Education For All

The conference was attended by a delegation from South Africa including:

• An Eastern Cape Provincial Education Management Board Member – Mr Eldred Fray)
• The Fort Beaufort District Education Manager - Ms Unathi Nqandela

• St Patrick's Special School Headteacher - Mr Patrick Hlope

• Mrs Catherine Borien and Mr Keith Borien respectively Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Borien Education Foundation Southern Africa (BEFSA)

The Eastern Cape is one of the most deprived parts of South Africa (as a direct legacy of apartheid) and is home to over 2.0m learners in 6,500 schools. Apartheid ensured that there was an educational vacuum in the region in terms of investment in education and quality of teaching. The people have been left with low self esteem and low aspirations. Investment has now risen to approximately 35 per pupil against the UK figure of 5,500 per pupil. To help to accelerate the investment in education, the Eastern Cape Provincial education department has endorsed the Education for All initiative.

The Fort Beaufort District has 268 schools and has been chosen by EFA’s chosen development partner (BEFSA) as the first district to populate with donated furniture and equipment from the UK. BEFSA has successfully partnered 36 schools from the Eastern Cape with schools from Oxfordshire. They have secured a proven distribution channel to the province and the Fort Beaufort District office has provided a secure storage facility. The district office has undertaken a full audit of needs to make sure that the resources from the UK are distributed to those schools in rural areas of most need. St Patrick's Special School is in Ginsberg, King Williams Town, the Eastern Cape which was the home of the Black Consciousness Leader, Mr Stephen Biko, in the seventies. His widow, Mrs Ntsike Biko, is still a prominent activist for Freedom from Poverty and has personally supported Education for All's initiative in the region.

During the same week the South African delegation also met Mrs Kate Kirk, the Head Teacher of St Giles Special School in Retford which donated furniture and equipment to the Fort Beaufort District in March 2007 and agreed to develop a partnership with

St Patrick's School in Ginsberg to develop cultural, heritage and educational links between special schools in the Eastern Cape and special schools in the UK.

The delegation also visited the Houses of Parliament for a reception where they met

Mr Peter Hain MP and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Wales who was commended by Archbishop Desmond Tutu for his participation in the STOP white South African cricket and rugby tours to Britain in the seventies.