Many public and independent schools are reaching out to less-privileged schools.
”ONE nation, two worlds” has become a catchphrase for the radically different realities South Africans live — from those who sleep on featherbeds and have the world at their feet, to those who lie in the gutter without a profitable prospect in view.
Schools too reflect the vast differences between the have-a-lots and the have-nots, not only on the level of materials but also in terms of skilled human resources. With most provincial education budgets being spent on salaries, there is very little left over to make meaningful inroads into the massive backlogs left over from the apartheid system.
But many public and independent schools and individuals are committed to making a difference.
Mondeor High, an ex-model C school and therefore relatively privileged, is one example. Principal Tom Price explains that a recent financial boon for the school — donations amounting to R50 000 — was placed in an education trust fund, and used to help schools in Soweto and Orange Farm. The kind of equipment they have provided ranges from a lawnmower to photocopiers.
This is just one example of the many ways in which schools are reaching out. There is a limitless list of approaches to bridging the resources divide. Schools are involved in projects ranging from tutoring pupils after hours and providing scholarships, to making sports and laboratory facilities available.
But the relationship of giving and receiving can be problematic. Price describes how another attempt at making his school’s resources available to their disadvantaged neighbours failed. This was in the form of ”twinning”, where an advantaged school would have a relationship with a specific school in need. Says Price, ”I think they felt we were the have-alls and know-alls. They were reluctant to pay petrol money to come here, and my staff didn’t want to take their cars and go into Soweto either.”
Gauteng representative Lebelo Maloka agrees there’s a ”fundamental problem” with the power relations in twinning, since those supposed to benefit from the exercise may end up feeling humiliated by this ”charity kind of thing”. Maloka emphasises that ”attitudes must be sensitively managed” to avoid these tensions, and that ”it’s about equal partnerships to make it easier [for struggling schools] to succeed”.
While often efforts at sharing come from a sense of social responsibility and nation-building, some provinces have a more formalised programme to effect redress. Gauteng, for example, has developed Education Action Zones. Teams of about five education experts — including principals like Price, and departmental officials — are tasked with taking about seven disadvantaged schools under their wing to help them improve their results. At Mondeor High, for example, ”all seven schools’ senior staff were invited to come to the school. We gave them entire sets of notes for subjects like science and accountancy.”
Price finds this arrangement more fruitful, because the educators ”come voluntarily, and I believe they want to be helped”.
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, May 2, 2000.
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