Thursday July 24, 2008

Recently I was able to visit two schools in Zonkizizwe, the township where I have been living and working for the past months at Vumundzuku-Bya Vana Our Children’s Future (VVOCF). Myself, along with 5 MSU students on a study abroad program visited both Zonkizizwe Primary and Secondary School as a part of a volunteer corps. I had wanted to get involved with the schools in the community for the majority of the summer, but there never seemed to be enough time to do so, and I was under the impression that I should go with someone else from the community to organize school visits. In order to get into the schools I simply had to drop off a letter and ask permission from the principals, who then asked permission of the teachers and the management teams of the schools. Neither school hesitated at all to let us come into their schools to help, but there was some confusion at first. The first school we visited, Zonkizizwe Secondary, thought we were teachers, while Zonkizizwe Primary was better informed that we were still students and did not possess the necessary skills to run a class. We had two very different experiences at the two different schools, and were allowed an inside look at the public school system of South Africa.

Thursday

Today I visit the schools for the firs time—today was Zonkizizwe Secondary. Sometime next week will be the primary school. I wore up at about 7:15am and got dressed and walked out of the door in about 20 minutes and began the 15 minute walk to the school. I made it right on time, right before they closed and locked the gates. I felt like I was in grade school again, getting up early, scarfing down breakfast and getting dressed in the cold of the early morning hours. It was the first time I had ever walked to school. Kids here in Zonkizizwe do it every day—I always had a car or rode the bus. Some of the kids have to walk several miles to get here, as the schools in Zonke are the only schools for students from Zonkizizwe II and other surrounding townships. Some of the lucky ones get bus transport, but the majority of them walk.

Waves of children ranging from every size and age were walking in both directions down the streets, dressed in bright green, blue, and orange, depending on what school they were going to. It was a beautiful sight to watch—learners making their way to school, running laughing, screaming, and jumping up and down to keep from being cold. All the time I am watching them, I can’t help but think: The whole world is theirs, but do they know it? Can they even imagine the doors that will open for them through their education—all the places they can go? Their future is truly in their hands.
***

Here I am at Zonkizizwe Secondary and I’ve just sat with two teachers on the school’s management team-- Miss Mtetwa and Mr. Malefe. I was here early to get the assignments for the rest of the volunteers that are coming. We assigned the 5 MSU students to classes according to their preferences. I told the teachers that we would be willing to observe and assist the rest of the teachers, and that we were not qualified teachers. Things seem to be in order so I leave to attend my classes now. The others will arrive shortly before 10am.
***

Apparently there has been a change of plans. I’m now waiting in the office right now for Miss Mtetwa to fetch me to teach something called Life Orientation classes. I am expected to teach the course for the entire 30 minute period! Needless to say, I’m extremely nervous right now. I told them that I’m no teacher, I’m still a university student, but they’re not listening. They said I will be teaching LO to Grade 10, because that grade doesn’t have any teachers available to teach them that subject.
***

Well, today has bee a bit stressful. I wouldn’t call it a complete disaster, but it definitely did not go as I had planned. So, my first class was kind of bad, I had no idea what to do or what to talk about. I noticed that many of the students in the class were around my age, so it was kind of awkward talking to them about life. I was told by Miss Mtetwa that I should talk to them about the importance of doing well in school now so they could do well on their Matric exam, get into a good university, then get a job where they could support themselves—then she left the room. The two classes after that I had another MSU student named Sly with me, and they were excellent. He really helped me get a stimulating conversation going. The classes after that I was on my own again, and I decided to free form them a little more. I told the students to give me topics and I would just help facilitate a conversation, rather than lead it. They could also ask me questions as well. Some classes were much less awkward than others. All I know is… I am mentally exhausted. I asked to be put with a teacher tomorrow teaching social sciences. I will feel much more comfortable actually assisting in the classroom rather than leading everything myself—I think I need a little more structure to the day.

I guess a lot of the MSU students experienced similar days. Though it was frustrating at times, I learned a lot about the South African education system in general and a lot about the state of Zonke schools as well. I learned that there are 12 grades that learners must complete. Grades 1-11 being regular grades, and then grade 12 being the Matric exam prep grade. The Matric is a test that all grade 12 learners must take around the country in order to pass from secondary school. The score they get on this exam also determines what university or college they get into. The letters that appear after the grades mean something as well. They correspond to the tracks that each learner chooses. An A, B, or C means the learner is going into science, math, or engineering. A D, E, or and F means they are going to into what the teachers called commerce.

The day is split into 11 periods, all about a half an hour each. I can’t help but wondering, how can a student fully learn what they need to about a given subject in only 30 minutes? The day seemed very rushed. The learners stay with their class all day in the same room (for example, grade 11A will stay in room 101 for the entire day, with the same people). The classes are determined by both the tracks the students chose for themselves, and their African language. This mean that if a learner picks Sesotho as their African language, they will be in a classroom with people who have done the same. The same for those who chose languages like isiZulu, Afrikaans, or any of the other languages offered at that campus. At first I thought the learners were being split into classes based on their ethnicity and I was angry, then I found out that they are split up by the language they chose. If no teacher is available to teach in the language the learners chose, the medium of instruction is English.

The classroom set up here is very simple. Simple wooden desks, no computers in the classrooms, plain chalkboards, no overhead projectors or TVs. I haven’t been to the library yet, but I was told by one of the teachers that there aren’t any books yet. I haven’t seen a single text book all day—only notebooks that the students write in to take notes from the board. Teachers do not have desks they move from class to class and keep a locker in the staff room. Zonkizizwe Secondary just opened this year, so I’m not sure if the sparse conditions are due to the fact that things haven’t come in yet, or if most secondary schools in impoverished communities face the same problem.

This entire day has made me think a lot. I’ve seen many things that have disturbed me. First was the fact that we were left alone in our classrooms. This says a lot about the morale of the teachers. Teachers will leave during the middle of the day to go home, or will stay in the staff room instead of going to class to teacher. Some may not even show up to school at all on any given day. Many schools simply just don’t have enough teachers to go around, and students have multiple free periods (this was the case for my grade 10 learners who had no Life Orientation teacher). I can understand the frustrations of an underpaid teacher working at an under resourced school, but I was still shocked to learn about the behavior of some of the teachers. One would never see a teacher in the United States leave their classroom because they “had some things to do at home.” We were afraid that the teachers would try to overly impress us today, but that was not the case. I wonder what the real reason was. Did they make us to their job because they wanted a day off? Did they think we were smarter, or more educated then them (this would be another, deeper problem all together)? Or do they normally just blow off their classes? How can this kind of behavior, no matter for what reason, be tolerated by the learners and their parents or guardians?

The second thing I thought about were the extreme lack of resources in the school. I realize that this is not the school’s fault, but the government’s. According to many of the local newspapers, the government is three months late on giving the public schools their money, and many schools are finding it hard to pay their teachers and their bills. It frustrates me to realize that almost an entire generation is growing up with a mediocre education because learners cannot afford basic school supplies like pens and notebooks, and their schools are not providing them with textbooks, or even the opportunity to learn how to use a computer. How can a group of people lift themselves out of poverty when their basic need for education is not met? If this is happening all over South Africa that means possibly millions of children and youth—the future of this country—are being largely disadvantaged and disenfranchised by their own government, which is supposed to be protecting them.