Education has a brighter future B Smart ZA Cares

Schools and communities

Categories: Education

With the support of the Wits University’s School of Education, the University of Johannesburg’s Education faculty, the Bridge Education NGO, and the Mail and Guardian, Teachers Upfront is encouraging debate around the teaching profession in South Africa through a series of education dialogues.

The third dialogue was held at the University of Johannesburg on 2 August 2012. Discussion centred on the topic of Schools and Communities.

It takes a village

The education crisis in South Africa requires the commitment of teachers, learners, schools, and communities if solutions for success are to be correctly implemented. This was the message from the third Teachers Upfront dialogue. Misheck Ndebele, Education lecturer at Wits University, emphasised the importance of parental involvement in learner success. In his words:

“Lots of improvement in attendance, achievement, and participation can be attributed to the involvement of parents and a close co-operation between schools and families.”

Noting that success goes beyond the classroom, Ndebele pointed out that learners whose parents are actively involved in their education tend to be more successful as adults. Ndebele described his own research into parental involvement at 40 Gauteng schools – through which he identified the following as critical criteria for learner success:

• Communication
• Parenting at home
• Student learning
• Volunteering
• School decision-making
• Collaboration with the community

Based on this research, Ndebele recommended that a school-family partnership course be part of every teacher-training curriculum in the country.

Community involvement in student success

This view was supported by Theresa Moila, Senior Manager for Education at the Transnet Foundation, who later reminded delegates that parents have a responsibility to educate and socialise their children while teachers get on with the job of delivering a quality curriculum.

In research in South Africa, where parents and communities are involved, learner success is seen more frequently. Dr Al Witten of the Centre for the Community School at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, expanded the definition of ‘community’ to include universities such as his own, which works with the Eastern Cape’s Manyano community schools network.

Calling on communities to collaborate to ensure the success of education programmes, Witten said:

“We should think about the community beyond geography, though, and involve individuals [such as school leaders] or organisations that support schools, wherever they may be.”

Speaking of school leaders, Witten called on individuals to cross boundaries and work towards the common goals of teaching and learning.

Quality teaching and learning

One such leader is Lamile Faltein, principal of Limekhaya High School in Uitenhage’s Kwa-Langa township in the Eastern Cape. Faltein highlighted the challenges at the school, rebuilt in 1995 after a 1976 fire. Reviewing dismal Matric results, Faltein remembers thinking “there must be challenges I don’t know about”. He asked previous learners to complete questionnaires about their experience at the school and learnt that many of them were not able to complete their exams because their teachers were ill-equipped to teach them.

To remedy the situation, Faltein invited in experts to ensure his staff had the knowledge base necessary for their subjects. With these helping hands, teachers at the school are now formally accountable to the school’s governing body and Faltein has instituted measures such as class visits to monitor teachers’ lesson preparation.

Limekhaya High School’s vision reads:

“We strive to provide a quality education service to produce balanced learners who will play a leading role in advancing the respect of human rights and the economic development of the country.”

According to Faltein, this vision was crafted by the community itself.

Communities’ participation and support

Communities are crucial, Faltein said, to monitoring and supporting schools. Limekhaya works with the community, reaches out to poorly performing schools, employs social workers to help learners, and has developed a learner resource centre. Faltein urged other school leaders to work with community steering committees that monitor teaching quality and hold their school accountable for learner performance…

The dialogue was marked by strong consensus that schools cannot solve the education crisis on their own. Strong leadership and community participation and support are essential to creating a sense of common responsibility for learner achievement.