CHAPTER 5: THE RESEARCH SETTING
5.3 FET College B: The History and Context 156
5.3.2 Campuses 158
As has been explained earlier, the campuses of the college used to be public technical and vocational institutions. After the merger, they ceased to be colleges on their own, but became part of the mega multi-sited college as campuses. The section that follows examines the profiles of the two campuses that were selected for this study.
Campus 1
This campus is located in an urban area, characterized by the existence of a variety of big industries, shopping centres and malls. Not far from the campus are townships like Umlazi and Lamontville.
Right next to the main gate is a public hostel and a big taxi station or rank. Both these institutions have a history of violence that has led to much bloodshed in the country.
Firstly, the South African taxi industry has been, for many years, plagued by violent incidents in which ordinary civilians, including bystanders, passersby and motorists have been senselessly killed. This is a conflict that usually involves gunfire between taxi owners of different taxi affiliations over taxi operation routes. Taxi ranks are characterized by loud noise from taxi radios, the prevalent use of swear-words and large volumes of commuters.
Secondly, next to the taxi rank are substantial buildings that serve as residences for hostel dwellers. The 1980s and the early 1990s saw a resurgence of severe politically motivated hostel violence, particularly in the KZN and Gauteng provinces. Although incidents in KZN were not as severe as they were in Gauteng, hostels are still perceived by many as sites of conflict, due to antagonism between people of different political party affiliations.
I will never forget the first day I visited this campus. I accidentally missed the campus gate and proceeded to the hostel gate instead. I was so scared and was shaking on realizing where I was, but managed to do a quick U-turn back to the correct gate. This is one example where these perceptions still persist, regardless of government’s conversion of most of these originally male resident hostels into refurbished family units. For a campus to be located so close to both such notorious phenomena cannot be a good thing, especially when fights break out. One of the lecturers testified:
Steve: It becomes very hard when taxi violence breaks out. Even us as staff cannot come to work. Many innocent souls die every day because of stray bullets. We can’t put our lives and those of students in danger. We just shut down until it dies down.
Structurally, the campus is adequately resourced, with a beautiful administration block, spacious lecture rooms, computer labs, and kitchen facilities for hospitality students, engineering workshops and a big well-built hall. The campus boasts a state-of-the art Enterprise Development Unit, which serves as a centre that works with industries, municipalities and the government for generating external funding through training for the college.
The campus is smaller in numbers when compared to the second one discussed below.
Student numbers are around 980, including both NCV and the NATED courses. It has 30 lecturing staff, 19 administrators, 10 full-time security guards and 15 cleaning staff.
Only full-time students are on the campus during the day. But on several occasions I visited, there were students in and out of the main gate continuously. My observation pointed to a lack of strict adherence to the structured timetable by students and also loitering and idleness.
Campus 2
This campus is situated in the largest township in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. It is very well located, as it is close to major amenities like shopping malls, banks, taxi ranks, petrol stations, bus terminals, bookshops, public libraries, sports centres and hospitals.
The campus is not far from the main township highway. From the highway, a small road of less than two kilometres leads to the campus. This road is one of the busiest spots on this campus, as there are always different groups of students walking to and from the college. Others just stand in groups talking and sharing jokes. On the three occasions that I visited the college I came around twelve o’clock and that is after break, but before lunch. On enquiring about college operation times, lecturers explained that classes start at 8:00 in the morning, break was at 10:30, lunch was at 13:00 and the campus knocks off at 15.30 in the afternoon, before part-time classes resume at 16:00. This indicates that the campus has a clear structure, regulated by a time-table, which co-ordinates timeslots,
student and teacher movements and allocates resources such as classrooms and workshops. But there did not seem to be control over when students enter and leave the college. The campus environment did not show orderliness, good discipline and a culture that helps to maintain a good educational standard within the campus. This painted a picture of ill-discipline to me as a visitor. This was confirmed by one of the participants, whom I interviewed later:
Zime: Students attend shifts like workers at a factory. But at a factory even that is done in an orderly manner. Here, students come and go as they please. We always wonder if management notices this. Not much monitoring occurs here.
This is like a bush!
From the above comment one deduces that the campus is not a strict environment. A
‘bush’ in the South African context refers to undeveloped, uncultivated and unsettled land, covered with clusters of naturally growing shrubs. Although beneficial to life in general, natural vegetation is different from a vegetable garden, in which there are straight lines, guidelines and order in whatever is being cultivated. In the context of Zulu culture and the context of the interview, the term is a direct translation of a Zulu word
‘ihlathi’, which is used figuratively to depict an environment or a person’s behaviour characterized by disorderliness and lawlessness. This is not good for any educational institution as students are the future, particularly TVET colleges which have been earmarked to contribute to the economic well-being of the country.
Approaching the entrance during my first visit, I could see the boom gate and security guards manning access to the campus. I was ready to sign the register and explain to them who I came to see on campus. I was surprised when the guard just opened the boom and allowed me to go through without asking any questions. I wondered about the issue of safety of staff and students, since townships are notorious for having higher crime rates compared to suburbs and rural areas. Phaliso (2012) confirms that, due to unemployment and unlicensed shebeens (informal liquor drinking places), townships experience more violent crimes such as murder, rape, theft and house robberies. Fourie (2013) adds that
residents in the townships of KwaZulu-Natal have suffered more severely in the hands of criminals than their affluent counterparts in suburbs.
Signage within the campus was not good. After finding a parking space, I went to the only beautiful building that I assumed to be the administration block for enquiries. On one occasion I got a chance to get into the staff room. The receptionist referred me to the staff room where I sat to wait for the lecturer I came to interview. None of the lecturers inside came to me to ask if they could help me. I had to approach one of them to ask the whereabouts of the particular lecturer I was visiting. I was told to wait as she was out and would be back shortly. I seated myself in one of the empty desks inside. The participant came into the staffroom 40 minutes later.
In terms of numbers, the campus has 1130 NCV and 979 NATED full-time students.
Staff is made up of 90 lecturers, 43 administrators and 14 security guards. As in all colleges and campuses, academic staff is a mixture of permanent personnel, paid for by the government, and contract staff, paid for by Council.
Structurally, the campus is not very well resourced. The situation is aggravated by over- enrolment. One of the participants explained:
Zime: At our campus, we have a big enrolment and one workshop per discipline is shared by many students. We don’t have effective workshop schedules; it ends up being a survival of the fittest. I think the college and the government were supposed to fix the infrastructure first before implementing the NCV.
Except for the administration building, which houses senior management and administrative staff, all buildings could do with repairs, renovations and refurbishment.
They all looked old and lifeless. There was tall grass and weeds everywhere, which showed that the yard and gardens were not adequately taken care of. Zime was not happy that only management work in good air-conditioned buildings:
They think being a manager means getting a posh office. I wish I could get a chance to tell them that it doesn’t take a beautifully decorated office to make one a manager. Instead it takes pro-activeness, good leadership, support and the ability to minimize problems that speaks volumes of a manager.
Bongi echoed the lament:
They always say funds for materials and other resources are not available. But how can this serve to be true when their offices are being upgraded and decorated ever so often. Is this where priority of all available funds is?
Shortage of resources and poor infrastructure has been a grave concern for lecturers on almost all the campuses.
5.3.3 Conclusion
College B has campuses situated in cities, semi-urban areas and townships. Campuses in cities are close to industries and are, as a result, better resourced, as they have sufficient classroom space, computers for access to the internet, workshops and simulation rooms.
Campuses outside cities are comparatively poorly resourced. This fact was also noted in research by Kraak and Hall (1999), who found that many KZN colleges ‘do not satisfy the requirements for an effective VET institution in that they do not have adequate technical workshops’ and other facilities on their premises (p 185). Inadequate infrastructure, facilities and equipment have the potential to impact negatively on college lecturers’ teaching practices.
Urban campuses have better private funding opportunities than their counterparts. They are close to important amenities such as shopping malls, bus terminals and taxi ranks, for easy access to transport to and from college. Poor transport for students may affect times of student attendance and may lead to absenteeism, which can tamper with lecturers’
effective teaching activities.
Prevalence of crime in campuses situated in townships, near taxi ranks and hostel facilities has implications for the safety of lecturers and students and is bound to affect
negatively the teaching and learning environment and the full utilization of available resources, particularly in the evenings and at weekends.