3.7 Challenges experienced by rural primary schools in South Africa compared
3.7.1 The effects of poverty on education 68
Farren, Haskins and Gallagher (1980, p. 47) define poverty as “a physical and socio- psychological environment in which individuals have severely limited amounts of power, money and social status.” Berger (1987, p. 85) posits that, to exist in the culture of poverty, means to
“…feel depressed, powerless to make change and unable to control your own destiny.
Alienation, isolation and depression are common partners with poverty. Parents who are depressed and unable to control their own world pass that feeling on to their children” (Berger 1987). Schools could help by providing information on social services available to parents.
Tsayang and Bulawa (2007, p. 65) posit that challenges in Botswana’s rural education include
“poor transport facilities, the near absence of support staff, the poor standard of meals provided to primary school children, and an uneven supply and poor distribution of stationery and other learning and teaching materials to schools.” They complain of a shortage of furniture, which means that “some children have to sit on a cold floor or on the earth outside during lessons”, and state that this is yet another result of the poor funding of primary education. They also refer to “a lack of service facilities such as telephones and photocopiers, as well as the general poor maintenance of both the infrastructure and other resources of primary schools, is partly a result of inadequate funding as well as poor supervision.” As was clearly demonstrated by this study, similar situations are experienced in South African rural schools.
In South Africa, many learners live in communities that, apart from socio-economic deprivation, are plagued by the difficulties that come with single parents, working parents, children without adults in the household and problems brought about by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This means that many children come to school with a baggage of social, physical and emotional problems that prevent them from achieving success at school. Educators are challenged by needs and problems that are often outside the school’s control and which can only be addressed where a solid working relationship exists between the school and parents (Clarke, 2007, p. 176).
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Joubert (2007, p. 26) argues that “…growing up in a rural region in Southern Africa often means growing up without a good quality education. Rural people are caught in the vicious cycle of having no access to the services and opportunities that might lift them out of poverty - education, gainful employment, adequate nutrition, infrastructure, communication and a lack of discrimination on the basis of gender” (Joubert, 2007).
In South Africa, very little has changed with regard to rural education. Poverty and illiteracy remain overwhelmingly a rural phenomenon. There is a high level of unemployment. Where people are employed, they are paid very low salaries. The scourge of child-headed homes is rife and often results in teenage pregnancies of girls as young as 12 and 13. According to the educators, this often resulted in learner drop-outs from their schools. Lemmer and Van Wyk (2009, p. 195) argue that in extremely and persistently poor families, “…learners suffer a lack of three categories of capital: financial, human and social.”
Like in many African countries, South African rural schools are disadvantaged as parents are poor and are unable to support the school in acquiring additional resources the schools may need.
Berger (1987, p. 84) defines poverty as: “…a physical and socio-psychological environment in which individuals have severely limited amounts of power, money and social status. To exist in the culture of poverty means to feel depressed, powerless to make change and unable to control your own destiny. Alienation, isolation and depression are common partners with poverty.”
Parents who are depressed and unable to control their own world pass that feeling on to their children.
It became clear through the study that it was predominantly women who carried the responsibility of caring for school going children, yet they formed a greater percentage of poor people than men. Historically, women had less access to education and paid jobs. Women have worked, but have never been paid as housewives. Women generally earn less than men, yet they do the most work. Evidence from the respondents was that women were responsible for the majority of learners’ education. This was also evident in the male to female ratio of educators at the schools. This therefore had an impact on the quality of the support the school received from these parents. It was also evident that most homes had single-headed female parents or grandparents. Most elderly people depend on pensions paid by the state. Families share the
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pension meant for the grandparents as they provide for their grandchildren. According to Samuel (2005, p 25), there is a high dependency on social grants and pensions in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, where the three schools researched are located.
According to Country Report, South Africa (2005), in spite of some gains in education, the fight against poverty remains a challenge in South Africa. At the centre of this challenge is poor education for rural people. The responses revealed that some parents were unemployed, which meant that they stayed at home. It was also revealed by the respondents that parents had themselves received little schooling. According to Capper (1993), parents who themselves lack personal experience in education beyond basic skills often fail to see its importance for their children. Further, they may feel intimidated by school procedures and expectations. Kiros (1982) alludes to a survey which found that parents lacked sufficient competence to undertake supervision of the school.
Poverty in many rural communities limits parents’ ability to provide for their children’s education with resources in the home. Female parents take care of learners while their husbands go out to provide a living for their families. They, in turn, work for low wages which means they are seldom at home. This is double exploitation as male parents are deprived of quality family life and they are often excluded from contributing to the rearing of their children. In this regard Lemmer and Van Wyk (2009, p. 195) posit that in single parent or child-headed households, learners are deprived of growing up under the care of both their parents who are responsible for instilling acceptable morals and values. Parents who had a poor education possess limited parenting skills and have little access to child-rearing practices.
Poor parents normally feel inadequate and are not comfortable with assisting the school. They fear rejection. Some of them are ashamed that they cannot converse in English. According to Lemmer and van Wyk (2004, p. 205), South African educators often cite the lack of education of parents as a barrier to parental involvement. They cite Desforges and Aboucher (2003, p. 420) who state that there are three reasons why parents who are not well educated may not be involved in their children’s schooling:
• They come from a culture of poverty in which parents place less value on education.
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• Some parents have less social capital networks and skills. They do not know the ‘right sort of people’. As a consequence, they feel less equipped to meet or negotiate in terms of the demands of schooling.
• Schools are seen as middle-class institutions that accept involvement only on their own terms.
My experience as a manager of a rural primary school was that many parents lacked finances and were severely pressured by the demands of daily living. This impacted on the availability of parents to support learning at school and at home. However, when parents worked and donated money towards the school’s upkeep, the school was able to pay them a stipend for the work they did which, in turn, enabled them provide for their families. I believe it is crucial that parents commit to supporting the schools attended by their children in some way, failing which the provision of quality education will remain a dream.
In South Africa post 1953, education became the responsibility of the state. Leeb (1989) argues that the education of black children received very little attention. Further, in spite of some improvements, Ardington (1989) observed that rural dwellers and farm workers in particular, lived in isolated, widely dispersed and low density situations. Teachers who were teaching more than one standard in their classrooms found it extremely difficult as did teachers who had to share a classroom whilst teaching different classes. The classes were large, the pupil-teacher ratio did not tally and the educators were either unqualified or under-qualified.
3.7.2 The effects of poverty in South African schools
The Country Report, South Africa (2005) states that in spite of the gains, the fight against poverty remains a challenge in South Africa. At the centre of this challenge is poor education for rural people. According to Capper (1993), parents who themselves lack personal experience in education beyond basic skills often fail to see its importance for their children. Further, they may feel intimidated by school procedures and expectations.
It also became evident from the literature review that many homes in rural areas have single- headed female parents or grandparents. Most elderly people depend on pensions paid by the state. Families share the pension meant for the grandparents who provide for their grand-
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children. According to Samuel (2005, p. 25), “there is a high dependency on social grants and pensions in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.”
Development study materials produced by the University of South Africa’s (UNISA’s) Adult Basic Education (ABET) Department (2011) revealed that, in South Africa, approximately half of the population is defined as poor and living below the poverty line. The difference between the wealthy and the poor is very big and in some ways we have the developed world and the developing world living side by side in one country. Poverty is mainly rural – about two thirds of the country’s poor people live in rural areas and more than two thirds of rural people are poor.
According to the Development Studies Report (2011), women form a greater percentage of poor people than men. Women have historically had less access to education and paid jobs. Women have always performed unpaid work as mothers, housewives and housekeepers. Many are employed in poorly paid jobs such as domestic or farm workers. Even within poor households, women usually earn less than men and property possession is often inherited by the man. The UN found that although women perform nearly two thirds of the world’s work, they receive only one tenth of the world’s income and they own only one hundredth of the world’s property.
Further, the report revealed that poverty has a severe affect on children. Some of the poorest house-holds in South Africa are those headed by children where parents are either ill or have died from AIDS or other causes. Even in families where parents are still alive, children are very badly affected when male parents leave home to the cities to earn a living for their families.
Some come home only after several months while mothers also had to leave home to eke out a living in urban areas. Many children suffer from malnutrition which means they easily get diseases and either die young or have a poor physical and mental development as a result.
Poverty limits the access children have to educational opportunities, especially early childhood development (ECD). Many poor children also leave school before matriculating. Most poor older people survive on the monthly pensions paid by the state. They often look after grandchildren and perform unpaid domestic work for their families. This especially applies to older women. Due to the high unemployment rate, many families share the pensions meant for the elderly and it ends up being insufficient for their needs.
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Poor parents normally feel inadequate and are not comfortable with assisting the school as they fear rejection. Some of them are ashamed that they cannot converse in English. Lemmer and van Wyk (2004, p. 205) posit that “...in South Africa, educators often cite the lack of education of parents as a barrier to parent involvement.” According to Desforges and Aboucher (2003), parents who are not well educated may not be involved in their children’s schooling. Where parental support is lacking and resources are limited, learners suffer.
AIDS increases poverty as families lose income if an earner falls ill. Often another one of the family members stays at home to look after the sick person and income is usually lost. Families incur increased costs when they spend on caring for the sick or paying for funerals. In most cases orphans are cared for by relatives who are already living in poverty – the additional burden they carry deepens their poverty.Some parents cannot afford employing people to take care of newly born babies, so mothers stay at home to tend to their babies and cannot afford to assist the school.