I am an educator at Mandela Park Senior Primary School in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape – just 5km from town. The school serves an informal settlement whose residents forcefully occupied the land on which the school is built.
Our classes start from grade R to grade 7 and our enrolment hovers at about 900 learners with 20 educators. Sometimes I wonder whether we should really call it a school, for it does not look like one.
What we have is this big, towering structure that used to be a venue for agricultural shows when the former Transkei Bantustan government was in power. Lessons for different grades take place in the same space and with no clearly demarcated classes. The situation can get chaotic.
There is no electricity or running water. There are no toilets for learners and they are forced to relieve themselves in the nearby bushes, while we have to share one ramshackle pit latrine. It is a really challenging situation, but one we have come to accept.
Despite the shortages of all these vital facilities, we pride ourselves on our excellent performance in extra-mural activities, soccer being one of them. As is becoming the norm these days we, too, have introduced a girl’s soccer team. The girls love it.
Recently we attended a girl’s soccer tournament, which was organised at district level. We made sure our team was represented and arranged special transport for our players.
Three male educators (one of them a coach) and their two female counterparts accompanied the team. Unfortunately the vehicle broke down on the way and we had to use some of the teachers’ cars to transport the team.
Everything went well and our girls played their first match. But when they had to play their second game, the wheels came off. Their coach (Kondile) noticed something was wrong: some of the girls couldn’t kick the ball properly and just fell to the ground like parcels.
At half time the poor coach tried to get to the bottom of the problem and he made a shocking discovery: the girls were actually drunk! They had bought bottles of wine before the game and hidden them in their kitbags so the teachers would not notice.
Imagine the surprise and embarrassment experienced by us educators. It was a disgusting, unforgettable and terrible scene to witness young schoolkids, especially girls, under the age of 13 being under the influence of alcohol on such an important school sporting event. And if this was not enough, they used foul language when responding to people who spoke to them.
When we returned to our school the culprits were hauled before a disciplinary committee comprising educators and parents, and it was decided to ban them from extraÂÂmural activities for the entire year.
Even today I still have not recovered from the shock and embarrassment the girls caused us. How things have changed!
Nyameka Sefa is a Grade 1 teacher at Mandela Park Primary School in Mthatha, Eastern Cape