Mohamed Enver Surty Deputy Minister of Education Born in Rustenberg, North West Province, South Africa, Mohamed Enver Surty was educated at the University of Durban Westville, from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Honours degree in Philosophy and a Baccalaureus Procurationis degree through the University of South Africa, subsequently being admitted as an Attorney at law in Rustenberg, where after he read the Master of Laws at the University of Western Cape. Enver has served as a Human Rights lawyer for a significant part of his working life and has advanced the cause of human rights, so much so that he became a negotiator for the African National Congress (ANC) on the Bill of Rights. He became a Member of Parliament during South Africa’s first general elections and was appointed the Chief Whip of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). President Mbeki has since appointed Mohamed Enver Surty as the Deputy Minister of Education.

 

As our economies develop and become more dependent on one another, it is imperative that we develop a more inclusive approach to life long education and training and skills development. Merely getting a qualification will not help our people if they cannot engage meaningfully in social and economic life. This is the challenge that we face in the 21st century – improving the participation of our people in the opportunities that the emerging global environment presents for us as Africans. Many of us have worked towards achieving the goals of universal primary education, expanding this to providing basic education without neglecting the development of intellectual capital, through quality secondary and higher education programmes, in scarce skills areas for our continent.

With most developing countries faced with high levels of inequity in society, it is increasingly difficult to ensure that young people leave our education systems with the skills and competencies required to engage fully and responsibly in social, economic, and political life in our countries. In recent years, we have seen that despite the massive achievements in access to education in some countries, and curriculum reform for increased relevance, the labour market frequently does not absorb enough new graduates from education and training systems with the result that unemployment rates increase. This is a tragedy which could, if allowed to proceed unchecked, call into question the credibility of our education systems.

Our goal in this Conference on Education should therefore be to discuss strategies for ensuring that within and beyond primary education grades, our young people succeed. This success should not be measured in the narrow sense of achieving high grades and marks at school, but in achieving and exhibiting those values and attitudes which contribute to stable and thriving societies.

The challenges of keeping young people in the formal and non-formal education and training systems will need to come under scrutiny in this conference as we increasingly find that due to pressing financial needs of poor households, young people give up on schooling to start work or that young girls, particularly, become so disproportionately caught up in caring duties at home that their schooling performance suffers. It is clear that there will have to be a blurring of the distinctions between formal and non-formal education, and between education and training, as we seek to address the skills requirements in our countries. Mathematics, Science and Technology as subjects will need to be given prominence in our skills development programmes, as we see the market for people qualified in these areas is increasingly more global. As well as this, life skills competencies including health and sexuality education are necessary for all young people.

I expect that at this 47th International Conference on Education, participants will be able to explore practical strategies to ensure quality education for all especially the poor. Participants will explore issues which affect access to secondary, vocational and tertiary education as these will affect the pace at which we develop and build a cadre of African scholars, academics and professionals who will be able to contribute to the development of our continent, and establish an intellectual, social and economic foundation for the benefit of future generations.