My task is to be brief, and to welcome you all. In doing that, I must confess, as some may know, that I have a great love for dance, song and the performing arts. I believe it says something of one's identity and humanity.

The arts play a key role in developing our learners intellectually, emotionally and spiritually, and to improving the quality of life in society generally.

Music and the arts in education have an important role to play in providing our learners not only with the necessary skills and knowledge, but also with healthy value systems and sound attitudes towards life.

Through your efforts we are actively building a Home for All. The more we can indulge in the arts and music, the better it will be for our children, because it will keep them away from drugs and crime.

I am under instruction from my Premier to say the following: The President has challenged us to grow our economy by 6%. In this way we can we can create more jobs and spread wealth.

Studies have shown that 41% of those who matriculated over the past three years are still looking for employment. Clearly, our economy at this stage cannot large numbers of our young people who left school over the past three years.

This means that we have a huge task ahead of us to ensure that many more young people are employable - and also to ensure that many more young people have the capacity to employ themselves.

The provincial government has developed a strategy called iKapa Elihlumayo - to grow and share the Cape, to fight poverty, create jobs and to provide a “home for all” in the Western Cape.

We must therefor ensure that many more learners acquire the knowledge and practical skills they need to contribute to the development of our economy.

For this reason our department aims to establish focus schools for the arts across the Western Cape, as part of the WCED's Art and Culture Strategy. Thus, we will ensure access to specialised education in these fields for all communities in the province.

Arts and Culture is one of the learning areas in the revised national curriculum for both the General and Further Education and Training bands.

This means that Arts and Culture are now firmly part of the mainstream of education in the country, including music. This is a highly significant development, and our challenge now is how to make the most of this opportunity to transform and expand education in the arts.

Not only do culture and the arts present our people with the opportunity to express themselves and to celebrate; not only does it enhance the holistic development of our learners - it also provides a real career-path to many young artists from historically disadvantaged communities, from which to gain employment and earn a living.

May I also inform the audience that we are in the final stages of finalising our own Western Cape Education Songbook, and Artscape is playing an important role in that this.

I hope that with this songbook, which will be distributed to all schools throughout the province, we would be able to unite our learners and enthuse a new form of identity and pride in our education system.

Ladies and Gentlemen, with those few words, please feel welcome and enjoy the rest of the programme.

I thank you

For enquiries, contact Gert Witbooi: 082 550 3938, or gwitbooi@pgwc.gov.za.

Gert Witbooi
Media Secretary
Office of the MEC for Education
Western Cape
Tel: 021 467 2523
Fax: 021 425 5689
Visit our website: http://wced.wcape.gov.za