Chapter 4: Emerging stories from the field
4.2 Profiling the participating schools
4.2.2 School-B
The school is in the urban context, it is situated in Central Business District (CBD) of a town that is growing tremendously. It may not be surprising that resources such as water and electricity are readily available as well as teaching and learning materials. School-B is a former Model-C school which was reserved for Whites during the last years of apartheid government. These schools were later reclassified in terms of the South African School Act (SASA) as public schools, and admission requirements were relaxed to allow all race groups to send their children there for admission. However fee structures are such that it is only the middle class that can afford to send their children there. The staff complement was still predominantly White and female with the exception of two African ladies. The school comprises seven SMT members. The staff members are well-qualified with all of them having four-year minimum professional qualification. The teaching staff highly dedicated to their work and the pass rate in matric class is usually 100 percent.
Clearly, the school accommodates parents who are financially well-off. This allocation of resources and facilities is largely possible because of the legacy of the past where-in
urban areas were developed based on spatio-political ideology, rather than on urban planning (Tshwane, 2006). The distinctiveness of poverty in South Africa is largely due to the interlocking factors that emanate from the unjust practices and policies of previous government (Wilson & Ramphele, 1989). Development in South Africa was subjected to the beliefs that it was a middle- class issue and such beliefs discarded the element of development and social justice (International Development Research Centre, 1995). The advent of democracy in 1994 was expected by many people to address that situation described above. For the past ten years of democracy in South Africa, the focus has remained on the socio-political arena where dominating issues have been a concern for human rights, redress in terms of access to resources and equity (The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996).
4.2.3 School-C
This school is located in a township approximately 25 kilometers outside Durban. This school was chosen as part of my research agenda to cover these three contexts of rural, urban and township contexts respectively. As it may be expected of township schools, the road to the school is tarred and this facilitates easy to the school in all weather conditions.
Although the school is situated in the township it is surrounded by informal settlements which are as a result of the influx of people from different part of the country who come to cities searching for better work opportunities for work. During our informal conversations with the principal, I got a sense that the school had established networks with other urban neighbouring schools. Such networks seemed to have helped the school, and learners in particular by exposing them to much information which is usually available to their more privileged counterparts in big cities. The provision of physical resources and other equipment in this school lags behind their urban schools counterparts.
For example, Overhead Projectors (OHP) are rarely available, there was not a single operational laboratory, and no proper play ground. To its credit, the school had clean running water and sanitation, electricity, photocopy machine and telecommunication facilities.
Learner enrolment at School-C stood at one thousand four hundred learners. The staff establishment was thirty eight educators. This was short of five members according to its Post Provisional Norm (PPN). The school had seven SMT members. The staff was all African. Poverty was also identified as a challenge since most of the parents were unemployed. When I came to this school for the first time, as well as for my subsequent visits, I noticed a lot of activity. There were signs of a vibrant life in the school as learners were engaged in a variety of activities. Learners have been exposed to many skills-based learning activities and they had demonstrated different talents in area such as Technical Drawing and Arts. Technical Drawing is one of the learning areas that are hardly found in rural secondary schools. Resources allocation was reminiscent of the apartheid era among the schools that participated in this study. It was clear that although the school received well-qualified educators from the University of KwaZulu- Natal nearby, the death of Teacher Learning Support Materials (LTSM) was noticed. Such a lack of TLSM compromised the quality of teaching and learning provided in the school, as these educators found it extremely difficult to implement current teaching and learning strategies without sufficient LTSM. Most of the participants stated that the budget in terms of school fees was not enough to cover their teaching and learning needs. Such a point was raised by the principal of the school when he said:
“Resources are insufficient, not available to assist educators. Budget in terms of school fees is not enough” [P-C].
It is evident from this principal’s statement that schools in township experienced difficulties in raising funds that would help the school maintain acceptable standards of quality teaching and learning situation.