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Alumni

TEACH South Africa is building a force of leaders who have the perspective and commitment necessary to effect long-term, fundamental changes that will make South Africa a stronger, more successful nation.

After their two years in the classroom, our TEACH Ambassadors will go on to work in a variety of fields.  Many will continue to teach, while others will enter the private or public sectors.

The TEACH South Africa experience will have a significant impact on their lives, both personally and professionally. Through this intense personal challenge, they will develop an advanced set of leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills. At the same time, they gain an understanding of educational inequity and its solutions that is foundational for a lifetime of advocacy and civic leadership.

Alumni build a network of colleagues, friends, learners, and learners’ families, who become an ongoing source of personal and professional support. TEACH South Africa will also facilitate networking to take place between alumni. For those who do not want to remain in teaching, TEACH Ambassadors will be facilitated in their search for employment by TEACH South Africa partners.  There are possibilities for some TEACH Ambassadors to receive employment at TEACH South Africa, if suitable vacancies arise.

TEACH South Africa: Uplifting the needy communities through education — Honest Shuro

I contacted TEACH South Africa in 2009 after researching NGOs in the field of education, with a particular focus on maths, science and technology. I have never regretted my decision to become a TEACH Ambassador and every day I pray that nothing separates me from the organisation.

In an effort to bring out the best in me, TEACH took me through a six-week induction course, coupled with routine workshops that helped to ease my fears about becoming a teacher.
Working as a TEACH Ambassador allowed me to help learners access their potential and realise their dreams. The numerous opportunities at TEACH helped me become more determined to see true transformation in the education sector.

I have also learnt from the challenges encountered, and taken advantage of the opportunities. For example, in rural areas I don’t receive the daily comforts I was used to but this is compensated for by the inspiring way locals survive and overcome challenges.

Rural life is not all about problems, and where I worked the concept of ubuntu was very much alive and well.

For those who haven’t yet decided what career to pursue, my advice is to consider teaching, as it is the mother of all professions. One is bound to encounter unruly or disrespectful behaviour in some learners but this only tests the intelligence and resilience of an Ambassador.

Thanks to TEACH, I am up to the task most of the time. Long-term change in South Africa’s education sector will come as long as willing young graduates continue to realise there are learners out there who desperately need knowledge and skills.

The blame game: Educator or learner? Elizabeth Dliwayo

As a pioneer TEACH SA Ambassador, I highly appreciate the government’s efforts to ensure that education is a basic right for every South African child. As a bonus to receiving a proper education, from time to time food is distributed to schools so that learners do not have an empty stomach.

However, it is my conviction that the learners are not doing enough to complement the government efforts.

To begin with, I have observed that most learners are comfortable with a pass mark of 30% or 40%. In terms of standards this creates a huge gap between high school and university. Bridging this gap at university, where the minimum pass mark is 50%, becomes a nightmare to many students.

Another concern is the issue of rights. It is indeed good and fair that these learners have rights. Unfortunately most of them have decided to choose rights at the expense of the responsibilities that go with them. Among our learners, boys and girls alike, sex has acquired a status it doesn’t deserve at all. As a result, many girls fall pregnant in as early as Grade 8. Here in Limpopo falling pregnant appears to be fashionable. They then milk the government by claiming a child grant. How on Earth can someone concentrate on studies when the body wants to breast-feed? So common is this story of flying from childhood to parenthood.

It’s very rare to see learners studying on their own; they simply lack the self-drive towards education. Come exam time, the teacher has to repeatedly beg learners to study but all they do is ask for what is notorious as the “scope” – basically the content of the exam. Clearly there is no sense of ownership of learning.

Unfortunately it is always the educator who gets the blame when these learners fail. They say you can take a donkey to the river but you can’t force it to drink the water, and an educator can only do so much. Personally I believe about 75% effort is required from the learner, 20% from the educator and 5% from home. But learners seem to think that 75% should come from the educator, 20% from parents and merely 5% from them.

Yes, some educators don’t do enough but the blame put on them for the learners’ failure is too much. As educators it is our daily dream to have classes where learners are grounded and think less of their rights than responsibilities. It is every educator’s wish one day to proudly admire the products of their efforts when learners become successful in life. In contrast, often educators are left psychologically frustrated, physically drained and spiritually weak.

In my opinion the area of rights should be revisited; everyone has been disarmed because of these so-called rights. The educator as an authority needs a certain amount of power for authority to be effective. It’s better to be cruel to be kind for the sake of our learners’ future. Here I am not referring to barbaric strategies of having conformity through corporal punishment and the like, but rather a more structured and disciplined approach to learning, an approach with the support of the community and the government alike.

I strongly urge all stakeholders in education to put their heads together and let every child know that passing or failing ultimately rests in their hands. Educators provide the skeleton and learners put on the flesh. Adolescence is not a sickness; at some point every adult, educators included, has passed through it and has experienced more or less similar challenges. It can’t be used as a scapegoat. With the right attitude and focus every learner can succeed.

All they need is love: Grace Mavhiza

My time as a TEACH Ambassador was the best opportunity I have been given.

I enjoyed working with the children and hearing their stories, most of which were so sad. But I managed to create an environment that enabled them to open up.

I was very eager to understand their behaviour in relation to their academic performance, and I discovered something crucial, something that most educators often take for granted: the learners we deal with in South Africa are not accorded the kind of childhood experience children should get from their parents to enable the gradual and stable development in preparation for adulthood.

I realised that most children are subjected to harsh conditions that push them into “survival of the fittest” mode prematurely. Most learners have what psychologists call attention deficit disorder.

While analysing the behaviour of the children I mingled with on a daily basis, I noticed that they lacked love. This is the reason why most girls, on hearing a man say, “I love you,” quickly fall for it because it’s something they’ve not heard from anyone. On the contrary, a girl from an established family wouldn’t easily fall for such a cheap trick as she is used to hearing her parents declaring their unconditional love for one another.

This does not mean that boys are they exception – they are equally haunted by the absence of familial love. They tend to seek refuge in drugs, become gangsters and display other aggressive forms of behaviour at a tender age. It’s evident that boys, too, need adequate love from parents, and in the event that the parents have passed away, a close adult relative should try to fill in this gap.

As teachers we sometimes don’t understand this and end up writing these learners off. But I still believe something can be done to help these children. As teachers we should be able to assess every child’s behaviour and come up with a solution. It’s never too late for teachers to show love and compassion, and be an agent of change in these learners’ lives.

A moment that made an impact on me was when a couple of learners I taught in Grade 11 came to show me their results. I felt so honoured. Today, when I look back, I realise how important I was to these children. They all need a gentle smile, a pat at the back, a sympathetic ear and a vigilant eye.

My two-year experience as a TEACH Ambassador led to me staying in teaching, and I was fortunate enough to be retained by the same school – Tiisetsong in Katlehong’s Thokoza township. I believe that I must plough back into the society, and so should everyone.

I am confident that even though most of my learners are from child-headed families, I can positively influence them to look on the brighter side of life.

A glance over my shoulder: Benjamin Zvidzai

I was part of the privileged first group of Teach South Africa Ambassadors (2009). My deployment was in the East Rand, Ekurhuleni district at a school called Jongimfundo Primary in the sprawling township of Vosloorus. This was quite an explosive experience for me.

Armed to the teeth with the six weeks of rigorous training from Teach South Africa, I found myself in front of learners who had an insatiable thirst for learning that needed all I had to quench it.

It didn’t take me long to gel with members of staff and learners. This was the beginning of a two-year journey that was riddled with challenges, surprises, excitement, learning curves and bumpy rides that called for diligence, hard work, resilience and, above all, innovation.

I was teaching English (First Additional Language) to Grade 6 and 7. Despite the limited resources and cultural diversities, the teaching and learning process was a great pleasure. The principal, Mr Kenny Twala, had warm-heartedly welcomed us and had embraced the project with the great enthusiasm that he supported us with all the way through.

The Teach South Africa ongoing support staff also played a pivotal role in ensuring that we succeeded on this mission. The local community there was just wonderful. Their appreciation was, without doubt, very encouraging. Some parents would drop by the school just to meet their child’s English teacher. Whenever there were School Governing Body meetings, they would come, introduce themselves to us and thank us for the great work we were doing.   

One parent’s comment will forever linger in my memories, “Sir, for the first time, my daughter is showing great interest in her school work. Last night she spent an hour at the mirror practising the speech you tasked her to prepare. “It then dawned on me that the impact we were making was more than the eye could see.”

Notwithstanding that we were sometimes inadvertently dragged into some politics whose origin we never knew, we soldiered on. That taught us always to be vigilant and sensitive to issues that, from a novice’s eye, would seem trivial. For instance, if you happened not to attend a certain teacher’s home function, working relationships could get strained.

But despite this, we had a very amicable working relationship with members of staff. They didn’t hide the fact that we brought with us a different and positive work culture that was inspiring. One lady publicly commented that the learners’ communication in English had greatly improved, courtesy of our sterling efforts.

On the co-curricular side, I spearheaded the debate and poetry club. I sourced a donation and managed to establish a table tennis club with the little cash I gathered. My English on Mobile project (the dispatch of homework through cellphone technology) was a great success. Unfortunately, the project was prematurely disrupted when the department terminated our contracts. I have developed it further and intend to spread it to all schools under Teach South Africa. At the end of my ambassadorial tenure I walked away with the best TEACH ambassador accolade and am very proud of this feat.

After my stint at Jongimfundo, the neighboring school, Katlehong Primary School, head-hunted my services and I am happy to be working with the young kids in the same township.

I never regret going the extra mile on this journey Teach South Africa paved for me. To the forthcoming ambassadors, brace yourselves for this challenging epic journey and go out there and make a difference to those young lives. It’s not a stroll in the park, but through hard work and a positive and constructive attitude, you all can make a difference and contribute towards the development of the South African child.       

Kuziva Murambinda

Gauteng versus Limpopo: A comparative story

2011 marks my third year as a TEACH Ambassador. After completing two years of teaching in Gauteng, I felt my mission to change the lives of underprivileged learners by assisting them achieve better results was not yet complete. Last year my matric students achieved a mark of 87% in maths literacy, a vast increase from 52% the previous year. And when an opportunity came up to execute my mission in rural Limpopo, I did not hesitate to take it, thereby fulfilling the TEACH South Africa vision.

There are many underprivileged learners in rural Limpopo. I currently teach at Nareng Secondary School in the Mopani District. But although it’s deep in a rural area, the teaching environment is more conducive to learning than what I experienced in Gauteng.

Discipline plays a major role in a learner’s performance. Learners at my current school are far more disciplined compared with the previous school I taught at. And I feel the environment plays a major role in this: learners come to school early, wear full school uniforms, do their work and submit all assignments in time.

A key factor in such a positive attitude towards learning is a good community that values education, which is what I have experienced in rural Limpopo. In Gauteng my learners were ill-disciplined. They arrived late, had a negative attitude towards school, and non-submission of work was the order of the day. This was probably due to inefficient school policies and the community not playing its pastoral role.

Further, criminal activities are also very low at rural schools. Teachers have the support of school management, local police and the community in making schools a safe learning environment. Since joining my current school, I have not come across an incident of learners bringing alcohol, drugs or dangerous weapons on to the school premises. In Gauteng, encountering pupils smelling of dagga or teaching drunken students was a daily occurence.

The government plays a major role in organising workshops to assist teachers in areas in which they face difficulties – this shows that the government is investing in education to make sure that learners receive world-class tuition. However, the funding of rural schools remains a major challenge. These schools are not given as much financial support as schools in urban areas. In Gauteng, proper structures are in place to make sure learners receive maximum support.

Last year I was involved in the Senior Secondary Intervention Programme run by the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre, which offers extra tuition to matric learners and also provides resources such as study guides. I am positive this is the reason why matric results in Gauteng improved drastically in 2010. This kind of initiative is lacking in Limpopo. Although extra lessons are offered, they are not of the same quality as those offered by Sci-Bono and its tutors in Gauteng.

A lack of resources also hampers learners’ progress. Libraries are a scarce resource in rural areas. Learners are not exposed to the right environment and are not getting the correct books to use when studying on their own, especially during weekends and holidays. In towns you find that libraries are well resourced, and this is a major advantage to learners living there.

The teacher-to-learner ratio is another major challenge. You find in grades 8 and 9 there are about 90 pupils in a class, and to control such a large number of learners, whose hormones are flying in all directions, is a problem. There is a need for public-private partnerships to build more classes and to bring in more teachers so that the ratio is balanced. In Gauteng the same problem was prevalent, but not to the degree that it is in this region.

This is a major challenge in South African schools and an urgent remedy is needed.

With the above in mind, I can safely say the environment in rural areas is more conducive to teaching, and if the government and NGOs could channel more of their resources into rural education, underprivileged learners would benefit more, especially in terms of improved results.

Phumuzile Ndlovu

l was a TEACH Ambassador for two years at Illinge High School in Vosloorus, Ekurhuleni South District. I was a member of the first TEACH group in 2009, and taught English as first additional language to grades 8, 9 and 11.

I won’t lie and say it was an easy ride. There were challenges but l had many amazing moments watching my learners improve. An unforgettable moment was when one of my Grade 8 learners brought me a small gift to thank me for being a wonderful teacher and role model. I was touched that some learners saw me as more than just a teacher, and as someone they could confide in and look up to. Having learners respect you is the greatest gift of all.

One thing I’m proud of is instilling positive thinking in my learners and showing them they had the potential to be anything. I also learnt to be tolerant, understanding and loving but firm, and always to treat my learners as individuals.

Currently, I’m a programme co-ordinator for Operation Hope, a global financial literacy NGO in Parktown, Johannesburg. The mission of Operation Hope is to teach financial literacy and all aspects of entrepreneurship to disadvantaged adults as well as children in grades 4 to 12.

Spending two years of my life teaching was an excellent career move but, more importantly, from a personal perspective there has been nothing more fulfilling than knowing I made an impact for the better on a child’s life.

Lerato Mokhatla

Genesis

Joining Teach South Africa as an Ambassador in 2009 was the greatest decision I made. Being an educator changed how I view things and how I relate to fellow human beings.  The programme introduced me to a fulfilling world.

My time as an ambassador

I joined the Tiisetsong family in Thokoza in 2009 and it was a challenging but rewarding experience.  The first time I walked into a Grade 11 classroom I was terrified because I felt I had very little to offer those children. Then I remembered what Nalini Reddy (TEACH South Africa trainer) said to us, “It is tough in the classroom but the passion you have for the profession will make a lot of difference.” This statement carried me through my time as an Ambassador. 

Highlights

• Starting a newsletter with fellow Ambassadors Elby and Grace, and seeing the growth in the reporters and the editor.
• Helping learner Sibusiso Khumalo move from an average of 28percent to 65percent in Grade 12 mathematics.
• Working with Zolile and Dimpho in the National Moot Court Competition hosted by the legal department of the University of Pretoria.  They came third in the country.

These are just a few examples of what kept me going as an Ambassador and encouraged me to stay on as an educator.

Post-ambassador era

I am currently studying a PGCE with UNISA and teach mathematics and technology at Kanana Secondary School in Orkney (North West Province).  I am a substitute teacher with the possibility of being absorbed on a full-time basis next year. 

Our school has just received 20 computers and the principal appointed me computer centre manager. The principal is contemplating introducing C.A.T.  and I will go for training and offer it at our school.  I am offering extra maths classes in my community, and love what I do. 

TEACH’s contribution

I owe my existence in teaching to TEACH South Africa. I support the cause 100 percent and will always be available to offer my services anywhere, should they be needed, to promote TEACH South Africa.

Peter Wachtler

Preamble

After working in the field of programing and training clients to use my software, I discovered that teaching was something I enjoyed more than programing. After a friend told me about TEACH South Africa I went ahead and applied.

Experience to date

I still remember my first day at school very vividly. Neither the learners nor the educator was quite sure of what to expect. That has changed and I now know it is very important to expect great things of your students. If you don’t, they will not deliver great things.

Last year I taught a Grade 11 maths class and it was as hard for them as it was for me, as the material was not the easiest to explain. On the last day of school a student acknowledged my hard work. That was one of the best days of my short career.

In what way if any has TEACH South Africa helped you to be a better teacher?

Through the support of IMSTUS (funded by TEACH South Africa) I received and still get great help when teaching. The ideas and resources they suggest for the classroom are always spot on and really help. For example, at school next week I will use an idea I learnt at a workshop a few weeks ago. This type of hands-on training has given me much self-confidence and has also improved my teaching.

Getting involved in changing lives

Getting involved in teaching learners also means helping colleagues to improve their teaching methods. To do that communication has to be improved. That is why I created mailing lists for different subjects, eg sience@leapschools.org.za - this will send an email to all science teachers at LEAP Science and Math School.

I also created a document repository for old papers and worksheets, enabling educators to share resources and documents easily.

Supporting students in their day-to-day challenges is also part of teaching. I think the most important fact here is to listen. If students have anything to say they often just need someone to hear them. I also support students in a program set up by the air force, in which they are exposed to simulations, flying, and everything the profession entails. This activity combines the science and maths of school and is very much enjoyed.

Life post TEACH South Africa

After my two years in teaching I will stay in the profession. I could not imagine a job being such a fundamental part of my life that it has become a calling. I look forward to qualifying as a teacher when I receive my PGCE this year.