BY Obakeng Maje

Taung- The presidency office explains that the visit of Jacob Zuma to Taung, North West was cancelled due to some other comittments they said in a stament.

President Jacob Zuma was suppose to visit the rural area of Taung on a follow-up mission. Zuma was expected to spend two days in Taung for the launch of another project called Masibambisani for rural upliftments.

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma is currently out of the country and will join nine other heads of state as a “champion” of a United Nations (UN ) education initiative launched yesterday.

The initiative aims to go beyond simply providing global access to education by 2015, and will also deal with issues of quality.

At a summit in New York yesterday, Mr Zuma became a “member state champion” of the UN Education First initiative. The champions supported UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a campaign to inspire greater commitment to and spending on education, especially in the world’s poorest countries, the Presidency said in a statement.

“The president’s visit was cancelled and we are very disappointed as there are many burning issues that we were looking forward to discuss” Kgosi Motlhabane said.

“There are projects that were launched by his deputy, mr Kgalema Motlanthe. And he was supposed to do follow-ups. We are so disappointed,but we accept the point that he is abroad” he said.

Mr Zuma said the initiative was “timely” as the 72-million children who were uneducated and the 700-million adults without basic literacy skills faced a life “with two hands tied behind their backs”. Future generations deserved a successful initiative.

“Universal access to quality education is essential for the creation of democratic and inclusive societies,” Mr Zuma said.

The initiative builds on the UN’s 2000 Millennium Development Goals, which aim for universal access to primary school education by 2015 and, importantly, at addressing quality issues.

“The president will not be able to travel to Taung as he is engaged in other project abroad and he visit has been cancelled, but the event will continue as scheduled” Lesiba Kgwele said.

SA is ahead in terms of meeting the goals, having achieved near universal access in the compulsory band of schooling for seven-to-15-year-olds. But the system is still widely criticised for high dropout rates after the age of 15, and because of the poor basic skills of even those who matriculate.

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