In the little town of Zastron in the southeastern corner of the Free State, abutting Lesotho in the shadow of Aasvoëlberg, is a conservation area that buzzes with the sound of children’s voices in the best classroom of all — the wild outdoors.
At Aasvoëlberg Outdoor Centre, a non-profit organisation, they absorb the lore of conserving the wilderness, while coming to grips with abseiling and rock-climbing and learn about astronomy while sleeping under the stars.
The school’s programmes cover practical subjects such as entrepreneurship, local heritage, creative problem solving and conflict resolution, communication skills, leadership and life skills. It also offers practical applications for lessons in biology, astronomy, geography, erosion, pollution and youth development.
And it’s in the process of piloting practical courses designed to complement the new tourism component of the national school curriculum.
B Tech (Tourism) students from the Central University of Technology in Bloemfontein carry out the experiential requirement for their degrees at the centre, where they are introduced to San rock art, hiking routes, vulture behaviour, historical buildings, Anglo Boer War battlefields, 4×4 routes, bird watching and game farm management. Many of the staff members are previous “happy-campers” who found their destiny in this wilderness area.
In the mid-1990s the department of education closed down the facility, which had catered primarily for white children from former Model C schools. Principal Louis Alberts, rather than return to a post in mainstream education, negotiated to privatise the centre.
After he was granted a lease on the 15-hectare reserve, he developed the facilities to provide a holistic camp experience in the outdoors for school children that aims to supplement formal education. His wife, former teacher Sonja Alberts, says that in the first year they had just 135 children. Last year this grew to 8 500 learners, many from the local schools, who attended the week-long camps.
“Oom” Louis, as he is popularly known, did his master’s thesis on outdoor education in South Africa through Pretoria University and has practised what he preaches for about 25 years. He carried out research in Taiwan, at that time the leader in holistic outdoor education.
“They had seven centres that accommodated a million school children,” he says. He returned home and began to apply the principles in South Africa.
He remains convinced that the concept is what South African education needs, especially in the wake of profound negativity around the implementation of outcomes-based education. But it requires a “switch in mind-set” on the part of the teachers.
“This is not a nine to five job. It is a calling,” he says. The camp experience rarely ends before 10pm and might start as early as 4am. Some nights are spent on the mountains and in caves.
Aasvoëlberg Outdoor Centre manager Niél van der Merwe, a trained biokineticist who has been with the school since changing his career course in 2001, is awaiting his Seta accreditation to be able to provide Field Guide Association of South Africa certification to learners. This will ensure that environment and conservation learners can achieve national and global recognition for their course work.
The affable Van der Merwe is a devoted teacher who can’t imagine working within the strictures of a conventional school. “I have the largest classroom,” he says, “and it’s provided by the best teacher of all — nature.”
Courses are designed for grades six, nine, 11 and 12 learners. Accommodation varies from bunks in dorm-style and A-frame huts to double bedrooms with en suite bathrooms for teachers and others who book for seminars and team-building.
There are also adult training courses in environmental education linked to the curriculum. The training takes place under the stars, in the mountains — and in the tree-top canopy amid the camp. This hides a series of cables and ropes, a climbing wall, suspension bridges and other equipment to bring out the adventurer in the charges.
Teachers, corporate groups, higher education councils, the defence force, church groups and the police are among those who’ve swung through the trees, slept in the hills and learned to abseil. “Some are just parents who want to connect better with their children,” says Van der Merwe.
With breeding colonies of black eagles and Cape vultures roosting in the high cliffs, Van der Merwe has started a rehabilitation and release programme at the centre. As word has spread, he’s had requests for help from neighbouring areas all the way to Bloemfontein. So far all his patients have been successfully released.
Oom Louis is in the process of handing over to Van der Merwe in preparation for retirement. “I keep busy with the admin now,” he says, confident that he has found the ideal person to entrust with his dream.
Contact: Aasvoëlberg Outdoor Centre: [email protected]