By Leon Hartwell
Political Sciences Department at the University of Pretoria
Mamelodi Project Public Relations Director, South Africa
What is a teacher? What kind of roles do teachers fulfil in their daily interaction with their learners? More importantly, are those roles more demanding in townships compared to middle class areas? The roles of a teacher in Mamelodi, as in most rural areas, have changed dramatically over the last decade or so. In many ways teachers have made great progress with the support of the community, government, and other institutions (especially the University of Pretoria). Schools have been erected where once stood only dust or a few ‘shacks’. What is evident though is that the community is proud of the many efforts made by those who have helped to bring education facilities to the most needy.
The headmaster – who will be referred to as principle Lucas – of a certain school in Mamelodi speaks in a proud manner when he explains how his school has developed over the past couple of years. Altruism seems to be embedded in the Mamelodi community and in many ways they have taken over the roles that government was/is unable to perform. One of the legacies of the apartheid era – to understate – is the lack of formal education in rural communities. However, Lucas argues that there is a culture that emphasizes the importance of education in Mamelodi, or in his words; “they are hungry for education.” As a result, the community approached various stakeholders (including businesses) to help them establish educational facilities all over the area. What amazed me is how the teachers and the community undertake development in an incremental and practical manner. ‘Shacks’ will be erected, for example, in an attempt to provide temporary classrooms, which will be followed by the eradication of the original shacks and replacement by more suitable buildings when funds become available.
Yet, many challenges are facing these brave institutions. According to principle Lucas, teachers work in extremely difficult circumstances. Amongst others, these schools lack basic resources such as books, libraries, science labs, and computer labs (not even to mention facilities for children with special needs). Principle Lucas explains that what makes the situation more difficult is that parents are unable to provide school fees, so schools simply have to make the best of what they have or receive from government. Throughout recent years some of these resources have been provided by businesses and even foreign aid donors. With a smile on his face principle Lucas states that “we do not want people’s money. What we want is for people and organisations to invest their knowledge and skills in our schools to make it more education friendly.” As we are walking though the classrooms and schoolyard the principal points to a garden with all sorts of vegetables. He says that it is the creation of the community’s efforts to support a feeding programme for the learners and that the University of Pretoria has also offered to help them develop another one in the fertile area next to the garden that might benefit the children, to teach them how to plant vegetables.
According to Principal Lucas, the school faces many challenges, yet they are all equally met with innovation. He tells us of the more than 2000 learners that the school must instruct, with a handful of little more than 65 educators and limited venues. This dilemma was overcome by implementing a shift system in which younger students attend class in the morning, and older students in the evening. Though this may not serve as the best, most permanent solution, it is of the same vein of quick ingenuity that plans for temporary schoolroom (or ‘shacks’) to be eventually replaced with permanent fixtures. Of course, having to instruct classes of upwards of fifty learners will be more than challenging for any teacher. The dilemma of teacher morale is satiated by giving the instructors a personal stake in the school. An awards system is put in place that not only rewards excellence in teaching, but also excellence in caring. The school is now awash with instructors that teach arithmetic and science, and also plant gardens in students’ yards, ensure that students are arriving to school each day, and stay alert of students’ family issues.
According to Principal Lucas, sixty percent of the learners do not have the most basic legal documentation, i.e. birth certificates. By implication these children do not exist according to law and they cannot therefore make legitimate claims to government to provide them with social grants. Furthermore, in recent years teachers have also been expected to deal with all HIV/Aids related issues. These range from parents complaining that their children should not be exposed to HIV/Aids infected children, providing sex education to those who might find it unintelligible, and attempting to deconstruct myths that claim that if an HIV/Aids infected person sleeps with a virgin he will be cured of the disease. Such individual issues often translate into issues for teachers who have to deal with them in a practical manner. This particular school has for example approached the University of Pretoria to help educate and council learners, parents and teachers on how to deal with HIV/Aids related matters.
With tears in his eyes Principal Lucas leans forward and tells us about a young girl who unexpectedly collapsed at school and how they were unable to save her life. He claims that they started to query her grandmother on what the child had to eat on that particular day. With their astonishment they found out the young girl of 11 years old was staying with an old man – her boyfriend. “This often happens” explains Principal Lucas. “Remember, our children are poor and their parents sometimes think that their children are better off with someone who can feed them and buy them what they need and want”. Moreover, Principal Lucas reminds us that many of his learners are orphans and that they often turn to mundane things – sex, drugs and alcohol – as a form of escapism or to make money. Still, these issues seem to be almost impossible to be embarked upon by teachers because they form part of the broader socio-economic structure of the community. This is not to say that viable solutions to these issues will never be realised, but that time and more resources are inevitably necessary in order for the school to effectively combat these wide reaching issues.
Evidently, and in stark contrast to teachers in middle class areas, teachers in townships such as Mamelodi are not only expected to teach geography, history, or math, and once in a while train learners in certain sports, but they also have to know how to deal with HIV/Aids infected children, they need to feed those in need, they have to try to teach hungry orphans that it is wrong to sleep with older men for money and food, and they need to make due with scarce resources in their attempts to solve these issues. In short, they have to do and provide what they can in extremely difficult circumstances.
To paraphrase Principal Lucas, “this community will be a wonderful place if only shabines – that are found on every corner of Mamelodi – are replaced by schools and libraries”! Still, schools would be empty without the filling of them with teachers on which more and more demands are made on a daily basis. The Dali Lama once said that “it is during times of great adversary when heroes are born”, and we have witnessed how simple people in Mamelodi become heroes on a daily basis.