HSRP Partnerships

Members of the Eastern Cape HSRP/Government Task Team attend an assembly at St Matthew’s.

Government

I am happy to report that our partnership with government grows from strength to strength. Towards the end of 2008, it became clear that the HSRP needed an institutional framework agreement to formalise its relationship with government in order to fulfil its mandate of excellence in education, bearing in mind that the HSRP is a government initiative, endorsed and initially funded by government.

In December, I and two HSRP Board members, Nathan Johnstone and Maud Motanyane, met with the National Ministers of Arts and Culture, Education, and Science and Technology, as well as senior members of their staff. During this meeting it was proposed that government identify a model to manage the HSRP initiative and also draft a Memorandum of Agreement to ensure clarity of the formal relationship between all levels of government and the HSRP. This proposal is being taken further in 2009.

At the same meeting, the HSRP submitted that a school which enables excellence requires a degree of autonomy with respect to matters such as values, ethos and the appointment of educators.The HSRP had, prior to its AGM in 2008, initiated civil society discussions on amending the Schools Act to allow for a ‘third tier’ of schools and requested further guidance from government on this issue. Government responded positively to the possibility of a change to the Schools Act to benefit such vehicles as the HSRP, and suggested that this would allow for an approach to the National Treasury for funds.

The HSRP has maintained a good working relationship with provincial governments in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, and task teams have been set up which will meet regularly. A relationship is also being built with the Limpopo Provincial Government and I continue to meet with relevant government office bearers in all provinces.

The HSRP does not believe it will be helpful to duplicate programmes already planned for or being implemented in schools. Therefore we are liaising with a number of other organisations with the similar goal of promoting excellence in secondary education and continue to explore partnership opportunities with them.

The Calabar Foundation

The Calabar Foundation seeks to raise funding from US-based foundations to assist with the progression of high school education in rural South Africa. It has partnered with St Matthew’s (one of the HSRP pilot schools) as it is a boarding school with a tradition of educational excellence. It has already allocated a budget of R1 million for providing basic requirements for students and teachers, and a number of projects, such as window repairs and upgrading of computer equipment, have been completed. It has also committed another R1 million to upgrade teacher housing and is working with the provincial government on such matters as securing a reliable water supply to the school. The Foundation has made great progress thus far and the HSRP is extremely thankful for its involvement.

Pearl Edu-Vision

Pearl Edu-Vision was founded by Dinao Lerutla, a finance professional, and promotes educator development, training, upskilling, enhancement, empowering and leadership through a programme provided by the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Pretoria. It is targeted at all teachers (mainly in the rural areas initially) and hopes to increase their exposure to the political, social and economic landscapes of South Africa and the world, to support deeper understanding and implementation of the curriculum, to encourage personal development, leadership and management and to improve the school environment and bring about excellence through dynamic teachers of quality.

The Pearl Edu-Vision programme will be implemented as a pilot project in three historic schools in the Limpopo Province in January 2010, namely St Mark’s, Glen Cowie and Pax Boys’ College.

TEACH South Africa

TEACH South Africa is a social movement of education ambassadors dedicated to addressing educational inequality in South Africa. Its overall aims are to provide disadvantaged students with TEACH ambassadors who will help them improve their academic performance and achieve their potential, thereby building leadership skills to benefit South Africa. TEACH is partnered with government and with Deloitte and hopes to have its ambassadors at schools across all provinces by 2013.

Healdtown students in a Mathematics class.

Pangynaskean Investment Holdings (Pty) Ltd

Pangynaskean is a broad-based women’s group that encourages entrepreneurship among its members and supports the development of young women through the Pangynaskean Trust. The members of Pangynaskean aspire to use their positions of influence and access to create opportunities for further study for deserving young women from previously disadvantaged communities in South Africa. I am honoured to be a Trustee of this organisation.

The Umlambo Foundation

This Foundation is headed by former Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and aims to pair disadvantaged schools with their successful alumni and other interested business people to provide the schools with the infrastructure they lack, such as libraries, computers, science labs and basic items such as school fencing. Umlambo also plans to enhance the skills of school principals through courses on leadership and management, and to assist young people who drop out of school before matric and have little prospect of finding employment.

The Hugh Masekela Music and Arts Academy

Early in 2009, I met with music icon Bra Hugh Masekela and other interested parties to explore the idea of a music and arts academy to promote South African culture and cultural excellence in education. We are agreed that it is extremely important that African traditional heritage, marginalised during the apartheid years, be revived to encourage South Africans to maintain a healthy sense of self in a world dominated by Western cultural influences. Infrastructure to enable and maintain such a venture is currently nonexistent, therefore a business plan for the Academy has been drawn up, which proposes the setting up of a universal arts academy attached to an entertainment centre, with a significant auditorium and an amphitheatre. This centre would include departments of Music, Dance, Dramatic Arts, Graphic Design, Sound Recording and Engineering, and Arts and Crafts. The prerequisite for admission would be talent in any of these disciplines.

It is proposed that the Hugh Masekela Music and Arts Academy be linked to the historic (and other) schools to be a complementary body for the cultural growth of these schools. We envisage curriculum input from the Academy to the schools and that cultural information and courses and facilities would be shared between the HSRP and the Academy. I am involved in ongoing talks with potential funders and patrons, and I envisage a useful future partnership between the academy and the HSRP. I am also delighted to be a Trustee of this worthwhile project.

Music students from Inanda Seminary pose with their trumpets.