Since its inception in 1989, Missouri Secondary School has been associated with lawlessness and disorder – and, on occasion, outright violence, like when a learner shot his classmate on the school premises in 2002.
But Martin Louis, appointed as acting principal last year, is determined to stop the rot.
Already there are signs that things are changing for the better: the 1 368 learners, neatly kitted out in their school uniforms, are orderly in their classrooms, and the environment seems just about ideal for learning and teaching.
But Louis believes the real obstacles to improvement are beyond the school gate: a lack of parental and community involvement is severely undermining the school’s efforts.
Says Louis: ‘Parents are not playing the game as they should and this could be the reason why their children are not performing so well.” For instance, in 2003 Grade 12 results, which were the worst in the school’s history, dropped from 47% to 42%.
His frustration is shared by other teachers at the school. Rebecca Tloubatla, who teaches business economics, says she is demoralised by the disinterest of parents in their children’s education. ‘Parents must know that, if they are not actively involved in their children’s education, they are making our task even more difficult. Education starts at home,” she says. Tloubatla adds: ‘Whenever I have a problem with a learner I try to involve parents. Some of them do not respond, and when others do, they tend to be rude or violent.”
Parent participation at school meetings is also abysmal, says Louis. In fact, the only school event that draws support in any numbers is the year-end banquet.
The issue of school fees is another poser for the school. According to Louis the school is owed in excess of R100 000 in outstanding school fees. ‘Every year we give exemptions to parents who cannot afford to pay school fees,” he says. But it is parents who can afford to pay school fees but fail to do so that Louis has problems with. ‘Although we have not gone to the extent of withholding results as yet, this seems to be an avenue that we will be forced to explore,” Louis says. ‘I mean, within a very short space of time our coffers will be dry, and surely we must do something about the situation.”
Missouri Secondary’s sense of being a neglected island in the community is only really dispelled when it receives unwanted attention – from thieves.
A recent spates of burglaries were a serious setback for the school, and, says Louis: ‘We believe that some of this [stolen] property finds ready buyers from some members of the community.” He believes that this could also explain why none of these cases, which were reported to police, have been successfully concluded – because ‘no one is prepared to come forward and give evidence”, he says.
Maintaining discipline among learners is another concern for Louis, with drug abuse a continuous problem. ‘The common drug that learners use here is dagga, and in a few instances hard drugs have also been found,” He says. ‘Sometimes you don’t have to look hard for evidence. For instance, you find learners totally lethargic or unresponsive in class. In the worst instances they become unruly or disruptive.”
Efforts to address the drug issue include alerting parents and referring learners to the police or social workers. NGOs like loveLife have also been active at the school.
For Lucas Nelson, the technology teacher, the problem of learner discipline emanates from ‘too many rights that learners enjoy today”, and is common to many schools. ‘As a teacher I feel helpless as I have no powers to discipline a deviant learner – not any more. For instance, I cannot search him or her even if I suspect there might be something unwanted in his or her bag. Just give us our power back and we will deal with the problem of learner indiscipline decisively,” says Nelson.
But despite all of these limits and frustrations, there is a mood of optimism. Louis is regarded by his staff as a firm but open-minded team leader who can turn the Missouri ship around. ‘With the team-building workshop that we had recently we are confident we can take this school to greater heights,” says Tloubatla.