Departmental youth day celebration at Correctional Services

By: Marinkie Mafotja

The Limpopo Department of Education together with Department of Correctional Service (DCS) and Department of Health held departmental youth day on the 13^th June 2017. The purpose of the day was to celebrate youth month and remember the youth of 1976 who fought for freedom and opened the way for the entire generation so that they enjoy democracy.

The MEC for Education Mr Ishmael Kgetjepe said, “It serves as a fresh reminder of the sacrifices made by the youth of 1976, 40 years ago. Again it’s a reminder that the youth of this country laid their lives so that you and I can enjoy the freedom that we have today. This is relevant to education sector because all the people who lost their lives during the struggle were learners. As a sector we continue to play our part in ensuring that our young people outside our Department secure learnerships and internships.”

On the other hand, the Department of Education continues to take care of young people in schools. The Department provide food to more than 1.6 million learners across the province. This programme assist in making sure that needy learners do not stay at homes because of hunger. A total of 3822 schools use EMIS data programmes which assist in making sure each learner is recorded. In transport, more than 373 schools are benefiting with more than 23 00 learners taken to and from schools by scholar transport. These are the learners who are supposed to travel 5KM or more single journey to nearest school (Not a school of choice). Learners in quintile 1 – 3 also enjoy the non-fee paying programmes where they also receive free books and stationary. All these are to make sure that the Province produce quality future leaders. To the Experiantial learners, Kgetjepe said, “We give you experience so that we equip you for work environment. Keep going forward. When we see you we see leaders and promise us you will become real leaders”