‘I’m really humbled and excited by this award. This is a highlight of my long teaching career,” said Piet Swart, principal of Hoërskool Ben Vorster in Tzaneen, after he won the lifetime achievement award in the 2010 National Teaching Awards.
Swart, who can speak all official languages except Tshivenda, said the announcement took him by surprise. “When I went to the interviews at the provincial level, I didn’t prepare a presentation. I just went and talked from the top of my head. So this came as a complete surprise.”
He said he dedicates his award to the teachers, learners and parents at his school. “It’s always good for the general to shout instructions but it’s the soldiers in the trenches who do most of the work and I think it’s fair to acknowledge their input as well. I thank God for all this,” Swart said with a tinge of emotion.
He has spent the past 24 years building a multicultural, meritocratic place of excellence at his school. In his 36 years of teaching, he counts as his greatest achievement the role he played in 1996 when he convinced parents to agree to a phased-in multicultural policy for the school.
So controversial was the decision, there were threats to his life. Swart, who played sport as a child and is also an accomplished pianist, pioneered integration through sport. He noticed that few black learners were taking part in extramural activities and actively recruited talented black youngsters from disadvantaged primary schools to set an example.
Swart’s plan worked and the school now has a litany of sporting triumphs to its name. The school boasts facilities a university would envy: an indoor heated pool, indoor cricket facility, indoor hockey facility, a dance academy with a sprung floor and a gym. There is also a restaurant and a reading and computer centre. All were built during Swart’s tenure.
Hoërskool Ben Vorster has won the trophy for the best performing school in the Mopani district nine out of ten times and its Grade 12 pass rate has been 100% for the past seven years. Four years ago, a black learner got seven distinctions and Swart has since used her as an example to motivate others. Swart, who is set to retire soon, is laying the groundwork for delivering workshops on performance and multiculturalism.
At the awards, Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel launched a blistering attack on some teacher unions that destabilise the education system and pursue their own interests.
Manuel was the keynote speaker at the gala held at the Presidential Guesthouse on February 25. He said “some teacher unions have become part of the problems” that are bedevilling the education system.
Manuel said the role of teacher unions should go beyond representing their members against unfair labour practices and they should emulate their counterparts overseas who strive for professionalism and improving the quality of teaching. He said teacher unions should be about promoting the quality of education, supporting weaker schools, providing professional advice and counsel to poorly performing schools and teachers, and they should also not baulk at taking drastic measures against rogue elements who besmirch the profession.
District and provincial departments also received a roasting. Manuel said some districts and provinces are run in “ways that undermine and frustrate the best efforts of schools instead of complementing them”.
Manuel said “some provinces have still not delivered books to schools this year” and “in one province and some districts feeding schemes have collapsed due to mismanagement”.