There are 19 educators at the Middle School I volunteer at, but it's a good day when half of them show up for school. And a great day when half of those actually go teach their classes. Teachers in South Africa in general and this school in particular have little education, no passion, no desire to teach, and certainly don't relate well to the kids. There are no substitute teachers here, so most of the time the kids are left alone, without supervision. 870+ kids with nothing to do, can you imagine? Then the educators get mad and start shouting if the kids are misbehaving or noisy or outside of their classroom.
I steal sticks out of the office whenever I see them, teachers use them to beat the learners. Not discipline, BEAT. They get hit (hard!) on the hands and backsides a lot. I'm sickened by this illegal and immoral practice, but can't seem to get through to the teachers that they shouldn't beat the learners. This contributes to the fact that everyday is a rollercoaster of emotions for me. It's rough here, especially in ways I didn't expect.
The Principal is a wonderful person, but a sub-par boss. And those same sucky teachers undermine her authority every chance they get. They've forgotten (or never knew) that this is supposed to be about the kids, about their future and the future of this country. It's more about the power struggles and politics than anything else. It's disheartening to say the least.
Yesterday the Principal collapsed in her office, "probably due to the wind. " Um, excuse me, could it have been your diabetes? Or a drop in blood pressure? Or something that makes medical sense? No, the wind. She then proceeded to eat, do some paperwork, and have another educator drive her home. No doctor's visit is planned.
I've been begging the Principal to have a computer guy come fix the server in their lab so I can start to teach classes. She's seemed excited to have the learners begin to be computer literate and would carry on lengthy discussions about it. African time, though, meant that only now, 2 months later, is the lab ready for use. I was thrilled, and asked if I could start after school classes for a few learners since it's so close to the end of the year and I don't want to disturb the school day (mostly I don't want to give the teachers another reason to be annoyed at me). She surprised me with her refusal. Grace said that maybe next year we could arrange something, but for now the lab is going to remain closed. According to her the teachers will use it to enter their grades in the Department of Education software we already have so the AA doesn't have to do it all. The AA and I tried to explain to her that that software is not on the server in the lab, and anyway none of the teachers will be persuaded to enter grades when they never have before, so that's a lame excuse. But she's standing firm, no computer classes for the learners this year. I backed off, it is really close to exams and the end of the year, but next year heads will roll if she tries to keep putting me off.
At an assembly on Friday the Principal told learners that the School Governing Board passed a policy that no Grade 9 learners this year will be allowed back at the school next year. In South Africa, almost everyone fails and repeats at least one year. The high school can choose to not accept learners below a certain level, so lots of kids get stuck in the limbo of Grade 9. There are some boys in Grade 9 older than I am. Currently there are 300 Grade 9 learners and only about 20 are expected to pass on to the high school. What does this mean? If the policy holds then in January there will be 280 kids with no where to go and nothing to do in this village. I hope some parent challenges this policy (I looked it up, it is illegal) because I don't even want to imagine this village with that many hooligans running around and causing trouble all day.
The bright spot in that school for me is the AA, he's about my age and has a good head on his shoulders. We talk about the absurdities at the school, try to makes plans to change it for the better, and laugh with the kids. I joke about the "magic in my fingers" whenever I show him something new on the computer, and he just smiles and shakes his head at me. Until some educator shows up and starts yelling her demands for copies, or computer help, or for me to teach her class.
Is it any wonder why I spend more time at the Primary School?
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