Thank you for inviting me to the senior prize giving this evening

Alison McAlpine wrote to me about the prize giving as long ago as February, and I tucked the invitation away, knowing that speaking here would be something I would like to do if I could.

There are several reasons why that was so.

1.Nelson Girls' College is one of our oldest and most distinguished secondary schools. Coming tonight gives me an opportunity to say how much I appreciate what the staff and trustees of this school do to educate young women. The opportunities available to students here rank equal to the very best of those available anywhere in New Zealand.
2.Senior prize giving in itself is a significant event. It celebrates achievement, participation, and effort. For the seventh formers, it is the last rite of passage from the school system into a world of adulthood and independence. An evening like this is one of looking forward, but also one of appreciation for the years at school.
3.For once I know someone who is graduating tonight, and it is a special pleasure to see how well that particular student has done, having come to this school on my recommendation !

Tonight my comments are directed especially to our seventh formers.

I am sure that for almost all, if not all of you, your years at Nelson Girls’ have been happy ones.

I hope you have taken full advantage of everything the school has had to offer you.

I do believe we have a remarkable education system in New Zealand.

Since the days of Rt Hon Peter Fraser and Dr Clarence Beeby some 60 years ago, New Zealand education has set out to educate the whole child and young person.

Academic achievement is very important to me, to this school, and to New Zealand.

But much else goes on at school as well, with the opportunity to excel in the arts, and culture, and in sport; to develop leadership skills; and to participate in and contribute to the school and the broader community.

That’s how New Zealand turns out well rounded citizens, with a range of skills and abilities. It’s a great strength of our country.

The issue for our students is: what will we do with our abilities and potential ? How will we give something back to the society which has done so much for us ? And is there a way we can contribute to the broader international community, knowing that the issues and trends which affect us are, one way or another, affecting others too.

By now, most, if not all, the seventh formers will have a plan for next year.

It may be for the further study, for work, or for a gap year before knuckling down again.

When I was your age, I regret to say about 36 years ago, my plan was to go to university – the first member of my extended family to do so. That was a big step, but I never looked back from it.

I had no idea what I wanted to do after university, but I knew that I wanted to do a lot more study, and I had every confidence that, from that, new pathways would open up.

What I recommend to today’s school leavers is setting goals which take you ahead, even if you don’t know what the end goal will be.

Without goals, you will drift, and life is short !

If your aim is nothing, you will reach it every time, but it won’t be satisfying.

And having set those goals, be prepared to put the effort in to achieve them.

Little that is worthwhile in life is achieved without effort, and effort has its own reward in the satisfaction which comes from knowing the job was well done.

What will be important for you, far more than for my generation, will be accepting the need for lifelong learning. That is not only because it would be a tragedy to freeze frame your education and general knowledge in 2003.

It is also because the world of work is changing fast, driven especially by technological change, and we all run fast to keep up with what is possible.

It is sometimes said that eighty per cent of today’s five year olds will have jobs which have not yet been invented, and it is probably true.

When I was five in 1955, who would have dreamed of computer programmes and website designers? My family’s telephone was still on a party line !

The printing trade in the 1950s was all about inky fingers; not the press of a button on a computer.

But although we never dreamed of these changes, as a nation we have had the wealth and knowledge to acquire new technologies, and we have had the flexibility and adaptability to upskill to use them.

What I know is that education, knowledge, and skill is going to be the most powerful driver of New Zealand’s economy and society this century.

Prosperous nations in the 21st century will be the smart nations, with the leading edge products driven by smart, innovative, and enterprising people. We are, and must be, one of those nations. That is what guarantees not only our quantity of life, but also our quality of life.

At Nelson Girls' College, you have been motivated to strive for personal excellence. That training will help you achieve your personal goals and to do well in life.

But you have also been students in a caring environment, and I hope you will take the values associated with caring for each other with you when you go.

Not everyone in our own society has good fortune. Many face challenges which they need the support and understanding of others to meet.

The same is true on an international scale. The vast majority of the world’s citizens do not live in anything like the conditions we do. Their lives are shorter and harder because of their homeland’s underdevelopment.

Only a week ago I was in the central highlands of one of the world’s poorest countries, Afghanistan. I visited the province, Bamian, where most of the Tampa refugees in New Zealand came from. Eighty per cent of the people had fled their homes when the Taleban took over their province. Now, although the area is more settled, it faces grinding poverty. There are 6,500 maternal deaths in childbirth for every 100,000 births, and illiteracy levels run as high as 95 per cent in some areas.

New Zealand is involved in that country because we want to help it turn the corner and be able to offer a decent life for its citizens. And individual New Zealanders work all over the world for development agencies, and raise money for them at home.

The other value I urge you to take from this school is participation. Just as you have been involved in the activities and life of the school, get yourself involved with the activities and life of the community. Being a citizen in the full sense of the word is about participating and contributing, and that can be done in so many ways.

To those receiving prizes and awards tonight, congratulations on your achievement and your effort.

To everyone who has put in a solid year at school well done.

Best wishes to all senior students with the major exams just ahead.

And thanks to Alison McAlpine and all the staff for what you have done for the large student community at Nelson Girls' College.