Dear Friend of Equal Education,
We need your help. On 21 March 2011, South Africa's Human Rights Day, over 15,000 people will march to Parliament demanding better schools. This will be the biggest mobilisation for quality education since democracy was achieved in South Africa. It will build on a similar march held last year in which 10,000 students participated. On 31 March 2011 we will be following this up with a march to the Union Buildings.
We are asking you to endorse our Memorandum. It expresses the hopes and determination of an entire generation.
Here is the first paragraph:
'We are the generation that will make quality and equal education a reality. Our campaigns have already achieved great results, and we are building a movement to realise the right to education for every person. With knowledge, and the creativity it generates, all our rights can be realised. We know, as Nelson Mandela said, that “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” The struggle for a better world is now the struggle for equal and quality education and it is a struggle we will wage for the rest of our lives, personally and collectively.'
At the end of the Memorandum we make a number of demands. The key demand is for National Uniform Minimum Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure, in terms of Section 5A of the SA Schools Act. These must provide for adequate classrooms, a laboratory, a library or media centre, a computer centre, storage facilities, enough toilets, a playground, sports facilities, a school hall, a staff room, a kitchen, an administrative centre, electricity and water. The Minister has promised these by 1 April 2011, and we look forward to helping to implement them. We need your help to make sure this promise is kept!
March with us and get your organisation, institution or any other group to sign this memorandum!
Please get back to us by Friday 18 March 2011.
Please fax your organisation’s endorsement to 0865179078 or e-mail it to march@equaleducation.org.za ASAP!
Yours in the struggle for quality and equal education for all,
Doron Isaacs
Equal Education Coordinator
PS: Click here now to donate to EE. We cannot do our work without your support.
Read the memorandum here: MEMORANDUM FOR PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA & MIN. OF BASIC EDUCATION ANGIE MOTSHEKGA TO BE DELIVERED ON 21 MARCH 2011
