Some Thoughts on School Visitations

In South Africa, I was fortunate to visit with two principals and schools at some length. While both schools were in formerly designated townships, one school was Indian in the Phoenix settlement outside of Durban and the other was a formerly colored school outside of Cape Town in Mitchell’s Plain. One was elementary and the other secondary. Both are now in the process of integration.

While neither is attracting a white minority, as both schools are still comprised of those individuals of lower socio-economic status and whites tend to be situated in middle class suburbs as opposed to former townships, both are attracting students from the former black townships. This is, of course, challenging to the administration in both schools as the school leaders must engender to incorporate all parents into the school decision-making process and to help establish a safe and culturally unbiased community for all learners. Indeed, in the Mitchell’s Plain School, outside Cape Town, much effort has been exerted in explaining Xhosa machismo culture to its Muslim constituency and visa versa. In Phoenix as well, the principal has developed one school community by focusing on the commonalities between the majority Hindu student population and the minority Zulu student body by citing examples of commonality such as rights of passage – birth, marriage, death, etc. Both schools have also invested time and energy in teacher training, exposing their educators to their own internal biases. The school in Mitchell’s Plain, in particular, was integrated, largely at the bequest of the principal, prior to the end of Apartheid, and has been a leader in integration for some time. As a result, Nelson Mandela has visited the school on several occasions. The school outside Durban has also been held up as a model of reform. The township schools I visited were also led, in general, by school leaders who had been university student activists during the struggle to end Apartheid and come from the communities they now lead. Organizations such as CSVR, Love Life, and the Institute of Justice also sometimes provide training to school educators through diversity circles and other forms of discussion.

While the elementary school does not, directly, deal with gang activity, such activity is a major problem in the former townships and for the secondary school outside of Cape Town. This is not very different, in reality, from the challenges faced by inner-city educators in the United States. Alcoholism, drug-addiction (“Tik”), and broken families are fueling gang activity in South Africa as is a 40% unemployment rate. While the gang names in South Africa might be different, be they “The Americans” or “The JFKs” in South Africa or the Bloods and/or Cripps in the United States, a growing number of males of color, in particular, are in prison. In Mitchell’s Plain, the principal estimates that approximately 30% of the student body is involved in petty gang activity often graduating to more violent crime after graduation. This is not an extraordinary figure if one considers that approximately 80% of school graduates are either unemployed and/or outside of tertiary education immediately after graduation. Only 1% of students attend college immediately after high school but a larger number of students do eventually attend college as more mature adults. The exact number of students who eventually matriculate at university is unknown. HIV infection rates also remain high as young females often trade unprotected sex for money. HIV is also viewed as a “black disease” and, as such, is not viewed with the same urgency by all South Africans.

Schools in the townships are overcrowded. It is not unusual to find classes of 40 to 45 students. The national government has established a 35 students per one teacher policy. This is partially accounting for these large class sizes. When the ratio becomes smaller, as the national government pays teacher salaries, schools must forfeit a teacher thereby actually increasing class size. More affluent schools, such as former Model C schools (i.e. white schools), however, often have large professional networks, PTOs, and personal endowments that allows them more flexibility in paying for extra teaching staff out of their discretionary funding. This reduces class size.

Former Model C schools do fund tuitions for students in financial need from the former townships but the need is so very great. Principals in South Africa, especially in township areas, are therefore expected to complete both administrative duties as well as teaching duties to make up for the shortage in teaching staff. This stretches principals thin in South Africa. Further complicating the problem is teacher migration out of South Africa. Each year, many South African educators leave for other British Commonwealth countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and/or New Zealand where credentials are recognized, salaries and benefits greater. Crime surges are also causing a general exodus of all South Africans of means to other parts of the world. Indeed, the recent national public servant strike, including teachers, in South Africa goes some way in showing the frustration that teachers and others are feeling over working conditions.

I also believe there to be a general malaise in the discovery that a multiethnic participatory government/ANC dominated government may have as many issues with corruption and personal aggrandizement as did the Apartheid era government. Indeed, I heard several individuals mention the family connections between President Mbeki of South Africa and President Mugabe of Zimbabwe as, I believe, Mugabe is married to Mbeki’s cousin.

It is, however, worth noting though, at the same time, that the actual transition to democracy 14 years ago was, largely, bloodless and devoid of racial retribution. Whie some say that the Truth and Reconciliation Trials only scratched the surface of simmering racial tensions and were mostly one sided in that they were interested in the prosecution of whites responsible for black/colored oppression as opposed to an equal investigation of black/colored on white crime, in the least, it did help South Africa onwards and away from the more violent political revolutions so common in African history. As a former student leader, one of the principals of the two schools visited still wrestles with their own demons and struggles to forgive especially as they continue to see inequities in educational opportunities for children.

Infrastructure is also in need of improvement. Schools only receive a yearly budget of 20,000 U.S. dollars equivalent. This means that routine maintenance neglected can quickly become much more problematic. Crime and vandalism further fuels this problem and it is not uncommon for there to be several security gates around schools and additional steel frames around technology labs. The SA government is aware of 14 areas of critical need which does include Mitchell’s Plain and has been assisting in the building of new auditorium and building space. This is needed as there is a definite differential between sporting facilities at former Model C schools and those in former townships. From my observations, it appears that schools in townships were last updated in the early 1980s. Former Model C schools, again, rely on private endowments to maintain facilities and, as such, such schools still have an advantage in this area even though national funding for all schools has been equalized and some former township schools are actually receiving additional hardship stipends. Former Model C schools also can charge more for books/uniforms than can former township schools. The principal in Mitchell’s Plain has also maintained a 24 hour live-in property custodian and has dogs patrolling the school property after hours. There has not been a break-in at the school for several years.

Both principals are open to local school-based management schemes. Indeed, both cited that they enjoyed this aspect of their job but that it was also one of their most consuming and frustrating challenges. Principals in former townships must engender leadership capabilities in their parent communities but parents, raised during Apartheid and not given a voice, are now expected to lead collaboratively without having first the confidence or the money to fund projects. The Western Cape Board of Education is also attempting to assist in this endeavor by providing copies of Michael Fullan’s book Leading in a Time of Change to it’s principals as a means by which principals can begin to discuss/dialogue on leadership issues in a time of local school control and a growing outcomes based assessment protocol in South Africa. Indeed, both principals acted as unofficial mentors to more junior principals. The national Department of Education is also attempting to foster both a national as well as continental identity in its student population.

While outcomes based assessment is growing in popularity within South African educational circles, its reach has not extended to the level that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has in the United States. Principals therefore have at least some flexibility in reassigning even secondary school teachers to other discipline areas, as needed and as changes in national curriculum are mandated. Teachers seem to have accepted these changes with aplomb and turnover in both schools is low according to principals. I believe this to be the result of the open and natural leadership style of both principals who encourage community participation in decision making and priority setting. Teachers in both schools are encouraged to voice opinions on educational matters and there is general interest in making education less lecture-based and more exploratory in nature.