Our First Look at South African Schools: August 14- August 23

As part of our technical training, we spent 8 days visiting schools in the surrounding communities. We spent 4 days at two different schools in the village of Mathyszynloop. Our original language group of four spent the first week at a secondary school (grades 6-9). Upon arrival, we met the principal and deputy principal (vice principal) and were treated to a tour of the school: two buildings of 7 classrooms each, a resource room where all the books are kept, a ‘kitchen’ containing 2 big pots and a stove for the school lunch program (the government supplies bulk food staples that are cooked at school and served to students who have brought their own utensils to eat with/on), a small teachers lounge, the ‘cluster’ photocopier which is shared by all of the schools in the village, and the principal’s office with the huge safe that stores the 20 new computers that were donated but have yet to be touched because the school needs to first build a safe room for them and then find someone who knows how to use them. Like the houses, all of the schools are surrounded by high fences and barbed wire because theft is very common. Safe rooms, rooms constructed completely out of metal with a thick, heavy door, are essential if a school wishes to operate computers. Depending on the school, the office computer (each school is supplied with one computer) is either put into the safe each night or locked in a local teacher or SGB member’s house and retrieved each morning. We also saw the flush toilets that were built in the 1980’s but only became operational with running water last year.

For the remainder of the week we observed many classrooms and got to see the South African educational system in action. The classrooms were barren, concrete rooms each with 30 – 90 students crowded into desks with lecture and the chalkboard as the only means of instruction. Corporal punishment, although now illegal, is still very much a part of the classroom. Almost every teacher had sticks and some had belts. One teacher wore his belt around his neck as a constant reminder to his students. We all observed various methods of corporal punishment, ear twisting, slaps on the head, and hits on the back and hands. We also had the opportunity to interview the principal and a member of the SGB (the school governing body whose members, teachers, parents, administrators and students, serve for 3 years and decide everything from the official language and religion of the school, 90% of schools are declared Christian, to the school schedule and the principal). These interviews helped us expand our perspective of the school and the education system. Especially motivating was our interview with the president of the SGB, a highly organized and motivated mother. She outlined many ambitious plans for the upcoming 3 years and left us all feeling energized and full of ideas.

We spent the following week at a primary school (grades 1-6, kindergarten is just starting to become established in some schools) which was very similar to the secondary school, with the exception of the flush toilets. The four of us concluded our experience in the school by re-teaching a lesson on how to read a clock. The teacher had taught all of her students for the past 15 years or so that clocks are read by saying that when the minute hand in on the left side of the clock you use the word “to” and when the minute hand is on the right you use the word “past”. So her students think that 2:45 = forty-five minutes to 3 o’clock. We took the opportunity to model some basic teaching techniques for the teacher, such as a classroom contract, visual aids, student involvement, and group work. Once we convinced the teacher that she could not take the opportunity to go shopping in town, she enjoyed the lesson and told us she would try many of the teaching techniques that we had modeled. We felt like we were able to make an important positive impact in our short time at the school. We look forward to celebrating many similar victories in the future.

Over the 8 days in the two schools, we pretty much saw the good, the bad, and the ugly and have a better idea of what we are going to be tackling over the next 2 years. Most of the issues facing these schools stem from the horrors of apartied. During apartied the schools were designed to make the black youth stupid, poor, and oppressed. In 1999 the new government changed the laws and reformed the curriculum. The new curriculum is outstanding and even more progressive than some of the current American curriculums. The problem now is that changing the law and curriculum does not change 40 plus years of oppression and poverty. The teachers only know the system they were raised in and taught under. As we observed, it is typical to see 70 – 100 students in a classroom, students crammed in wooden desks that are falling apart, teachers using all forms of corporal punishment, prayer and preaching, teachers and textbooks giving misinformation, little to no resources (some students don’t even have a pencil), and unmotivated teachers who frequently leave their classrooms or don’t show up to classes at all. Furthermore, teaching is a flooded field because it was one of the few employment options for blacks during apartied; the HIV/AIDS epidemic has ravished all sections of society leaving a terribly high number of orphans, and the villages remain tragically poor. However, despite all the problems and obstacles there is hope. We have been moved by the hope and promise of what lies ahead. One can not be in South Africa long without feeling, being moved by, and joining in the wave of good will, energy, and determination. We feel like we will be part of and witness to some great changes in this country over the next few years.