the contribution which our award winners have made to our people`s quality of life. This ceremony highlights the role of education in realising our goals as a nation.
At the outset I should confess my delight at the impact these awards are beginning to make in the educational fraternity. For the first time in three years, there is a marked increase in the number of entries.
These entries and the unprecedented number of guests gracing this ceremony, from South Africa and further afield, tell us that more people are joining hands in efforts to improve the quality of education, and to make it accessible to the majority of South Africans.
They show that we are all beginning to recognise in the most practical way, that education is central to the success of a whole range of other human endeavours.
Our own reconstruction and development effort, the renaissance of the entire continent and our successful interaction in the global village, depend largely on the progress we make in educating our populations.
In South Africa the challenges are as stark as they are real. The recently compiled School Register of Needs provides us with hard and cold facts. The majority of our children, especially in rural provinces, still either do not have access to basic education or depend on institutions that lack the teaching media and equipment needed for effective learning and teaching.
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