Statement by Adv. André Gaum, Minister of Education in the Western Cape

The celebration of International Woman's Day in communities across the Western Cape, hails the launch of the new Gender Equality Policy of the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), which will ensure that all schools become "discrimination free zones".

We have developed the new policy to co-ordinate, align and extend our efforts to ensure gender equality in education at all levels and across the province.

This policy will assist us to ensure that men and women, and female and male learners, are treated fairly and receive equal access to opportunities (personally, socially, economically, politically and culturally).

As we celebrate the role of women in every community in the Western Cape, we must remember that in many ways women often still are on the receiving end of discrimination on grounds of gender.

As we celebrate the victory of our colleagues and mothers and sisters over the pain of discrimination, it is imperative that we do as much as we can to ensure such injustices are eradicated from the workplace and from places of learning. For this reason the new policy applies to all WCED employees and learners and the affiliated individuals, structures, bodies and organisations that operate within the parameters of the WCED.

It has already been provided to all schools and structures within the WCED.

Our Gender Policy aims to:

• address attitudes and behaviour of individuals and groups and institutional practices that are discriminatory and entrench the traditional stereotyping of males and females which impacts negatively on their growth and development.
• ensure that all decision-making and all practices in the WCED are informed by gender considerations which impact proactively on future practices
• align policies, practices and procedures in all educational institutions, sub-directorates, directorates and programmes with the national legal framework of Government that is signatory to many international declarations
• provide a framework for the implementation of special measures to ensure equal access and opportunity to advance women and female learners in order to achieve equality. This will include all areas of education, training and development within the WCED.
• and ultimately, to achieve gender equality for women and men, female and male learners, principally through the empowerment of women and female learners, but not at the expense of men and male learners.

To ensure that the policy is implemented, each district office and directorate of the WCED will have a gender focal person who will be responsible to monitor the mainstreaming of gender within her or his area of responsibility.

Each district office and directorate will also have a representative who will serve on the WCED gender structure located within the Human Resources Directorate, who will be accountable to the heads and directors of the district offices.

Reports on the implementation and monitoring of the Gender Policy or any other project or programme related to gender may be requested from these representatives at any time.

Further monitoring and evaluation mechanisms will ensure that strategic information is gathered to assess the impact, relevance and appropriateness of the programmes and or projects.

We will monitor the implementation of the policy to ensure it has a positive impact on the education, training and development of female learners and women, yet does not occur at the expense of the education, training and development of male learners and men.

The WCED Gender Policy seeks not only to guide the department into becoming better equipped to deal with problems, which emanate from gender discrimination. It also commits us to developing an organisational culture in which human dignity and cultural diversity are celebrated, honoured, represented, respected and recognised.

In so doing, we want to ensure that a culture of human rights becomes deeply embedded within the WCED, as well as within the Western Cape and the greater South African society.

Inquires: Rudi Buys at  082 577 6551