Education in South Africa.

Where do I stand now? Well I returned to my homestay family last Friday and it felt like I was returning home. This week we have split into focus groups that are related to our independent research paper(ISP). I picked education, and have spent the week with a small group of students and Professor Johann Wasserman. I picked the group because my ISP is related to education, and because Johann is the man, and a great lecturer. He is Africaans, grew up on a farm, and teaches history to to-be teachers.

We spent Monday looking at a private boarding school in the hills of KZN called Kearsney College. It really blew me away. 50 acres, with multiple playing fields, state of the art class rooms with “smart boards” (computer screen black boards), and a menu that would put Beloit to shame. It was a very odd place-it was all about the Kearnsey club and we got the feeling they were creating little prototypes, or as one student said, “little capitalists.” I got the feeling that the school was more about the business then teaching; our tour guide called the head master the “ceo.” It was really weird: every student that walked by had to greet us all saying “sir” or “mam.” We must of heard sir and mam 1000 times.

Tuesday, we went to Johann’s college, KZN Edgewood which is a college for to-be teachers. Spent the first half talking economics with one professor, and then the rest of the day hanging out with students. I got a much different picture of white South African students. The first school I went to a couple weeks back I was slapped in the face with blatant racism that left me feeling ill, but these student were much more open to change. Johann said he had trouble getting students to tour us because a large amount of anti-American sentiment. It definitely started to come out with the Iraq war and Bush, and I tried to tell them that sometimes I was anti-America too.

Wednesday. Johann lecture in the morning about the history of education, the new “outcome based education” failures (Interesting topic because i went to an OBE school in Project Learn), and the debate surrounding the proposed pledge for all students. He set us up well for a discussion at a youth center in Chatsworth, an Indian township, later in the day which was about the proposed pledge. I sat back for a while listening to why youth need a pledge before I made a comment which went something like this:

“I have problems with putting blame on students when alot of the real problems lies with schools, teachers, school administration, and the government. Why are we talking about a pledge when the real issues is the lack of textbooks and computers, school fees, basic infrastructure, lack of qualified teachers ect. It seems like the government has failed students and and this is a last and sorry attempt to fix the problem. And, i'm wondering why the students should say this pledge when the government and teachers aren’t upholding these values.

While I don’t believe the pledge is necessary, it must say something about the current injustices that are happening in the country because this document makes it seem like everything is alright when it is definitely not.”

I got some applaud from the students. We then headed home. Tomorrow is my last day in Bonella.

Thursday update-Last day studying education with a professor of social justice. Interesting stuff-looking into class, race and culture, religion, and gender in relation to education.