You are in : Education

Development

Education and innovation key factors in development

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 18:32

The future prosperity and well-being of a country and its citizens depends on how well it educates its children, says Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba.

Gigaba was addressing a gathering commemorating the 35th anniversary of National Youth Day at Denel Dynamics. The company is a division of Denel, and its core business covers tactical missiles, precision-guided weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The country’s success depends on the next generation of innovation in areas like healthcare, education and human settlements. So a concerted effort is needed to be made in improving participation and results in science, mathematics and technology, adding that children in both urban and rural schools must have the same access to these subjects.

The Minister pointed out that: “this challenge is compounded by the fact that such schools do not have adequate teachers, a supportive and encouraging environment, enriching opportunities or adequate financial resources. As long as such gaps exist, students from those schools will struggle when and if they enter college. It will take enormous resources and time to achieve the required parity.”

Youth unemployment remains a serious challenge facing South Africa. Although he commended Denel for its efforts to create jobs, he said that too few jobs are being created to absorb the large numbers of new entrants to the labour market.

Gigaba encouraged: “Against the backdrop of national growth and development, every one job in Denel Dynamics creates an additional four jobs [in] the South African economy. We need more of the same as we need to keep our engineers in this country. This level of job creation makes a healthy contribution to providing a high-tech work pool, where there is a skills shortage.”

South Africa marked Youth Day on on June 16 in recognition of the brave youth, who in 1976, stood up against the apartheid government's Bantu education laws.

A BuaNews report edited by the skills portal