A day in a South African primary school

This is completely unrelated to the rest of the post, but this is the elaborate apparatus that we must create in order to plug in our computer chargers at school. We always find it so comical, so I figured I'd share with you.

Introduction:

As I mentioned in my last post, on Tuesday we went on school visits. These school visits were supposed to be to special schools, or schools for the disabled or impaired. Elise, Emilie, Mike, Maalika, Colby, and I all went to Clareville Primary School, which is technically considered a regular primary school, but also thought of as a special school because of the backgrounds of the students that attend.

Overview of my day:

We arrived around 7:30 and waited to meet the principle. He took us into the conference room/teacher lounge and gave us a little background about the school. It was originally build by the Indian population as an Indian school under apartheid. It has been in existence for 60 years, but was originally built for about 150 students. It now has 740 students in grade 1 through 7, as well as another 65 who are in grade R, which could be thought of as a sort of kindergarten and stands for readiness. The school, however, has a lot of land and room to expand the school buildings, which it has started to do, but the resources and funds to do so are very limited. They charge a school fee of 320 rand per year, approximately $40, which is much lower than most public schools. Also unlike most public schools they accept students from all over Africa, not just South Africans, and they provide their students with uniforms, textbooks, workbooks, stationary, pencils, pens, and rulers.

After this brief orientation, we were then placed in classes. I first sat in on a 5^th grade math (they call it maths) class. The teacher, like all of the teachers in the school, was Indian, but all of the students were black. As soon as they saw me walk in, they all stood up to great me and said a synchronous and melodious “Hi Ma’am.” Although I realize they say this to their teachers and have been trained to greet us that way, it still brought a smile to my face. These 5^th graders were just getting maths workbooks even though school started in January. The first few pages that were assigned for homework were exercises in counting oranges and adding them together. They were also working on number patterns. The teacher was very nice and welcoming to me – she answered all of my questions, got me some paper to write on,  and made me feel very welcome. However when it came to the kids, she was much stricter and harsher. She yelled at a girl for not capitalizing the F in February in her assignment book, and later she hit the same girl on the shoulder several times and berated her for not writing down all the answers to the problems that had been written on the board. She also yelled at students for not being able to draw a box with a ruler properly and not writing with one letter per square on the graph paper. It was here that I learned that the students are required to draw lines with rulers to organize their notebooks, must keep them very neat, and must conserve as much space as possible. As the teacher said, “If you run out of room you must buy yourself a new one!” which most of them cannot afford.

The periods at the school are a half hour long each, with 11 periods on Monday through Wednesday and 10 periods on Thursday and Friday. The kids each have two periods of math and English every day.

After the fifth grade math class (which I stayed in for the full two periods, or one hour), I went into a 3^rd grade math class. Or at least I thought it was supposed to be a math class, but the teacher was using it more as a life skills class. If I thought the first teacher was stern and strict with her students, than this woman would be considered a straight up dictator. She made all of her students sit up straight with their legs together and arms crossed. When they were not sitting in such a manner, she would yell at them to cross their damn/flipping arms. She would call them stupid or idiots or rubbish.

There was one incident in this class that really effected me. One of the boys in the front of the class apparently fell asleep, so she gave him a big, loud, slap on the side of the face to wake him up. She then proceeded to yell at him, saying “you have no mother, you have no father, and your granny most not care about you. You always fall asleep in class!” She then made him stand up in the front of the class for the rest of the period. Hearing her talk to the boy like that brought me close to tears, but I forced myself to keep it in because I didn’t want her to yell at me!

The next class I went into was much better. It was a first grade class, and they all were so cute. They weren’t as in synch with the “hi ma’am” chorus when we walked in, but they were even more enthusiastic. When we smiled at them their eyes would light up and they would shyly look down or at their papers. This teacher was very young and handled the first graders well. They had learned how to count up to ten in English, and were now doing a connect the dot exercise to practice. After they would be able to color it in with crayons. They all thought the picture looked like a rabbit, which it kind of did, but neither the teacher, Maalika, Colby, or I could tell what it was supposed to be. We got a good laugh out of it anyways.

After sitting in on classes, we then went back to the conference room to meet with the principal, who provided tea, coffee, and many Indian snacks for us to eat. He also answered all of our questions, talked to us about the state of South Africa, and forced us to keep eating. What struck me most from what he said during the Q and A session was about how much danger these kids face. (I will elaborate in a moment)

Thoughts and Observations:

As I said before, this school is often considered a “special school” because of the population that it serves. This is the case for several reasons:

1.     Language: these kids come from so many different countries (a lot come from the DRC) all across Africa, many whose first languages are Swahili and French. At this school the students must study English, Zulu, and Afrikaans, but all of the lessons are taught in English, making it very difficult for these students to learn. One of my teachers said that most in grade 4 are really at a grade 2 standard when it comes to reading and writing. They will also get new students that are supposed to be in grade 5 or 6, but know no English at all. They have implemented a peer education system to help with this, have extra reading classes with extra teachers to reduce the number of students with each educator, and also bring in extra tutors that will work with kids having a lot of trouble during their PE period. Regardless, many if not most of the kids at the school have trouble learning and keeping up due to the language barrier.

2.     Socioeconomic demographic: Seeing that a lot of these students aren’t from South Africa or are refugees, many come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Economically, many live in the informal settlements that dot the outskirts of the city and townships, meaning they live in tin huts or cardboard houses and are very poor. The other problem is their family life – HIV is very prevalent in these communities, so many are orphans or vulnerable children who have lost both parents. Others are members of child run households, where either themselves or their older siblings run the house in the absence of their parents. And some will have only one parent. This means that there is a lot of inconsistency in the school enrollment and students education is interrupted when said parent dies. Students will be forced to go back to a rural area or go work on a farm until they find someone in the city who can look after them as they go to school. This means that a student may be there one year, or even one month, and be absent the next, which makes it very hard for them to make a smooth transition through the education system. This is also why they have a lower yearly fee for attendance, but that means they must rely a lot on outside funding and donations in order to make up the deficit. Also at a cost to the school, they provide over 60% of the students with free lunches each day because they don’t get proper meals at home.

3.     Large class size: Another factor that makes this a special school is that they don’t turn anyone away. They take the international students that other schools do not accept, even those that don’t have the proper papers required to be in South Africa. This means that class sizes are continually growing as more and more students seek education at the school. Although this is a very noble cause, it also comes at a price – most of the classes have at least 50, but I saw a class with over 60, students in it and only one teacher. The classrooms are very small (keep in mind the school was only build for 150 students originally), and the students are crammed into the small space available.

As I mentioned, the principle talked about how much danger these kids face. In the US you hear stories about keeping kids off the streets by keeping them in school, but that is taken to an extreme here. These kids are so much more safe in the schools than they are in the informal settlements or in the surrounding community. This is also part of the whole not turning kids away – when kids come late to class, although there has been movements to close the gates to tardy kids so they don’t disrupt the other students, Clareville does not turn them away, they are very lenient and accepting. Part of this is because most students take public transportation to get to school, which, as you can probably imagine, can be rather unreliable and inconsistent here. The main reason for this, however, is because it is so dangerous for the kids to be outside of school. School offers them protection – a safe haven. The principal told us a story of a second grader who got raped while waiting on the corner outside of the school gates. There is also a high prevalence of HIV in the informal settlements, so not only will students not have parents at home if they are turned away, but there are unemployed men who will rape a young girl based on the belief that sleeping with a virgin will cure the disease. The principle said that he will never turn away a student for two reasons: “I want to create a better generation, and if I don’t take kids they become part of crime.”

The other thing that bothered me was the prevalence of “corporal punishment” in the classes. Although it is supposed to be illegal, I understand the use of it to discipline the students. The president mentioned that he feels it is necessary because it disciplines the students. “If you have discipline, you become responsible, and if you are responsible, you can learn.” Although it is mostly unheard of in the US, I could accept its presence in the classroom, what really bothers me was the verbal abuse that I witnessed. How could a teacher tell a third grader that they are stupid or an idiot, or rubbish and expect them to learn or develop properly? Discipline is one thing, but the verbal abuse does not help to discipline these students, it only degrades them. These kids don’t only have to endure abuse in their communities, but they experience it, both physical and verbal, at school – a place that is supposed to be a safe haven for them.

One of our previous lecturers had said to us that "South Africa is run through fear," and am seeing more and more that this quote is very applicable to the average South African, especially children. At schools such as the one I attended, it seems like children often listen to their teachers and obey their orders not out of respect, but out of fear. In the context of health, upon first inspection, you wouldn't think this has an immediate impact on the health of these children, but if you consider a broader definition of health including the "mind and spirit," and the mental well being of these children with all of the abuse that they face, there are so many challenges that these children face when it comes to living a healthy life. The other day I also asked my sister, Smu, what the biggest challenge facing South African children was. She answered abuse. Physical and emotional abuse at home and at school (from parents, peers, elders, teachers, etc), drug abuse, and rape. I am now beginning to more fully process the reality of this for these children and the truth in her answer to my question.

The experience, although very emotional at times, was a very informative one. Education in South Africa is such a fascinating subject, and after my school experience, talking to Smu, and having a 1-on-1 meeting with both Clive and Zed, I think I am now going to do my independent student project in a rural school. I figure I am most likely going to be in a clinic or hospital setting for the rest of my career, so might as well take this amazing opportunity to explore another area of interest. In order to tie in my interest in health, I am going to look at the role of the school and community in promoting healthy living (or at least this is the plan as of now – it could very easily change in the next couple of days as I continue to learn even more about this complex country).  Zed says I will live in a homestay by the primary school and that there is  Y center near by that provides after school activities for the kids. All of today’s events have made me very very excited for the rest of the semester and to get to see and experience more of the country.

Everywhere I go I have realized similarities between the US and SA. As countries we face a lot of the same problems, but it seems like these issues are taken to the extreme here in South Africa. They have been escalated to the point that some of them even threaten the democracy itself. There is so much here that I wish I could see and experience. Everything from shark diving (ok, well maybe… I’m not sure if I’d panic too much…) to getting to talk to everyone and visit every school and hospital in the country! I wish I could go to every province and get to experience them the way I am experiencing Kwa-Zulu Natal. But for now, I guess I will just have to be satisfied with what I am given. I am realizing more and more what an amazing opportunity this is and am trying to take advantage of it.