Back to School

Back to School

Around the end of August I began to realize that I wasn’t going back to Auburn High. In my mind’s eye I could see the staff returning for the annual, “I guess summer’s over” meetings, indoctrinating us back into the institutional environment that we so lovingly call, “school”. I will truly miss AHS, the faculty and its students. I will, however, not miss grading lab books over these coming two years.

South Africa’s schools reopened this week to begin their fourth term. In this term it is the countdown to the fated “Matric” Exam taken by grade 12 learners. This exam makes the anxiety that students feel for the WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) look down right silly. Learners must pass the exam, which most are unprepared for, in order to graduate or “matric,” as they call it here. Many learners do not pass and therefore must return to grade 12, time and time again, until they either pass or drop out. Ah yes, this does sound like a possible WASL scenario after all.

Alright enough Ed-speak. For primary schools in SA, where I have been placed, from grade R (kindergarten) up to grade 7, the learners all sit for internal exams at the end of the term. Therefore much of term 4, if not all, is spent focusing on review and testing.

My goals in the schools start quite simple: (1) Get to know the educators at both of my schools (13 at Abbot’s Poort Upper Primary and 24 at Jacob Langa Lower Primary), build a relationship and gain trust; (2) Scope out areas where I can use my skills to provide help in real ways for both the educators and learners. After the first three months I should have a sufficient plan of action and be able to move forward (or at least that is Peace Corps’s hope.)

Last week I had the opportunity to spend most of the week with Mokgadi (Susie) at Abbot’s Poort Home Based Care, meeting and greeting the wilily women that comprise its staff. This week Mokgadi joined me at the schools on Wednesday and Friday. It was fabulous. I didn’t know that it would be this way, but I have found for myself that I get fairly quiet when I am in a new place with new people who primarily speak a language in which I have only limited experience. (Who knew?) Mokgadi, however, has quite a knack for striking up meaningful conversations that she and others enjoy. This made finding connections with the barutisi (teachers) much easier. Thanks, Suz. We are also taking pictures of all of the staff and attaching them to a “Getting to Know You” questionnaire for later reference.

This week I am finding my way into classrooms to observe the goings-on. I also am taking on a personal project to get some computers up and running that have been in the staff room at Jacob Langa for the past three years. You see, a company donated them to the school but didn’t do any software clean-up inside. They were still loaded with Windows 2000 NT and all were password protected. The company did not want to give the school the passwords, for then the teachers would be privy to all their corporate documents stored within. Hmm… one final not-so-nice donation hic-up: They didn’t donate power cords for the monitors or CPUs. I did manage to find two sets of power cables, but no more. The software problem was solved when I asked if the Department of Education ever gave out software for school use. The answer to this question came in the form of a bundle of installation CDs from Microsoft about 3 inches thick. There were no product keys, but the paperwork that accompanied the disks had a phone number for a Microsoft Call Centre. I called and Microsoft has an agreement with Rural Schools in SA, so the product codes were emailed to me as we spoke on the phone. So now, one by one, I am installing Windows XP Pro and Office XP Pro on all of the machines. Eventually with sets of power cords, these machines that have sat idle for 3 years as mammoth paperweights will be used for their intended purpose – education.

A view of Abbot’s Poort Upper Primary School over break. (Notice the absence of children.)

And Jacob Langa with children after the break.