The Premier and the Provincial Cabinet of the Western Cape Province have identified the development of the social capital of the province, with the specific focus on the youth, as a priority for 2005. In response to this, the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) will undertake the following:

  • Strive to ensure that learners remain in the system and do not drop out of school. The GEM project forms part of this objective.

  • Organise Boys Camps as part of gender sensitivity programmes

  • Encourage girls to select Mathematics, Science and Technology as vehicles for career pathing

  • Develop a programme to address the issue of teenage pregnancy

  • Organise a provincial GEM event, details of which will follow

As you are aware, many boys and girls throughout South Africa have been involved in the ‘I am my sister’s keeper Campaign’, since the GEM project was launched in 2003, and many learners have benefited from the interventions of these hardworking and dedicated young leaders. We trust that they have also been operational at your school, i.e. forming a GEM club, and that some of them are still enrolled at your school and will continue the project there.

There are reports, however, that the dropout rate of youth is increasing because of socio-economic conditions. There has been a request from the National Department of Education to all provinces to request schools and, in particular, GEM members to urge all learners who are thinking of dropping out of school to stay in the system. The ‘I am my sister’s Keeper Campaign’ could be utilised to address this issue. Schools in the Western Cape are therefore urged to pay special attention to youth dropping out of school and to use their own initiative to keep learners in the system.

The WCED is aware of the huge workload of educators at schools, but would appreciate it greatly if your school could give priority to ensuring that the girls and boys at risk of dropping out of school do not leave the system and do complete their school careers.

We wish to take this opportunity to wish you a pleasant and prosperous 2005 and to express our gratitude for all your efforts towards encouraging an awareness of gender-related issues at your school. Please be assured of our ongoing support for all the projects and programmes you have planned for 2005.



SIGNED: L. ROSE
HEAD: EDUCATION
DATE: 2005:01:13