Julia Grey found uncertainty on the ground about what it means to be a dedicated maths and science school
Letsibogo Girls Secondary school in Meadowlands, Soweto, is one of the 102 schools identified nationally to specialise in maths, science and technology education.
In many ways, the school is an obvious candidate for the role, according to criteria set out in the report, National strategy for mathematics, science and technology education. Letsibogo Girls is in a disadvantaged area with learners exclusively from the gender most in need of such an intervention; and best of all, has a dynamic leadership that has a proven record of making things happen. The matric pass rate last year in maths was 20% – all the more reason to single the school out for attention.
But Ellen Kondowe, principal of Letsibogo Girls, has more questions than answers about what this means for the future of her school. In fact, so little has been communicated to her by Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) officials that it was the newspapers that first informed Kondowe that Letsibogo Girls Secondary had been selected.
The strategy for 2001/2, launched in June, is defined with clear time-frames. But the GDE, although asked repeatedly, was unable to say how the project was actually working. One GDE official, who did not wish to be named, said “We are still grappling with the details”. Areas yet to be clarified include whether learners from other schools with a flair for maths and science will be redirected to one of the 102 schools; whether learners currently at the school, but not strong in these subjects, will be asked to attend other schools; whether an admission test will determine who attends the dedicated schools; and whether the teaching expertise needed will have to be imported from Cuba. It is also not clear when exactly these ideas for transformation will become realities for the school.
What Kondowe has deduced, though, is that “specialising will make the whole school focus on a particular mission and direction – to develop learners in these subjects, and place them somewhere in science fields”.
As an all-girls school, Kondowe is concerned that “We are going to be discriminating against the boys and deprive them of an opportunity” if the school is to keep its current identity. Kondowe believes being a single-sex school gives girls “the freedom to express themselves in class, without being afraid of boys laughing at them”. If boys are to be enrolled, she envisions setting up separate classes.
But for all the uncertainty, Kondowe is upbeat about the coming changes. “It will help us to dispel the myths that maths is difficult, or that it is only part of the male domain – that girls don’t have the right cognitive ability”, says Kondowe.
– The Teacher/M&G Media, Johannesburg, November 2001.