One finding of the study was that hardly any section of the school's population identified with the school or, for that matter, with one another. Unlike the Fundiseka community, the school population was never heard to refer to the school as 'theirs'.
Instead the population referred to the school as 'this school'. The population spoke of 'these students', 'the teachers', 'the principal' and never of 'our students', 'our
teachers' or 'our principal'. What the population seemed to be saying most of the time was:
we are here not because we want to or enjoy it but because we have no choice. We will therefore be as late for duty and be in and out of the gate as much and as often as we can (staff). We will continue coming here until circumstances prevent us from coming or something better crops up. Anyway, being here is better than being in the street or home alone. Being here sort of provides us with a rather pleasant form of passing away time. We will therefore leave any time during the day whenever we find being here too bothersome.
The alienation ran so deep that everybody distanced themselves from the school's shortcomings, as pointed out above. Interview respondents desperately wanted it to be known that the school's poor academic performance was not of their doing, but of others. The principal claimed that certain teachers sabotaged the school's academic efforts by not going to class. The school's SMT and groups of teachers, on the other hand, blamed the principal for all of the school's blemishes. Students, on the other hand, blamed some students for discouraging other students from focusing on school work and blamed the school's academic situation on teachers who failed to honour their teaching periods consistently. Most of the teachers were convinced that that the
school's academic woes were a result of the students' poor socio-economic backgrounds, as claimed by the deputy principal in the following response.
The culture of learning - teachers are trying, but the material(students) we have - it is no longer the old 'Umzamo' I knew. Because 1 used to come and invigilate at this school while 1 was at... (school name). Then I used to be an invigilator while the principal was still Mr.Z. So what J say is that it is different, it is no longer there. But I can see the teachers are trying, it (learning and teaching) will gradually come back I think this year about 60% of our learners come from Lindelani. Maybe that is why there is this improvement. 60% of the learners come from this side (pointing at I imk•lam) In basis of where they come from. You see these gangsterism that exist in the location, where learners will say you come from section so-and-so, you come from Lindelani, or you come from Ntuzuma There is that gap. As a result those from
Lindelani are regarded as those who come from the dark So there is that, we still have a problem there.
Q: So, people from Lindelani are better behaved than Ntuzuma people?
A: yes. Those (pointing in the Ntuzuma direction) are tsotsis (hooligans).
Q: why do you think Lindelani children are better behaved than Ntuzuma children?
A: urn, there is a culture that is prevailing there, that is different from the culture which prevails in the location. You see in Lindelani all the schools there are well disciplined. It is because of the structures on the ground, which is being formed I don't know whether we are... what name can we give them? But it is the ... (political party) . ... and this side we don't know what is happening. So there are structures on the ground that are looking after the schools so that delinquents are being punished Because some of the parents can't stand that. They sent their children from that side. But because they are coming from that better environment, where parents are taking the initiative to look after the school, that is why they come with discipline. But this side, its vandalism, and the parents do not care. They have incidents maybe three of four times a year the school is burgled Some of these criminals they are there in the location. They are known by the people but they are afraid So its because of that the community that side is active and this side they are inactive, there is no community participation.
Despite her position of authority, the deputy principal did not feel it was part of her responsibilities to help the school get the student 'material' it needed to get the
'culture of learning' going. She was also not able to explain how and why the 'material' was any different from the school's past 'material'.
Another claim for poor student quality was that a large number of students gaining admission at the school were in possession of forged examination reports after having escaped detection. The school would later learn of some of the forgeries but probably would not be informed of the rest. Another reason given for the school's
unsatisfactory student crop was that having a big dropout level, the school was forever admitting into its Grade 11 class a large number of new students rejected by other schools. That new students were admitted at this high level meant that students were still getting used to the school's way of doing things by the time they started
preparing for matriculation examinations.
The view that the school's poor academic state had everything to do with the type of the student population also came out strongly during the teacher focus group interview when, for example, one of the teachers claimed that.
What, the culture that prevails at the moment from what should be happening here at school because there are so many influences at the moment. The school is in between two rival groups, the Ntuzuma and the Lindelani. We have had friction fights between the two groups and you can see that that element is still there. So it has changed everything about "Umzamo". This is really not what "Umzamo" was supposed to be and when I came to this school, J discovered that it was no longer what we used to hear about this school because of this "tsotsi" element that is there.
The type of students that come to this school now have a tendency to taint the image of the school and as a result it is no longer the same.
Linked to the school population's alienation from what the school was about was a strong sense of disillusionment among the population. A number of teachers, newcomers in particular, vigorously voiced disappointment on the school's normal mode of operation This sense of disquiet was so strong that one HoD stated that he had seen his promotion as progress, but because he was finding little job satisfaction at the school he was now so disillusioned that he was thinking of applying for a horizontal position at other schools if he was not able to get another promotional
position in a year or two. The HoD's disillusionment was so strong that he claimed it was draining all energy from him. This was particularly disheartening to him because he claimed that he was used to producing good grades in his subject and that this was not the case at this school. That the teacher was a hard-worker was conveyed by the number of students that approached him for assistance in his 'office' as I interviewed him At no other time had this been observed with any of the other teachers.
The same disillusionment was also voiced by a teacher who had initially seen his posting at the school that year as a relief from the long distances he had been driving to his previous post. Before his transfer to the school, the teacher had been driving
100 kilometres on a dirt road each day to and from his previous school. He had thus viewed a distance reduced by more than half as a blessing. He however claimed the reality that greeted him when he assumed his duties at the new school had crushed the sense of relief. Among his complaints was that he had been treated unfairly on his very first day at the school when the principal had informed him that the school did not have a position for him. This was even though the department had posted him there in response to the school's motivation for a relief teacher because one of the school's permanent staff members was on long sick leave. The principal had then left the teacher lounging around for two weeks before assigning him duties. Disillusioning about this for the teacher was that he perceived it as a waste of his qualifications and experience (this is the teacher who had claimed in the teacher focus group that the school did not have a culture - also, that the teacher informed me that he was no longer practising as a teacher when I met him at the beginning of the following year gave the impression that his experience at the school had added to whatever
disillusionment he had about the teaching profession). As a result of the
disillusionment, this teacher was often at loggerheads with the principal. This was striking considering that the teacher had been at the school for only two months when the fieldwork ended.