Jenni Karlson explains how the maintenance of the school environment is a lesson in itself
Teachers transmit stereotyped roles to learners through the activities they organise. This is referred to as a hidden curriculum and how it operates in the cleaning of schools.
The cleaning of schools became such a contentious issue for parents in the late 1990s in KwaZulu-Natal that education was disrupted and about 250 schools closed for a short period. The cleaning crisis arose when the new KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education sought to standardise the staffing arrangements of schools.
Worst off were schools of the former KwaZulu-Natal homeland, schools that generally had no funded cleaning services. By contrast the former Natal Education Department (for whites), and to a lesser extent the Department of Education and Training (for urban blacks) employed general assistants to schools whose tasks included cleaning. The exception to the system of public cleaners occurred at Indian schools where the former House of Delegates withdrew itself from cleaning schools by outsourcing this function.
As the new government brought about equity in salaries, the concentration of general assistants in former white schools became an equity issue and these employees became subject to redeployment. Similarly, the annual cleaning contract for Indian schools was a target of cost-cutting measures that led to industrial unrest.
The crisis led to the distribution of one-off grants of R1 000 to those schools without general assistants. R5-million was set aside for this purpose. Given the small number of general assistants employed by the education authorities, financial constraints and the large number of schools in the province, it would be impossible even after redployment for there to be even one general assistant in each school.
School governing bodies and management teams are now tackling the issue of school cleaning. The Education Policy Unit (Natal) has examined the current cleaning arrangements in six schools.
Heather Primary and Centenary High: schools having previously employed a relatively large number of general assistants.
The school governing bodies of Heather Primary and Centenary High supplement the services of the remaining general assistants through contracts with cleaning services. All employed general assistants and contract cleaners are black. To suppplement the duties of these workers Centenary High, a girls-only school, has involved learners in cleaning the school.
Maximus Primary and Highway Secondary: schools previously serviced by contractors
Employed and contracted male and female workers are now in evidence at Maximus Primary and Highway Secondary. All are black. All general assistant workers are employed by the governing body and paid from school fee income. Cleaners are constructed as objects of ridicule, with learners assimilating the dominant gender, race and class stereotypes.
Khayalihle Primary, a school previously with a low number of general assistants
The school has three male general assistants. All are black. One is deployed as a guard, two others have cleaning duties. Learners are involved in cleaning activities.
Teachers organise pupils to clean the classrooms. Girls sweep out the classroom floor regularly after boys lift the chairs onto the desks.
There is also a duty roster for teachers. During the week that a teacher has their turn, they are responsible for watching children during breaktime as well as overseeing the cleaning of toilets and passages.
Mzamuhle Secondary, a rural school without any previous departmental provision of general assistants
Mzamuhle Secondary operates without running water, electricity or a telephone. Toilets for learners and staff are pit latrines. Using the school’s meagre income from fees the governing body now employs a general assistant. Girls walk to collect water in large plastic containers and carry these back to school on their heads. Fetching water is organised during lesson time.
Among the six schools described above there are differences in the ways they organise cleaning. What is the “hidden curriculum” that is learnt from and through these school-cleaning practices? Who is assigned to do the chores and the nature of these chores, constitutes part of this “hidden curriculum”.
Three areas of hidden learning emerge from these cleaning practices. Firstly, learners passively assimilate that in school there is a confluence of social class and race because non-educator employees performing cleaning are black employees. In the six school case studies all general assistants are black. Secondly, in co-educational schools where leaners take part in cleaning, the hidden curriculum emerges in the division of labour between girls and boys — girls sweeping and fetching water while boys lift chairs. School governing bodies and management that organise these are perpetuating gender stereotypes. Instead, school governing bodies, management and teachers might use cleaning as an opportunity to discuss life skills, gender roles, tradition and culture, and to explore new ways of social transformation.
At privileged, single-sex Centenary High a roster rotates class turns for cleaning a particular part of the school. This teaches a sense of equitable responsibility for the school. It also teaches middle-class girls that, regardless of race, they are not above doing chores.
In many countries leaners are required to participate in cleaning their school and there can be educational benefits in this practice. Although this happens in South Africa’s public schools, cleaning arrangements are prescribed by financial and staffing considerations and may even be used to discippline unruly pupils.
Given the demography of South Africa, the low wages of general assistants and high unemployment, it is likely that the confluence of race and social class among learners will continue. The negative effects of this hidden curriculum on learners might be addressed through discussions during life skills lessons and sharing chores equitably between classes.
Effecting change in schools where cleaning teaches and perpetuates gender stereotypes is a challenge. Although a multi-pronged strategy will be necessary to effect social transformation, a starting point is for parents on the school governing body and management team to recognise that how they organise cleaning is teaching a hidden curriculum to the next generation of South Africans.
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, February, 2001.