Port
Alfred Schools Report 2002Port
Alfred Schools Report 2002Introduction
Dambuza Primary School
Mtyobo Public Primary School
Kuyasa Combined School
Nomzamo Secondary School
Port Alfred Primary School, Station Hill
Enkuthazweni Special School
Port Alfred High School
RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendation about computer training
Introduction |
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In its firm determination to establish enduring relations with the communities of Port Alfred and in line with its policy of making a social investment contribution in the communities in which its campuses function, the Christelijke Hogeschool Noord-Nederland (CHN) decided to commission a study of the educational needs of the schools in Port Alfred. The findings of this study will guide the Board of Directors in prioritising projects and programmes to be sponsored to help in the educational and social development of the town. This particular project, as its title shows, focuses on Port Alfred to the exclusion of other communities in the Ndlambe Municipality of which Port Alfred is a part. Other studies and other projects involving other towns and villages will follow in the future.
This study reveals the sorry state of some of our schools which have had to overcome overwhelming problems caused by unequal development of our communities. What is more important, however, is that it suggests ways in which sponsorship of some developmental projects can have a telling impact on the social lives of certain segments of our society. It reveals how societal and political factors influence the shaping of lives and well being of future generations. Although it looks at the past, it does so because we can not understand the present and plan for the future if we lack an understanding of our history. In order for the Directors of CHN to make informed decisions, they also have to understand the history of schooling in our town.
What was exciting in researching the brief historical sketches of schools that form an important part of the study is the interest it has sparked in our communities. Young people want to know how community leaders in the past influenced the development of schooling in Port Alfred. The history of schooling in our town has still to be written and the oral tradition that forms an invaluable part of that history is being lost as older generations of ex-students and retired teachers continue to leave us. This study would not have been possible in its present form had we not obtained the cooperation of teachers, ministers, and former pupils of our schools. The co-operation of principals, ex principals, heads of departments in most of the schools, and of many other informants in all the communities that make up Port Alfred is much appreciated. A very important project in future will be the collection and analysis of archival documentary evidence to recreate that past, not for promoting sectional interests and ethnic aggrandisement, but to make us understand how past events have shaped our present.
Port Alfred is one of the areas in the Eastern Cape severely affected by high levels of unemployment. According to the South African Census Report of 1996, the Eastern Cape had a population of 6 302 525 forming 15.5% of the total population of South Africa. Of the economically active population, 786, 818 were employed and 742,427 were unemployed. The population of Port Alfred in 1996 was 17, 271 and 12,759 of these people resided in Nelson Mandela Township (NEMATO), formerly known as Nkwenkwezi Township. Many of the unemployed in the Eastern Cape are found in peri-urban and rural areas like Port Alfred and its surrounds. In Port Alfred, high rates of unemployment are found in (NEMATO) and Station Hill where the majority of the citizens live. This report shows that these two areas bear the brunt of social ills which are characteristic of low income and socio-economically under developed communities in the world. What compounds these ills in Port Alfred and South Africa generally is the absence of a social welfare network to ease the burden of unemployment and preserve the semblance of functional family life and personal dignity. Almost throughout the report the devastation caused by centuries of unequal distribution of social and economic benefits and the psychological effects of the colour bar and apartheid can be seen to have affected the educational performance of certain groups. CHN cannot solve these illnesses caused by our past, but judicious social investment can go a long way in helping the young people of Port Alfred acquire the skills necessary to lift themselves from penury and gain confidence to fully participate in a globalising economic environment.
This document deals with the schools individually. Many of the social problems outlined in the report as affecting educational attainment are prevalent in some communities more than in others. A list of recommendations forms the conclusion to the report.
Dambuza Primary School |
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The principal of this school is Miss O.N. Seti who assumed her position in 1979. Formerly, this school was part of the Missionary school system. Since it was a lower primary school; classes ranged from Sub-standard A to Standard 2. It was eventually taken over by the Bantu Education Department. Classes were held in big buildings, mainly church buildings, all over the township. The 1984 riots led the churches to evict the schools from church buildings as they feared the disgruntled township dwellers, to vent their anger and frustration, would destroy them as the buildings were in an advanced state of dilapidation. To accommodate the evicted learners, the platoon system was used so that learners of Dambuza could be educated at Mtyobo Primary School, which had modern buildings. Dambuza moved to its present location in 1987. The enrolment of the school was 846 in 2001. Until the end of 2001, the school shared its premises with Kuyasa Combined School on a platoon basis. This arrangement proved very unsatisfactory as it led to the deterioration of the school buildings and the general infrastructure of the school.
There is no trust relationship between the school and parents/guardians of the learners. Parents do not respond to invitations to visit the school even when there are problems with their children. Teachers, when necessary, visit the parents to discuss such problems as absenteeism and bullying. Teachers have observed that many learners come to school hungry. The poor home circumstances of most of the learners mean that such health problems as skin diseases (mostly scabies), fainting, and stomach disorders are common. In the past, teachers, moved by compassion, had to buy food, out of their own pockets, to appease the hunger of the most destitute learners. This problem of hunger has been alleviated partly by the introduction of a feeding scheme in 2000; learners are fed Vita Force biscuits and juice; bread, soup and fruit are not supplied.
In 2001 school fees charged per child per annum were R10.00 but the fees have been raised for 2002 to R30.00 per annum. The problem the school faces for collection of fees is that most parents are unemployed and therefore are not able to meet this obligation. Most learners live with their grandmothers who pay fees out of their paltry pensions (i.e. R620.00 per month). Most of the learners actually do not live with their parents, who often are migrant workers if they are lucky enough to obtain jobs in other parts of South Africa. A substantial number of the learners are products of unstable liaisons, with some of the mothers and fathers being teenage students at the local senior secondary schools.
The school is seriously under-resourced with no library facilities, no laboratories, and lacks computers for classroom instruction or for administrative purposes; there are no audio-visual aids, no film projectors, no overhead projectors, no videos, no TV monitors, and not enough books for use by students. These severe limitations are responsible for the perpetuation of rote-learning in a school which is supposed to follow the Outcomes Based Education curriculum, the implications of which are not fully grasped by the teachers who themselves are not fully conversant with its principles and practice.
The medium of instruction is Xhosa from Grades R to 3 and English from Grades 4 to 7. The transition in instruction from Xhosa to English presents special problems to both teachers and learners; learners do not understand English which is actually introduced to them in Grade 2; they have difficulty in grasping concepts which are translated from English to Xhosa or vice versa. This particular difficulty becomes more apparent when students transfer from Xhosa medium schools to Port Alfred High School, a dual medium (Afrikaans and English) school. When such transfers are made the transferees are severely disabled in communicating their thoughts/ideas to teachers and fellow learners. There are 28 educators in the school. They are all qualified teachers with Matric and 3 year diplomas in Primary Teachers Certificate.
After we had interviewed the Principal, Vice Principal and heads of department as a group, we gained the impression there was a strong feeling that most weaknesses and deficiencies in the provision of sound education could be alleviated by the introduction of use of computers for teaching purposes; this, they felt would have to be preceded by training of teachers in computer assisted learning.
We were impressed by the fact that the school had undertaken a strategic planning exercise; however, what is more important for the success of the school programme would be the strategic implementation of the plan which can then be transformed from just being a set of vision and mission statements to a programme of action.
Mtyobo Public Primary School |
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The principal of this school is Mr. Mapapu; he started teaching at the school in 1977 as a Standard 5 teacher and assumed his present position in 1991. The school was relocated to its present location in 1982, from the former St. Barnabas School which was an Anglican mission school. When the Bantu Education Department took over missionary schools, St. Barnabas was renamed Mtyobo Public Primary School. It was combined with Runeli School, formerly known as the Higher Mission School, a feeder school which taught children who had passed Standard 4 at St. Barnabas School and the Wesleyan School. Higher Mission School offered education from Standard 5 to 6. Mtyobo Primary School offered education from Standard 3 to 6. Sub Standard A to 3 classes were taught at Dambuza.
In 2001, there were 832 learners enrolled, from Grades 1 - 7 (no Reception year). The school is served by 27 educators, including the principal, but no vice principal because of provincial financial constraints. There are 3 heads of department.
The Principal and Heads of Department identified social problems that impinge on the performance of the school. The major problem is lack of cooperation from parents in working with teachers in order to solve problems faced by learners. There is general apathy about school activities which parents could attend to show support for their children. Although the school schedules parent/teacher meetings once per term, few parents attend; those who attend seldom offer any suggestions as to how problems raised in the meetings could be solved. Instead, they want to rely completely on teachers to find solutions. The apparent cause of the apathy is that many learners are raised by grandmothers as most of their mothers and fathers are either unemployed or are themselves still students at the local senior secondary schools. Most of the grand parents grew up on farms and are actually former farm labourers declared redundant by farmers whose operations were progressively mechanised in the last two decades of the twentieth century. The grand parents themselves had very little education and are virtually illiterate.
There is extensive vandalism at the school from delinquent community elements disaffected because of poverty and lack of gainful and sustainable employment. School facilities themselves have deteriorated because over many years, at various times, other schools had to be accommodated at Mtyobo, on a platoon basis, after 1984. Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) classes are held in the school at night under the supervision of a coordinator who is not on the staff of the school.
As in other township schools, the curriculum is very limited with very little instruction in Music, Physical Education, and Fine Arts (painting and sculpture). Only recently has the learning area, Arts and Culture, been introduced as part of Outcomes Based Education. One teacher per grade offers instruction to several classes. Physical Education is also taught now by a Life Orientation teacher. In those years when there are choir competitions, three teachers are chosen to coach the junior, intermediate and senior choirs; otherwise, learners are not taught the elements of written music; they also have no musical instruments.
Instructional equipment is very limited in the school. Twenty four classrooms share a radio, a tape recorder, a film projector; the radio has now been stolen because the security system is almost nonexistent. There are two computers in the school and one of these is used for administrative purposes. No computers are used for instruction as the overwhelming majority of the teachers have never been taught how to use them.
The school does not have a library; it only has a "book room" (a storeroom with shelves to store textbooks). There is no science laboratory but a small store to keep science equipment for the whole school.
Kuyasa Combined School |
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This school was started in 1992 through the initiative of the African National Congress which had launched the "Back to School Campaign" to meet the educational needs of many young people who were previously engaged in the political struggle against apartheid. There was at this time an influx to Port Alfred of adults and their progeny who had been raised on farms. Most of these people congregated in an informal settlement created on land which had belonged to Mimosa Farm and on an adjoining commonage. Many of the children of the displaced farm labourers had received some rudimentary education in farm schools and the majority of them could not be absorbed in the local township school system. Fortunately, according to Mr. Robin Solwandle, Principal of the school, the Department of Education and Training register of schools to be built in the Grahamstown district already showed that the name Kuyasa had been chosen by community leaders long before the school was established. Although no facilities were available for Kuyasa, community leaders decided Kuyasa Combined School would be established and share the facilities of Dambuza Lower Primary School on a platooning basis, with Dambuza operating in the mornings and Kuyasa in the afternoons. Approximately 860 students were registered in the first year, from Sub-Standard A to Standard 5, and 18 educators were engaged. This school has expanded since then to include a secondary school programme which goes to Grade 12. The platoon arrangement with Dambuza came to an end in 2002 as Kuyasa has new premises which are now used to teach primary school learners in the morning and secondary school learners in the afternoons.
At the end of 2001, Kuyasa operated in two campuses: one at Extension 5 and 6, Mimosa Village and the other using the buildings of Dambuza Primary School on a platoon arrangement. There were 716 learners, from Reception year to Grade 7 at its new premises in Mimosa Village and 398 learners from Grades 8 to 12 platooning at Dambuza. There were in all 1104 learners taught by a staff contingent of 25, including the Principal.
Most of the residents of Mimosa are recent immigrants in Port Alfred, having lived as farm labourers in surrounding farms and nearby villages. Once they were declared redundant by their former employers, they drifted to Port Alfred where they were welcomed by community leaders who asked them to squat on Mimosa Farm, land which was in the process of being purchased to extend the township.
The parents of the learners are mostly unemployed or casual/seasonal labourers. The poverty level of the parents affects the performance level of the learners, a large number of whom come to school hungry and listless. The effects of malnutrition are plainly visible to the educators. It is clear parents live in very circumscribed circumstances; they themselves starve and cannot meet family obligations. Approximately 30% of parents are unable to pay school fees; those unable to pay all the fees are encouraged to pay small amounts when there are fund raising activities.
Most parents are themselves either semiliterate or illiterate. They are mostly products of farm schools which were renowned for their atrocious schooling and lack of standards. Parents do not understand the role they are supposed to play in the education of their children. They are generally apathetic and do not want to be involved with educators in solving problems of their children; teachers do not get the necessary information from parents about factors pertaining to poor or non-performance of learners. Often, teachers have to act as social workers as they are forced to try and solve problems that stem from home conditions.
Learners, in their early teens, are sexually active; parents have very little control over them. Older working boyfriends supply teenage lovers with food parcels as bribes to parents who often are unemployed. There is widespread abuse of liquor by adults and children in the neighbourhood. In the Senior Phase (Grades 7 to 9) and Further Education and Training level (Grades10 to 12), one finds learners who themselves are single parents; they attend the same school as their children. Grandmothers are expected, by these single parents, to attend to the school problems of their grand children when teachers ask parents to come to the school to help solve problems that have arisen.
This school follows the prescribed Department of Education curriculum for both primary and secondary education. The problem, however, is that the school is, in certain phases, too overcrowded for it to offer the best form of education for learners. For instance, at the Intermediate Phase, according to the information given to this researcher by heads of department, there are 60-68 learners in a class, whereas the norm for grades at this phase is 33-40. This means, for instructional purposes, educators have great difficulty in giving individual attention to learners; remediation is thus not available or is adversely affected because of the number of students per class. This weakness is further compounded by the fact that there is no remedial teacher in the school.
The problem of placement of learners in appropriate programmes or streams needs immediate attention. There are children with hearing problems who do not get optimal educational benefit from teaching or learning because of their disability. There is the case of one severely disabled child, both physically and mentally, who is not fully integrated in her class because the educator in the class or the school does not know the strategies of doing so.
Arts and Culture have recently been introduced as an area in the curriculum. Pottery, weaving and dancing are the elements of this area in which educators have received some basic training in three or four day workshops conducted by the Department of Education. The problem, however, is that the school is not afterwards supplied with equipment or resources for effective teaching in a classroom situation; there is no follow-up, no coordinated support from the Department of Education. This is also the case in the new curriculum area of Technology. Subject advisors do not visit the school or other schools on a regular basis. Other departmental officials bring documents which they do not fully grasp themselves. There is no Music teacher in the school. Educators interviewed felt more elaborate and systematic training is needed if effective teaching is going to take place. Although textbooks are provided, the school is not provided with equipment; educators have to improvise or scrounge for equipment by collecting scraps of materials from hardware stores and other industrial firms. For example, technology for weaving is taught theoretically, but no spinning wheels are provided; learners are asked to bring wool yarn from home. As presently implemented the Technology programme is similar to the old and despised Handwork programme of the Department of Education and Training.
Physical education, and thus physical development of the learners, is not a regularly scheduled part of the curriculum. In this respect, Kuyasa is not different from the other schools of Nelson Mandela Township. There is no Physical Education teacher, no playing field, no sports equipment, and no gymnasium.
As in other schools in Nelson Mandela Township, there is no guidance counselling, both career and psychological, at Kuyasa. A religious group in the town, Jesus Our Teacher, offers religious counselling to learners who need help with family or personal problems.
There are no Science laboratories for both the primary and secondary school programmes. Science kits are, however, provided for teaching Physical Science at the secondary school level. There was no evidence of any other Science equipment. There are no computers for use, as educational tools, by either teachers or learners. Both teachers and learners are computer illiterate for the most part. A computer was recently acquired and hopefully will be used, at least, to keep administrative records.
It is apparent Kuyasa is going to be called upon to start seriously engaging in strategic planning and strategic implementation of its programmes to avoid a drift that is not going to help the school produce quality learners and graduates. There is an urgent need to revisit the idea of starting a comprehensive school programme at the secondary school level in Port Alfred. Such a school will require the building of workshops (which have to be adequately equipped) and the recruitment of staff to teach technical subjects at Further Education and Training Level (Grades 10 to 12). By doing this, Kuyasa will produce graduates with skills which will either help them get jobs or enter tertiary institutions to advance their studies in science and technology.
Nomzamo Secondary School |
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Nomzamo (meaning in Xhosa, endeavour) was opened as the first secondary school in Port Alfred for Africans in 1974. It was apparent by then that parents had to get into unwarranted expense sending their children who completed Standard 6 to towns and cities with facilities for secondary schools. The expense could be obviated if children did not have to board with relatives or in boarding schools in other parts of the Eastern Cape and beyond. The African population of the Bathurst district was growing at a rapid rate and consideration had to be given to establishing a secondary school for students from Bathurst, Port Alfred, Kenton-on-Sea and other smaller surrounding communities.
The establishment of Nomzamo was a collaborative effort between African community leaders and the local magistrate, Mr. A.G. Griffiths, philanthropist, Mr. Hugh Kelly, and educationist, Mrs. Doris Barker; the latter had experience in the education of African children in Transkei. The first premises of the school were a set of old buildings at the Aerodrome near the present 43rd Air Flight School and the SANTA hospital. The buildings were refurbished with the help of the local benefactor, Mr. Kelly and other local residents. Mr. Mzizi became the first principal, from 1974 - 1985; he resided in the school premises. In 1993, under suspicious circumstances, two blocks of the school caught fire. In July 1993, the school was moved to NEMATO where it shared the premises of Mtyobo Public Primary School on a platooning basis. It moved to its present modern set of buildings in January 1997. The present principal of the school is Mr. Thandile Mkele. The enrolment in 2002 is 749 and the staff complement is 25 educators and a secretary.
The social anomie which characterises the socio-economic life of NEMATO and which affects performance of schools, as stated above in connection with other schools, has also a detrimental influence on the school environment. Some parents are unable to pay school fees, fixed at R50 per annum in 2002. This means that the educators can not enrich the curriculum by offering a varied extra-curricular programme. A significant number of parents are negligent of their obligations especially in keeping track of the attendance record of their children. These parents also fail to attend teacher/parent meetings.
Members of the School Governing Body often do not clearly understand their role in dealing with the school. They are often not very conversant with educational issues and, in particular, issues concerning general school governance; they always wait for the principal to initiate programmes and governance procedures instead of grabbing the initiative.
The attitudes of learners themselves are problematic. Some learners frequent shebeens (speak-easies) and taverns; engage in widespread abuse of liquor with their parents; smoke dagga (cannabis or marijuana) during school hours, especially males. Some are sexually active at a young age; their affairs often result in conflict situations caused by jealousies; others do not sleep at home and often have live-in lovers. All these behaviours affect the general tone and social relations of the school. A few learners run shebeens and other businesses; some are decision-makers at home, usually in dysfunctional homes; a sizeable number are single parents and have to take their children to cr�ches (kindergartens) in the mornings.
Although there is a fully qualified guidance counsellor at school, learners are reluctant to share their problems with her. As a result, she devotes most of her time to teaching English because Guidance Counselling is not regarded as a priority area by the Department of Education since it is a non-examination subject.
Nomzamo is fortunate in that it has modern buildings and extensive grounds which can be landscaped and developed to sports fields, netball and tennis courts as amenities for an extra-curricular programme. The laboratories in the school are well equipped though they need further modifications to enable learners themselves to conduct experiments. Some equipment, like the old microscopes in the Biology laboratory, need proper maintenance and repair so that they can be used frequently by learners.
Typical of schools administered by the former Department of Education and Training (for Black South Africans), the Mathematics and Science programmes are not well developed. Few learners are taught Maths and the Sciences at the senior secondary school level; even those who have registered for these subjects sit for Matriculation examinations at the Standard Grade (SG) and Lower Grade (LG); rarely do learners pass these subjects at the Higher Grade (HG). This is not only a local concern but a national concern because it means very few or none of the graduates of Nomzamo can register in Science and Technology programmes in universities and technicons. This has serious personal and national implications as South Africa could never be a winning nation if the present trends continue. An examination of educator qualifications at Nomzamo shows that the Mathematics and Science educators have no degrees in the subjects they teach. There is only one exception, an educator with a post-graduate degree but without teacher training qualifications.
Although there are computers at the school, the majority of them are first generation computers which are of very little use in a classroom. However, they could have been used for teaching learners computer literacy as an extra-curricular activity (in a computer club?) while the school fund-raised to acquire fourth generation (or even third generation) computers. The old computers could even have been systematically dismantled and reassembled to teach learners about how computers work. The educators in the school must show some initiative in coming up with solutions for use of such equipment to stimulate the interest and imagination of learners.
There are classrooms which are rarely used for instructional purposes at the moment; some of these can be turned into computer laboratories. Computer Science could then be offered as a subject and learners could also be encouraged to use computers to work on their assignments in other subjects. Learners could use computers in the library to access the internet for research purposes. There are now new computers in the school locked up in the strong room. Fortunately, there are now teachers who have undergone training in the use of Ms Word and Excel. Their knowledge should be shared with some of their colleagues and especially with the school secretary who presently still uses a typewriter to do most of her work. One of the new computers should be used for administrative records which can be stored and accessed quickly.
Although there is a library in the school, it is not really used as a resource centre for the majority of learners and educators. Yet the library has many books, encyclopaedias and other resource materials that could be used for research assignments by learners who, after all, under the Outcomes Based Education system which has been adopted in South Africa, are required to show some competence in sifting information and finding solutions to problems on their own, either individually or in groups, and with the help of the educator. The library requires major restructuring, not in terms of physical refurbishment, but in terms of finding means and personnel for it to catalogue books and for educators to give students a chance to, for instance, write book reports on novels they have borrowed. Cataloguing could be done with the help of volunteers from community libraries and by university students studying Library Science. A push must be made to acquire more books from local sources and from donors overseas.
The educators' concept of a school curriculum seems to be very limited. There is no evidence the teaching of languages also involves engaging learners in drama, theatre, debating, and creative writing on any substantial scale. To add value to what is taught in the classroom, there is a need to engage learners in these areas in the form of extra-curricular activities. Nomzamo also lacks education in the Fine Arts: painting, sculpture, music, pottery, crafts and so on. This is also the case with technical subjects such as technical drawing, woodwork, needlework, and other allied subjects. It was only in 2000 that Technology, and Arts and Culture were introduced as subjects in the curriculum; these subjects are taught by educators who do not have any academic training in them. Educators are introduced to the methodology of teaching them in only short workshops lasting five work days. The pedagogical value of instruction received by learners from such poorly trained educators is doubtful. There are Home Economics laboratories which are not presently used for teaching that subject because the Home Economics educator was redeployed to another school. It is a pity that such a utilitarian subject like Home Economics has been discontinued even though it could act as an entry point to graduates who could receive further training in Catering, Hospitality, Hotel Management, Food Science and other professions that are prized in the Tourism industry and related fields. The Management and School Governing Body of Nomzamo would like to have this field of study restored in view of the fact that a campus of Christelijke Hogeschool Noord-Nederland (CHN, a Dutch university), offering a Hotel Management degree, has been established in Port Alfred.
Port Alfred Primary School, Station Hill |
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This school is situated at Station Hill, a township which was established as a separate residential area for Coloureds under the apartheid system of Group Areas. It replaced a school which had existed for a long time in the western part of the East Bank Location (now NEMATO) where both Coloureds and Africans used to live before Grand Apartheid. Actually, education for Coloureds in Port Alfred was started under the auspices of the United Congregational Church (UCC), a denomination which was the successor to the London Missionary Society. There were Coloured families who lived in town on Albany Road, opposite the present Port Alfred High School. The first UCC school classes were held in the residence of one of these families, Mr. Richard Freeman. In 1929, the UCC moved its school to the East Bank Location where it erected an iron and wood structure in which classes were held. Its first principal at the new site was Mr. J.J. September. In 1964 the school was taken over by the newly formed Department of Coloured Affairs. In mysterious circumstances, the iron and wood building was razed to the ground by a fire on 13 September, 1976. Temporary structures were erected at Station Hill to house the school in the township designated for Coloureds while new buildings were being erected. A platooning system was introduced to teach lower primary and senior primary at different times of the day. Port Alfred Primary School was opened in 1979 as the new school for Coloured children. When the tricameral system of government was introduced in 1984, the school became part of the House of Representatives school system.
The Principal of the school is Mr. Nicholas Pylman; he has held his present position for 16 years. The school had an enrolment of 484 learners and a staff complement of 11 teachers in 2001. The teachers are Coloureds, except for one who teaches isiXhosa. The Xhosa teacher was obtained when the Department of Education undertook a province wide redeployment exercise. Although the school is an Afrikaans medium school, the profile of learners has changed since 1986: there are now Afrikaans speaking Coloured, White and African (isiXhosa - speaking) learners. As a result a parallel medium of instruction has been introduced in the senior phase. IsiXhosa as a third language has now been introduced. Classes start from Reception Year to Grade 8. Xhosa speaking learners form close to 50 per cent of the learners.
The problem faced by students continuing with their studies after Grade 8 is that they had to enroll mostly in schools in Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown, King Williamstown, and East London which were meant for Coloureds since there was no Coloured Secondary School in Port Alfred. Only after the relaxation of apartheid could some Coloured children enrol at Port Alfred High School. The placement problem has become acute in 2002 as some learners who passed Grade 8 last year have found it difficult to gain admission to secondary schools.
The social environment of Station Hill is in many respects like that of NEMATO and therefore the same social ills are found in both communities. There is widespread poverty and unacceptably high levels of unemployment in both communities. There is discernable lack of cooperation and interest on the part of a significant number of parents in the education of their children. It is apparent some parents do not consider formal schooling as a joint effort between the home and the school. They expect the school to solve all the problems their children have even though some of these originate in the home environment.
The government sponsored school feeding scheme introduced after 1994 has all but collapsed because the NGO which runs the feeding scheme can not obtain supplies from suppliers since the Eastern Cape government has not advanced the money to pay the suppliers. The school has, however, identified 55 needy learners who, every Wednesday, are supplied with soup, sandwiches and sometimes fruit by the Port Alfred Christian Centre.
The school is in many ways as under resourced as the schools in Nelson Mandela Township. For a library, the school uses a classroom known as a "book room"; it is used by learners and educators for accessing books for general reading and research. This room is not very well-stocked. There is a Science laboratory used by a Science teacher for all classes. There are no computers for administrative, teaching or learning purposes. Audio-visual equipment is limited to one overhead projector and two tape recorders; the only TV set the school possessed was stolen recently. For sports, there is a netball court but no other facilities within the school campus. Community facilities are used for playing other sports like cricket, rugby, and athletics; the rugby field used for athletics, however, has no track around it.
Port Alfred Primary School also hosts a programme for 33 disabled learners sponsored by a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) known as Enkuthazweni. It was started in 1997 and housed at Qhayiya Primary School in the neighbouring village of Bathurst (where a group of 15 disabled learners is still being taught). Pleas to the Eastern Cape Department of Education to subsidize it have fallen on deaf ears. In 1999, the Nelson Mandela Children's Trust Fund sponsored the training of 5 staff members in special education at the Community and Child Development Centre in East London. The trainees have all passed Matric and one of them, Mr. Michael Dama, co-ordinator of the programme, has had basic computer literacy training. The programme though does not own a computer; the old one that was donated to it by the Post Office is no longer in working condition. From April 2000 to March 2001, the programme obtained a grant of R90, 400.00 from the Transitional National Development Trust (TNDT) for salaries, educational tours (visiting nature reserves, zoos etc), training of teachers, equipment, educational toys, telephones, fax, stationery, and auditing.
The learners who are crowded in one classroom range in age from 9 to 29 years. The 29 year old, who is physically disabled and mentally challenged, started attending school in 2000. The mental ages of the learners are not known. Attempts to have the learners tested by psychologists from Fort England hospital in Grahamstown have failed. The grading of learners into groups has been made without any scientific evaluation of abilities. The instructors do not follow any syllabus; they are "just teaching them daily life-skills." Although the instructor claims that 15 learners can read and write, there are no reading books; instructors in Port Alfred and Bathurst try to develop "suitable" materials. There is no space in the classroom for teaching sewing, knitting, and crocheting. There are five sewing machines for use of the learners in Port Alfred and three in Bathurst. There are two computers available for use for the project, but they are not being used because they have "not been installed." In future, they will be used to teach basic computer literacy and for administration. There are virtually no other electronic audio-visual teaching aids for the use of this programme. There is no overhead projector, VCR, TV, or videocassettes, and so on. There is noticeable lack of stimulation of all age groups in the classroom. More troubling is the grouping together of learners, children and adults, in one classroom and in circumstances which could not help the mental and physical development of both. Clearly their educational and development needs could not be properly served in such an atmosphere. As presently run the programme is no better than just a custodial convenience for parents desperately seeking help for a neglected group of people.
The programme is really not part of the Port Alfred Primary school curriculum. When Enkuthazweni asked the school to give it space to house the disabled learners, the SGB was generous enough to set aside a classroom for it. There is an attempt to integrate, partially, the disabled learners with other learners in the school; morning devotions and breaks are held for all at the same time. Unfortunately, there will be complete segregation of learners when the programme is moved to new premises, a former beer hall, at NEMATO. What is of major concern is that the disabled learners have to walk to and from school even though some of them are physically disabled, hearing impaired and partially sighted. Although the parents of these learners are charged fees of R10.00 per month, the valiant workers and the SGB cannot collect enough funds to be able to meet expenses necessary to provide a decent special education programme. The majority of the parents of the learners are unemployed and depend on meagre grants to maintain the learners.
Port Alfred High School |
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This is the best resourced and best managed school in Port Alfred, reflecting the affluent social and economic environment in which it is situated. It is the oldest public school in Port Alfred as it was declared a Government school in 1883. Classes were conducted in the Anglican Church buildings on the East Bank. The school was later moved to the old Post Office buildings, adjoining the present magistrate court. It occupied its present location, at the corner of Albany and Park Roads, in 1929 and assumed the name of Queen Alexandra Secondary School. It has over the years grown to offer programmes from pre-primary school to high school. When it gained high school status in 1979 it was renamed Port Alfred High School (PAHS). It was in an advantageous position for a considerable period of time compared with the schools in NEMATO and Station Hill.
It has, with the change in the political climate in the country, become racially integrated. The racial integration process started in 1992 when the National Party government introduced what were designated as Model B schools which could admit children of other races on a selective basis. The integration process proceeded apace when some schools were designated Model C giving them authority to manage their own affairs but still following the curriculum prescribed by the Department of Education. With the passage of the South African Schools Act, under Section 21 of the Act, schools which could show they had capacity to manage themselves, especially financially, could apply for Section 21 status. The only obligation the Department of Education has towards these schools is to pay the salaries of the educators on the establishment according to criteria set by the Department. At present, the provincial Department of Education meets the salaries of 23 educators, including the principal and 3 heads of department. The financial health of the school depends on the collection of fees which are set at approximately R3000.00 per year, per learner. The School Governing Body employs 9 full time and 6 part time educators. It also has service contracts with 5 private educators who offer tuition in Music and Art. The present enrolment is 810 with 320 of the learners in Grades 8 - 12. The learner population is made up of children from different South African racial and cultural groups while the educators are mainly white; there are 2 Coloured educators who make up the rest of the staff complement. The management of the school is aware the present teaching staff does not reflect the demographics of the country and will in the future act to correct this weakness stemming from the history of the country. This is crucial as the number of African and Coloured is getting higher ever year, judging by the statistics kept by the school. The percentage of Black and Coloured learners registered at the school in 2000 and 2001 rose from 33% in 2000 to 37% in 2001; there was a corresponding decline in the number of White learners from 67% to 63% in the same period. The school is able to offer a rich and varied curriculum because it charges higher fees than the other schools in the townships and is efficient in raising funds and donations from as far-a-field as the United States of America. These strengths make the school attractive to the lower middle class parents of children who reside mainly in the townships.
The school is situated in what historically was the White part of Port Alfred which has modern social amenities, is economically well developed and has the best infrastructure compared with the two townships that are the homes of most African and Coloured people. In recent years, a small but growing lower middle class composed mainly of teachers, nurses and policemen have brought properties in the historically White part of town. As a result of the changes in the political changes in the country PAHS has progressively been racially integrated.
The social problems experienced by schools in the townships are to a large extent not found at PAHS. Vandalism has not reared its ugly head; teenage pregnancies seldom occur; widespread abuse of liquor and drugs does not affect the performance of learners in and out of class. This does not mean that some of these social problems do not occur. When they do, local social, health and religious agencies are always ready to cooperate with the school in solving them. The guidance programmes adopted help in the implementation of strategic preventative interventions so that the problems do not become endemic. There is more social cohesion in the environment in which the learners live; the support shown by parents to the activities of the school also helps to develop an admirable mutual respect on the part of parents and educators which is not lost to the learners.
As this is a dual medium school, tuition is offered in both English and Afrikaans in either separate classes or the same class. Mother tongue instruction was introduced in 1927. In practice, this meant that learners from kindergarten, Sub-Standards A, B and Standard 1 are taught in their mother tongue in separate classrooms. Only when they reach Standard 2 and further are learners from the two language groups educated in the same classroom; if a lesson is delivered in one primary language, say English, it has to be repeated in the other primary language, in this case, Afrikaans. At the Grades 11 and 12 levels, learners are taught only in the medium chosen by their parents i.e. in Afrikaans or English. Recently, Conservational Xhosa has been offered as an additional non-examination subject for non-Xhosa speakers in Grades 8 and 9. Xhosa speaking learners, in turn, are offered Bridging English lessons to improve their fluency and writing skills. It is anticipated that isiXhosa will be offered, in phases, as a primary language in the high school programme.
For religious, moral and social guidance the school enjoys the voluntary services of Jesus Our Teacher (JOT) counsellors; it solicits the advice and intervention of Fort England Hospital in Grahamstown for serious cases of learners with psychological problems. It also gets help from the Family and Marriage Society of South Africa for learners who would like to discuss problems arising out of home situations and the learners' personal lives. For remedial education, the school has employed a qualified Remedial Education teacher who is part of the establishment.
Although Physical Education is not taught as a subject in the school, sport plays a prominent role in the education of learners as it helps build up esprit de corps and school pride. The school has manicured sports fields for athletics, rugby, soccer, cricket and hockey; tennis, netball and basketball courts; a swimming pool; a gymnasium for gymnastics and other indoor sports. Road running and angling are the other sporting activities undertaken.
At the high school level, the curriculum covers a variety of subjects ranging from primary languages (English or Afrikaans as First Language), secondary languages (English or Afrikaans as Second Language), the Sciences (Physical Science, Biology and Geography), Mathematics, Business Studies (Accounting, Business Economics), Arts and Culture, Technology, Life Skills, Computer Literacy and Computyping, Home Economics, Technical Drawing, Music, to Fine Arts. Small Business and Entrepreneurship is offered in Grade 11 as a 7th subject outside the curriculum. This subject is taught by a private teacher; on successful completion, the subject is added to the learner's certificate. Port Alfred High School has a registration arrangement with Russell Road College, Port Elizabeth for offering this subject. Learners have to pay an additional fee. This also applies to learners who take Music and Art as additional subjects taught by private educators engaged by the school. The choice of subjects a learner may take for Matriculation Endorsement or Senior Certificate is very wide. There are laboratories for the Sciences, Home Economics, Computer Literacy and Computyping and a library with a full time librarian who has trained learners to be her assistants.
The school has an effective management structure with a management committee made up of the principal, the three heads of department for junior primary school, senior primary school and high school respectively. Another two members of staff were promoted internally into the management team; each member of the management team is in charge of one of the six portfolios responsible for various aspects of administration. The six portfolios are: Academic, Sports, Maintenance (grounds, buildings, and internal finance for these), Discipline, Culture, and Personnel. Each staff member is assigned to one of these portfolios; so are members of the School Governing Body. The success of the school can be attributed to dedication and competence of its highly motivated staff who subscribe to the philosophy of educating the whole child academically, physically and morally. The majority of the parents offer total commitment to the school and are engaged in many activities of the school on a voluntary basis. For instance, a parents committee helps in running cricket: they organise the coaching and catering for matches.
RECOMMENDATIONS |
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After reviewing the programmes of the Port Alfred Schools, I humbly make the following recommendations:
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Respectfully submitted, |
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