Philippa Garson
CLASS STRUGGLE
The new television drama series Yizo Yizo, screened for the first time this week on SABC1, will hopefully inject some much-needed fire into the veins of our paralysed populace.
Set in a “typical” township school, the 13-part drama rolls gangsterism, drug and sexual abuse, violence and teacher/pupil “don’t-care” attitudes into its racy plot.
Already it is stirring some prickly debate. It’s nothing but sensation and hype, say some; it’s shock therapy bordering on the irresponsible and dangerous, cry others, who argue that the series glorifies gangsterism and a mindless clothes-and-kwaito-bash youth culture which seems to have replaced the high-flown morality of the “struggle” decade.
Neither arguments really wash, but I can’t help crowing with delight at the fact that finally something has come along to scratch away at a sleepy public consciousness which tends to get bothered about the education system at moments of tedious regularity: when (predictably poor) matric results are out, when textbooks aren’t in schools at the beginning of term, when teachers threaten to strike and when non-paying university students go on the rampage and lock up lecturers. The media hype and the resounding outcry are as predictable as the problems themselves.
But there’s an ongoing daily crisis, pervasive in many of our township schools, which is simply not being tackled with the urgency it deserves – a crisis that Yizo Yizo is finally beaming into the cool comfort of our lounges.
Congratulations to the Department of Education’s culture of learning, teaching and service (Colts) campaign and the SABC’s education service for commissioning the series, whose title aptly translates into “the way it is”.
There’s something admirably astute about the government saying, “See, this is how bad it is. This is what we’re up against. So bear this in mind when you jab fingers at us.” Colts director Palesa Tyobeka has just about said as much.
If the department had tackled this malaise in the schools with vigour from the word go, instead of getting bogged down in the niceties of new form, of churning out intimidating new curricula and complex “how to” manuals, not to mention doing a complicated love dance with the teacher unions, perhaps things wouldn’t be as bad as they are.
Of course, the problems raised by Yizo Yizo clearly resonate throughout our broader society and call for huge, and as yet elusive, solutions. But what better place to start than in our schools?
The series traces the descent of a school into chaos when an authoritarian principal who fails to cope with the new, cane-free school environment is replaced by a weak leader. Enter the gangsters, the kwaito bashes and the chaos – until the school community unites around a new principal who tries to turn the situation around.
Those who fear the series exaggerates and glorifies the situation in township schools should wake up.
Firstly, it’s happening out there. Secondly, what better way to get the youth on board than to throw something back at them that is hip, that mirrors their own experience and that tries to come up with some plausible solutions?
Already the word is out: they’re gripped. What better coup than to get people watching – even if it is from the shebeens or gangster hideouts?
This month The Teacher received two horrific accounts: one teacher described being stabbed in the back by a pupil wielding a Chinese dagger; another wrote of her feelings of powerlessness as a principal trying to enforce discipline among her teaching corps.
“Many principals have been shot dead because they were strict and wanted to see school work done in a proper way. I sometimes keep quiet, even if I see a teacher doing something wrong, because I fear death. It’s really a great risk to become a principal these days,” wrote Bavumile Ntombela.
Our February edition also features an article on Andrew Ragavaloo , principal and mayor of Richmond, who goes to school with 10 bodyguards.
The fact is, teachers are scared to turn their backs to the board, students barter sex for clothes with taxi drivers and demand smart clothes from boyfriends who must steal to satisfy them, boys bring guns to school to protect girls from gangsters, rape has become a shrug-of-the-shoulders affair (recent research shows that one in three high school girls has been sexually assaulted). Teachers are bored, cynical or scared out of their wits, and pupils just don’t seem to care either way.
Obviously this is only one story: other stories involve pupils, teachers and communities who beat the odds to make proper schooling happen.
Research has shown that even in gangland this can be achieved – without huge sums of money. And Yizo Yizo explores possible ways of doing this. There are more “goodies” in the series than thugs – real people who just want to get ahead like everyone else but who, like Ntombela, are immobilised by fear.
“People are nervous of any form of representation of a bleak aspect of South Africa. They don’t want to reflect what is happening here,” says Yizo Yizo co-director Angus Gibson. “But we are saying, `Come with us for the ride, we’ll show you just how bad it gets if your values are those of the gangsters.’
“If you watch the series you can only be sickened by the gangsters,” he says, pointing out that the series is only the beginning of a much broader campaign to tackle the problems.
Philippa Garson is editor of The Teacher, a sister publication of the M&G. Class Struggle will be a regular monthly feature in Monitor
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