Teaching in South Africa

My teaching experience is much different from some other teachers in this country. When I said thatit is a 'semi, under-priveledged school' I only meant that some of the lerners in the school are very, very poor. But we still get subsidized by the governtment. That means that they pay some of the school fees, and they sometimes donate things like art supplies and staionary. But the school is still dependant on the scholl fees which the parents has to pay.

There are some schools in South Africa which is worse off, by far. Not only do they have only poor learners, but their facilities are terrible. there are schools in South Africa which do not even have propper class rooms. Children have to sit outside and learn. In these cases, where there are no prper school buildings, there are obviously no library, or a place to store their text books.

I must say, I honestly do not know how these schools work, and if it is at all effective. But at least, when the children are there, they keep out of trouble. I'm sure that these schools must have some system which they work from to ensure that the children get some form of education, but I really don't know what that is.

Our school year starts with the new year. We only have a 'short' summer holidays (4-6 weeks). We start in middle January with our first term and we go on 'till the end of March. we then have a 2-3 week holiday and then we start the second term in middle April. The second term then goes on 'till en of June. Our winter holidays (remember in South Africa, winter is during June, July and August) are about 3-4 weeks. (Except for this year with the soccer World Cup in South Africa; we will have a 5-and-a-half week holiday which will stretch over the duration of the World Cup.) Our third term is then untill the end of September, and we then get a 1-2 week spring break. And then we have the fourth term 'till the start of December, after which our Summer holidays start.

This all means that I just started my second week of school (we started January 13). So everything is still in chaos at school with new enrollments. I teach the grade fours (age 9, turning 10). Unfortunately it is around this age that the parents start sending their children to our school. The schools in the locations (slums) only teach in African language, and many parents believe that if their children know English that they will do better in this country. All the universities and colleges in South Africa teach in English and Afrikaans (a language very close to Dutch, spoken by the descendants of the Dutch wo colonized South Africa in 1652). The school where I teach has a LOLT (language of teaching and learning) of English. and we then teach Afrikaans as a second language to all the learners.

Now I said that "unfortunately" the parents send their children to our school to teach them English, because it is hard for us to do that when we have eight other Learning Areas tofocus on. The parents do not realize that because the children cannot speak/understand/read English, that they will never be able to do the History and Geography and Science and all the other subjects, because they are taught in English. These learners sit in a class, where a teacher speaks a language which they do not understand. It is really sad to see that these learners struggle so much because of their parents. I say that it is because of their parents, because I feel that I would never send my child to a school, where he/she will not be able to understand anyone. Some of the schools in the locations are well equiped and they have great teachers. I don't really see the need for the parents to send us their children if they cannot speak any English. Offcourse there are parents who taught their children English, and with them it goes really good, but the others will always suffer. then there is also the fact, that while you try to help this child, all the other children in the class are also left behind. We do not have assistants in our classes and we have to handle the 35-40 children infront of us on our own.

Maybe some one of you,might ask why we don't get translators. That answer is easy. In South Africa there are 11 Official Languages, and I don't know how many other native African languages one might find here. Most White people in South Africa only speak English and Afrikaans (I have attemted studying an African language [Zulu], but that's very very difficult). Black people in South Africa Can Speak one or two African Languages, and maybe English. It would therefore be almost impossible to have a translator for every child who doesn't speak English.

I know that this post might seem that teaching and education in South Africa is really bad, but that is definately not the case. (If it were, then I would have moved to another country by now to provide my daughter with better education) Yes, some schools struggle (Considering the really poor schools, my school is defonately in the top 30% of schools). My school has this oneproblem with the non-English speaking learners, but the rest of teaching in my school is great. We have Hockey, Netball, Cricket, Soccer and athletics at my school. (We used to have Rugby, but our boys[mostly black boys] prefer soccer [it's the white boys who likes rugby more]). So there is absolutely nothing wrong with teaching at my school. Like I said, today was day 4 of the school year, so everything is still just a bit hectic right now, but I'm sure that things will calm down soon enough.

Well I have a few lessons to prepare.

Happy learning!
xoxox