BLOG FROM 16CCEM YOUTH FORUM: PART 2
The conference got going at a quick pace, we spent all day on the Sunday (first day) in conference sessions, hearing from different speakers and having discussions on different issues. A major theme has been access to quality education for all, the quality of education in some countries was highlighted when one high-school aged delegate (he’s in Year 12) said that he was in a maths class where his teacher didn’t know how to do the equations they were teaching!
On Monday we went to Robbin Island, which is not far from Cape Town. Robbin Island is where all the political prisoners were kept during the Apartheid regime here in South Africa. I got to see Nelson Mandela’s cell, which was TINY, he was in it for at least 10 years, as I understand (could be wrong - hazy memory). While we were on the Island we had more discussions and presentations on issues related to Education. In the evening we went to the opening ceremony of the Ministers’ meeting.
Tuesday was another full day of discussion and meeting, and we began drafting the communique that we would presnt to the Education Ministers. Today (Wednesday) we had the normal panic as the deadline for havving our communique edited and ready to distribute to the Ministers rapidly approached, we ended up just gettting it finished and photocopied about ten minutes before we had to present it!
I got selected to present the document, along with the female representative from South Africa, which was a great privilege and a bit daunting! It went well though, heaps of people came up afterwards and congratulated us on a great presentation.
I’m feeling pretty tired after four days of constant meetings, not much time to myself, but looking forward to tonight’s meal, we’re being hosted by the South African Government at the Cape Town Botanical Gardens.
I’ll send through more about the conference themes and what we actually discussed later, it’s been a real eye opener to what’s going on across the Commonwealth. Networking has been great.
Roving Just Focusser, Kevin Grimwood
Chhhuuuur
