CONCLUSION

Much has been achieved in the four years since the Historic Schools Restoration Project came into existence and it is our firm belief that as an organisation we can continue to make a difference. But we are also very aware of the enormity of the challenges confronting education in South Africa. These challenges are bigger than the Education Department, both at national and provincial levels, and now more than ever there is a need for role players in education to join hands in partnership.

It is our firm belief that there is immense goodwill in all sectors of society to see education improve and what is needed is a catalyst that will bring these disparate bodies together for the common good. The HSRP is uniquely positioned to assist in this regard and already there have been partnerships formed with both the Anglican Church and the Methodist Church to improve education in schools formerly run by these two denominations. We are looking forward to establishing formal partnerships with other churches whose schools are currently part of the Historic Schools Restoration Project.

It is our belief that these partnerships can be extended to corporate South Africa to a greater degree than is presently the case. We commit ourselves to facilitating as much of this as we are able, and to work closely with the Department of Basic Education to bring about positive change.

Benjamin Desraeli recognised the importance of education when he said: “Upon the education of the people of this country, the fate of this country depends.”

While directed at another country in another time, his words nonetheless ring true for South Africa today. We are approaching 20 years of freedom, yet for many of our people freedom is not complete as the inequalities of income and employment continue to deny them the opportunity to realise their full potential. The only way of correcting this situation is through good quality education for all, and it is only through this that we as a country will become truly free and allow all our citizens to build and share in all that this wonderful country has to offer.

“Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farmworkers can become the president of a great nation.

It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.”
Nelson Mandela – Long Walk to Freedom, 1995