The school day was divided into six periods of 50 minutes duration, with three periods slotted in on either side of the only break that lasted for SO minutes. Classes were scheduled to begin at 0800 and end at 14.30 from Mondays to Thursday and at 13.30 on Fridays and pay days. In reality classes began at about 08.30. This is because morning assembly regularly ended halfway through the first period time allocation.
This was one reason given by the section of staff who did not attend morning
assembly for not doing so. To 'make up for the Fridays', 'half days' and paydays, the school followed a specially speeded up timetable with periods lasting for 40 minutes instead of the set 50 minutes. The purpose of'half days' on pay days was said to be aimed at enabling teachers to attend to personal month-end undertakings such as the payment of bills and purchase of monthly groceries. This was even though this practice had started at a time when electronic salary payments and late closure of shops were unheard of, and was therefore no longer necessary. A similar practice did not exist at Fundiseka.
BEHAVIOURS, ACTTVnTES, FEELINGS, AND VALUES OF THE UMZAMO POPULATION
Particularly striking about Umzamo school culture was its fragmentation, alienation and lethargy, as illustrated in Table 2 below and discussed in more detail in the rest of the chapter.
trips was alluded to on the days of the events as students congregated at the gate awaiting transport to respective destinations. On these occasions the sense of anticipation had joy written all over participating students' faces, resonating in their conversations and song.
The apathy was particularly pronounced in classroom activities. This was even though all of the classroom observations gave the impression that the school teachers had a good knowledge of their subjects. Probably resulting in the apathy was that the teachers appeared not to be preoccupied with 'delivering' the content for student understanding. Most of the teachers hardly made concerted efforts at helping students understand the lessons, and hardly encouraged student participation in their lessons.
The students hardly asked questions or their teachers, and seldom responded to questions asked by the teachers during the lessons. Where student participation did occur this would mostly be in the form of responses of a few students to teacher initiated questions. However, even on such occasions, only a few students would respond with vigour. One of the occasions that conveyed the apathy took place in one of the science classes observed at the school, as described in the following field-notes:
Mr B. enters the class and greets the students. He introduces me to the class and then goes on to inform the class about die lesson for the day. He then revises the previous lesson by means of a question and answer method. Not many students respond to his first question. The first student he points at gets the answer wrong. His comment is
'not quite correct' whereupon students raise their hands again. The second students give the correct answer whereupon the teacher moves on to the next question without offering explanations on why the first response had not been 'quite correct'.
Teachers also did not seem to make any concerted efforts to create an enabling learning ethos in their classrooms. In most of the observed lessons there did not seem to be 'connection' between teacher and students. This created a very detached atmosphere with students seated apathetically throughout lessons. The apathy was so pronounced that some of the teachers avoided going to class as scheduled. Confirming this was the following extract from the student focus group interview:
Student: Some of them (teachers) trouble us because they have to be fetched for their periods.
Q: Does that happen often?
A: It seldom happens this year.
A: If the students are relaxed and not worried about their studies, chances are the teachers will also end up relaxing.
Q: In your view it is the duty of the students to show the teachers that they are serious about studying?
A: The teachers should also come, but they take it as if we are old enough to know what is right and what is wrong. Then they don't see it as their
responsibility, so they must be fetched, how do I say this, that is why they tend to relax and students relax as well.
The following extract from the same student focus group interview implied that the apathy was equally prevalent among students:
Q: In your view, are people happy with the way things are done here?
Student 1: Yes they are.
Student 2: Then school ends early lets say at about eleven or so, they are very happy. Then you wonder what this person wants with their life.
Student 3: They don't even ask why we are leaving early.
Q: Does the school end early often?
Student 1: Not a lot this year.
Student 2: We do leave early though.
Student 3: But if we do leave early we should have a strong reason why, because some people use public transport, but the ones that use public transport relax a lot and not complain that they are wasting money for their tickets.
TABLE 7: ALIENATING FRAGMENTED UNDERSTANDINGS AT UMZAMO
BEHAVIOURAL DESCRWTION
Apathy Guarded friendliness UNDERPINNING UNDERSTANDINGS
FRAGMENTED GOALS
External imposition Ambiguous Restricted development FRAGMENTED NORMS
Exclusive behaviour Ill-discipline & slack work Rule breaking
Unresolved problems Fragmented responsibilities Inaccessibility Conformist & ritualistic
respect
CONTRD3UTORS TO THE FRAGMENTED UNDERSTANDINGS Hierarchically assumed Contrived collegjality and disputed 'leadership'
EFFECTS ON MEMBER FEELINGS AND PERFORMANCE
Alienation Lethargy Distrust