A REFLECTION ON MY VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA
Over the Easter holidays I spent a week visiting schools in and around Johannesburg as part of a LECT (League of Commonwealth Teachers) trip. It was a fantastic opportunity to be in a country which I have studied and taught about for nearly twenty years. There were many things that struck me about the experience but I would like to share one or two; I was amazed at the positive atmosphere, particularly from the Black South Africans that I met, and this led me to question on a number of occasions how they were able to maintain this stance. The most common response was that they had waited so long for this opportunity that they were willing to wait a bit longer for further progress. They also felt that it was too early to abandon the ANC, who are still seen as their liberators, despite the concerns about increasing corruption and incompetency.
I also had some fascinating conversations about the Deputy Prime Minister Jacob Zuma who was involved in a very high profile court case accused of rape and subsequently acquitted. Many of the younger people that I spoke to were very concerned about the case and the fact that Zuma has so quickly re-established his position as the successor to Mbeki. However one teacher I spoke to refused to comment, other than the fact that as she and Zuma were both Zulu, her loyalty was to him as a tribal elder.
On a more positive note, I think that the conversation that will stay with me for a long time was when we visited a former Indian school, Ahmed Timol, and my young Black guide told me in the most matter of fact way about 'when he goes to university'. It was great to hear so much confidence from him, and I guess shows the progress that is being made in the country.
I also think that the visit to the Hector Peterson Museum will be etched in my memory for a very long time, on the site of the 1976 Soweto Riots. I loved one of the placards that was held up by the protesting students proclaiming 'My baas(boss) is shit'.
However the place that undoubtedly left the biggest impact was Parktown School in Alexandra Township. The student population was 90% HIV+, the classes had at least 55 students in each one, and the staff that I talked to were absolutely inspirational. I was talking to the Deputy Head who was used to teaching classes of over 70, and I asked her how on earth she managed to keep doing the job for so long (she was in her 30th year!). Her response was magical - "passion". I hope to be able to say the same at the end of my career.
#Posted 6 May 2007 at 9:31 PM
Comments...
South Africa will be blessed SOON
The cure to AIDS WILL BE FOUND SOON
I LOVE SOUTH AFRICA.
Posted by: LEILA MASKELA | 7:23pm 19 May 2007
Wow, Dan. This sounds like it was an amazing trip, and an inspirational one for you personally.
I have _so_ many questions, and as a confirmed travel phobic, I'm extremely envious.
How do they teach 55 people at a time? Did this restrict them in terms of activities (I guess it has to). What about the students - did they conform to the stereotype we often hear of developing countries - valuing education above all, despite the difficulties in recieving it? Did you learn anything that you might use directly in the classroom?
How is history taught - is there an effort to build a "national" history, or are attempts at balance made? Can one be "balanced" in the face of a recent past with such unfairness?
Ed.
Posted by: Ed Podesta | 8:51pm 20 May 2007
Ed, it was one of the most incredible trips that I have been on. The teachers that I met at the township school in particular, were amazing people. One of them told me that she had been at the school for 30 years, and she had trained as a teacher after the Soweto Riots in 1976. I asked her how she taught such huge classes and she said that basically the students at the front learn the most and pass on the information to those further back - a bit like the monitor system in Victorian Britain! I was, of course, fascinated about the teaching of South African history, particularly as i teach a unit on Apartheid for GCSE. They have just started publishing textbooks for the new syllabi and they certainly don't shy away from telling it as it is. Some of the museums we visited were very impressive and equally forthright, which I think is exactly right. What was most interesting was that most schools now teach their students Afrikaans. I found that astonishing as that was the cause of the Soweto riots, and yet the young black africans were willing to learn 'the language of the oppressor'. I gather that it is now just seen as another tribal / community language, but it felt weird.
Posted by: dan | 7:50pm 25 May 2007
i'm glad you had such a great time in south africa. maybe i can shed light on the afrikaansa issue as a product of this post-apartheid education system: it's not really that young black south africans are willng to learn it as another tribal language, but because there isn't much choice in the matter. as part of a new democratic country, we have 11 official languages which can all be taught at schools. unfortunately because of apartheid's legacy the most weight is given to english and afrikaans. because a lot of time and money and resources were poured into afrikaans by the previous government, it's just easier to teach than other indigenous languages. the new government can pass legislation to make all languages equal, but that doesn't mean anything until they pour resources into making it so.
at school you ahve to take two lnguages.at former model c (a cross between private and public) schools, we were forced to take afrikaans (unless you were foreign, then it was french) as a second language subject because the schools were probably too lazy to insitute another language cos of lack of resources/ and or support from teh government.
anyway, my 2c worth.
Posted by: tshego molete | 11:48am 29 May 2007
Tshego, many thanks for your response informing us of the situation. I guess that speaking to the learners about Afrikaans meant that they weren't really aware of the realpolitik that you describe. I do recall some of the teachers saying how difficult it was to recruit Zulu speaking teachers for example, so until there are more Black teachers from all the different tribal groups the situation may well continue.
Posted by: dan | 6:28pm 4 June 2007
Dear all
It is good that people from other countries come to witness the scars left by apartheid regime. How on earth could one teacher faces about 70 learners in a class? This only happens among Black schools, in urban and rural areas I was once a teacher, and I had more than eighty learners in each of my four classes, that was unthoughtful. I would sleep exhausted like a dog each day and I started to develop a negative attitude towards my profession and I decided to quit. However, all this overcrowding cant be found in English speaking schools.
Go further to the development of schools, White schools are in brilliant condition- but go back to Black schools, more especially rural schools, it is where you will see the disaster. It is only a few schools which are in perfect conditions, and most of them are extremely dilapidated,underesourced, have unqualified and underqualified teachers,most of them dont match with qualifications they match- that alone raises some questions about their credentials.
However I dont want to lie, the government is trying hard to improve the education system, it is just that there are lots of challenges.
Posted by: Zinhle | 10:30am 20 February 2008
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