Five Education Systems, One Confusing Day!

*I do apologize for the length of this blog post. I just have sooooo much to share!*

July 21^st - Our first week in South Africa quickly drew to a close! After touring the many different, breath-taking places of Cape Town, our real adventure soon began: school! As an Elementary Education major, I was placed at Montevideo Primary School here in the Western Cape of South Africa; a suburb of Cape Town.

School began at 9:00 a.m. for myself and my three other companions. Typically class begins at 8:30 but the principal asked us to show up later so he could personally greet us! We arrived completely unsure of what we were going to expect. We had no idea what class we were going to be in, what we were going to do, or what we were going to teach, if anything at all. As many could imagine, the excitement grew larger as we got closer and closer to the school. We pulled into the parking lot of a fenced in building and courtyard. There was no playground equipment, the soccer field was overrun by moles and weeds, and there was not a soul in site. We got out of the van and entered the school where we were then greeted by a lovely woman who I assumed to be the secretary. She informed us to follow her down the hallway where she directed us into Principal Timmit’s office. A well-dressed man in a jacket and tie was standing there awaiting our arrival. He was bald-headed but had an extraordinary smile on his face. I could tell that he was exceptionally pleased to have four students from the United States working in his school. He introduced himself to each of us individually. As he arrived to me last, he took my hand and shook it for a very long time while he asked for my name and how I was doing. He then looked me up and down and said, “You can do something that I cannot do.” I was completely unaware of what he was talking about but it suddenly struck me. I began to laugh and said, “Oh, I can spike my hair!” He chuckled and said, “if only I could do that.”

Principal Timmit then began telling my companions and I about the importance of education and how he became the principal of Montevideo Primary School. I was so intrigued to hear his words of wisdom and encouragement that he thought would serve us well as future educators! Following this, he asked us to take a seat and he began sharing information about his school. According to him, Montevideo Primary School is one of the best in the area. The school has a wide range of students, who they refer to as learners, from different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. Many come from an upper class working family and there are a few learners from a poor class working family. Montevideo also offers a wide range of subjects and extra-curricular activities that many other primary schools in the area do not offer. He even explained that there is a waiting list for learners to enroll and the entry level grade, which is referred to as Grade R, or Kindergarten in the United States, has a cap of 90 positions available for entry which is quickly taken within two days of opening enrollment. I was very pleased to hear this information and most certainly I felt extremely privileged to be working in a school of such prestige. After explaining the background of the school, he then inquired about which grades we were wanting to teach. None of us had any idea because of the flexibility we were willing to offer. So he asked each of us a specific grade to teach in. He arrived to me and asked, “You, sir, how would you like to teach in seventh grade?” I responded, “I would absolutely love to!”

As we discovered our placements, Principal Timmit then took us on a brief tour of the school. We walked outside and as I looked around, I had a certain discomfort in the pit of my stomach. It was nothing like a school from the United States. There was not a central hall that led to each classroom. In fact, all the classrooms had an external door which led outside. It is set up similar to a motel actually. We then headed to the soccer field which appeared that the moles had been playing on it more than the learners themselves. Principal Timmit explained that they could not fix the field due to funding. Ironically, in the United States, most of a school’s funding goes to the athletic department. After that, he directed us to each of our classrooms. I was the last stop. He introduced me to a gentleman by the name of Mr. Edgross, the English comprehension and Tech teacher for the seventh grade. At Montevideo, seventh grade is set up similar to a junior high school in the United States in the sense that a certain teacher teaches a specific subject. In this case, however, there were four seventh grade teachers and each of them taught two different subject areas and each class rotated among them.

As I walked into the classroom, 42 pairs of eyes were suddenly looking at me. They all looked at me like I was an alien from another planet. To me, though, it seemed like I walked into a completely different universe. I had never been in a class of 42 students. Let alone, a classroom of 42 students with all different racial backgrounds than my own. In the United States, there is a 20 students to 1 teacher ratio. In South Africa, the average is 40 students to 1 teacher. I could tell that what I had known about education was going to be completely different than what I was about to learn. As I looked around the room, it was very dull. No pictures or graphics to be found except for the walls themselves which were painted in two different colors. Circling the room was a bulletin board which had a few quotes and educational material on it. Other than that, the room appeared to be like no one had ever inhabited it. In front of the chalkboard, which had no chalk, was a desk for Mr. Edgross but it looked as though he never put anything on it. He introduced me to the class as Mr. Smith, a student teacher from the United States. All the learners, who were nicely dressed in school uniforms, lit up with joy and excitement. I could tell that they were eager to learn more about me, as I was eager to learn more about them.

Mr. Edgross began the day with reading exam results from the previous term which ended on the 27^th of June. An interesting thing about exam results in South Africa is that the information is public to all the parents and to each learner. Mr. Edgross called out the name of 7 students in the class and asked them to come to the front of the class. They appeared that they were not excited at all. They unwillingly came to the front where Mr. Edgross informed the rest of the class that these were the only learners that passed the term two exam. I was rather shocked on multiple levels. For one, that only seven learners passed their exams and two, that results were not kept confidential such as those in the United States. However, I can see it as a mechanism that encourages learners to do better in their study habits.

Out of nowhere, an alarm sounds. It was a very screeching, distressful signal that was comparable to a tornado alarm at schools in the United States. I was prepared to take cover! However, it was the alarm for the 10:00 a.m. interval. An interval is similar to a recess. Learners are given a 15 minute interval every two hours. The next interval would be at noon. Mr. Edgross directed me to the teacher’s lounge where I rejoined my other companions for a short break.

After the first interval, I went and observed Mrs. Fischer, the Social Science and Afrikaans language teacher. It was extremely interesting to sit in her class. The primary language of instruction at Montevideo is English. However, many of the students can speak Afrikaans or isiXhosa, another African language. In the time of the apartheid, learners in South Africa were primarily instructed in Afrikaans but when South Africa declared its democracy in 1994, English became the mode of instruction. Today, Afrikaans is taught as an alternate subject. Mrs. Fischer, a rather short and boisterous woman, seemed as though she had a difficult time controlling the class; therefore, she raised her voice constantly. She began a short lecture in Afrikaans out of the textbook that the students had. Of course, I had no idea what was happening but it was extremely interesting to hear her instruct in another language. The leaners seemed as though they knew exactly what she was saying despite being primarily taught in English. Mrs. Fischer then gave the students some work to do while her and I chatted at her desk about my time thus far in South Africa and about the different education systems in South Africa and the United States. Interestingly enough, South Africa had been through five different education systems within the past twenty years; none of which has been successful.

The students remained very obnoxious even though they had work that need to be completed. In a room of 40 students, I am sure it was rather difficult for Mrs. Fischer to control the class. Therefore, she kept a wooden, chalkboard eraser at her desk. When the learners became too chaotic, she would take the eraser, roughly 2 inches thick, and bang it several times against the desk. The learners quickly closed their mouths. I was rather confused and I asked Mrs. Fischer why she used the eraser to silence the students. She explained to me that if the students did not keep quiet, she would use the eraser to smack their knuckles. Once again, I was very surprised to learn this information due to the fact that it is against the law for teachers to physically punish students in the United States. I didn’t continue the conversation. The alarm sounded again signaling the second and last interval to begin.

As I exited the classroom to return to the teacher’s lounge, I noticed all the students getting sandwiches out of their bags. They would then continue on to the courtyard and eat their packed lunch. I discovered that primary schools in South Africa, at least at Montevideo, they do not serve lunch or breakfast during school hours simply due to funding issues. The learners are encouraged to bring their own lunches from home. As sad as this was, I pushed onward to the teacher’s lounge where I rejoined my companions once again and enjoyed my lunch that I had packed.

The second interval concluded and I was encouraged to return to Mrs. Fischer’s class. It was much of the same routine as before. This time, however, I was able to get in front of the class and explain to the students where I exactly came from. Mrs. Fischer had a world map displayed in her classroom. I walked up to the map and pointed the central part of the United States, Missouri. Gasps went across the classroom. I continued and informed the class that Missouri is currently experiencing summer in contrast to the winter they were currently experiencing. Mrs. Fischer then encouraged me to elaborate more on the weather in the United States. I told them that the weather is very diverse. Temperatures will extremely change and we will have snowfall in the winter months. They screamed with excitement when I told them that I had seen snow. Most of them had never seen snow before.

The final alarm rang which concluded the first day of school in South Africa! My thoughts were racing and I could not seem to put them into organized categories. One thing I did know, however, is that the way learners are taught in South Africa was completely different than how learners are taught in the United States. I certainly have a lot more to learn as I continue my time here in Cape Town, South Africa!