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08/04/2008 |
The Amersfoort Legacy: Education,
Freedom and Development
Commemorating 350 years of formal schooling in South Africa - 17th
April 1658 – 2008
 Cape Town, 8 April 2008 - On 17th April 2008, it will be the 350th
anniversary of the formal establishment of the first school in South
Africa. This school was established on that day in 1658 by Jan van
Riebeeck, Commander of the refreshment station at the Cape of Good
Hope, for the male and female slave children brought to the Cape on
the ship, the Amersfoort. The school had a troubled history
and was soon forced to close down. One of the reasons for its
closure was that the children would not tolerate the poor treatment
meted out to them by the officers of the Dutch East India Company.
It did, however, lay the basis for the schools that were to follow,
of which a number soon arose, including one in the Slave Lodge. The
teachers in these first schools were Sick-Comforters, employees of
the Dutch East India Company. They taught a curriculum that was
essentially shaped around the Catechism, and which remained in place
for almost 150 years.
South African
History Online (SAHO), in partnership with the
UCT
School of Education and Iziko Museums of Cape Town, will mark
the 350th anniversary with an event on 17 April at the
Iziko Slave Lodge Museum
in Cape Town.
The event will comprise a formal
ceremony in the morning at which the keynote speaker will be Deputy
Minister of Education Mr. Enver Surty.
There will also be an exhibition
spanning 350 years of education, and a colloquium in the afternoon.
The Colloquium will be chaired by
Ms Nasima Badsha, (CEO) CHEC. The panellists are:
- Prof. Crain Soudien, School of
Education, UCT
- Prof. Jonathan Jansen,
University of Pretoria
- Prof. Rob Siebörger, UCT
- Ms Nomboniso Gasa, Chairperson
of the Commission for Gender Equality
South African History Online will
also launch a project on the History of Education on its website on
17 April 2008. This project will, amongst other things, involve
schools and History teachers producing their own local histories,
which will be published on SAHO’s new history site.
Later in the year, a book of essays
on a new history of the educational experience of the last 350 years
in South Africa will also be published. This work is being
undertaken by a team of scholars led by Prof. Crain Soudien and
includes Prof. Peter Kallaway, Prof. Michael Cross, Dr Linda
Chisholm, Dr Sean Morrow and Mr Brown Maabe.
Later in the year, the theme of the
anniversary will also be taken up by the History Teachers’
Association and the Department of Education.
An important opportunity that
arises in highlighting this anniversary is that of telling the story
of our country’s educational experience anew. There exists,
currently, very little in terms of events, books and resources that
tell the story of how education has evolved in South Africa in a way
that recognizes our complex balance-sheet of losses and gains. For
example, the anniversary will allow us to tell a story about how
oppressed people suffered as a result of being denied education,
which is relatively familiar, but, critically, also, to begin the
difficult challenge of showing what was in existence before this
critical date and how minimal resources were used in ways that
helped both individuals and communities.
For further inquiries:
Seating is limited and booking is essential. To RSVP, contact
Wandile Kasibe at Tel. 021 481 3804 or email
wkasibe@iziko.org.za
by Wednesday 9 April 2008.
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