School Visits in Durban

Hello again! I decided against going to a jazz show tonight at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal because I am still sick and really just want to sleep :-( Thankfully, I found my camera cord so you all will get to see some pictures in this post!

On Monday in Durban, we went to the Clairwood Boys' Primary School. This was the first school that was visited (besides UKZN and Univ. of Pretoria). It is amazing how much you can learn just by looking at how education works within a country. This school was an all boys school with grades R (Kindergarten) through 7. When we first got there, we were greeted by the headmaster of the school and a few other council members that I believe were also teachers. I was a little shocked that the headmaster was so forward about not getting his school fees for the year. At this school, students are charged 950 Rand for the year (even though this is a public school). The school is run by mostly indians but almost all of the students that attend the school are black africans---and some of them travel very long distances to come to this school because it is better than the schools that are in their rural communities. The headmaster seemed very flustered that he only had about 20% of the school fees in for the year, which is understandable because this school get limited funding for upkeep. Although they are allocated a certain number of teachers that are state paid, everything else in the schools is run like a business. The schools have to pay for rent, electricity, service staff (cleaning people), textbooks, and anything else they need themselves. Another interesting thing about this school is that the primary medium of instruction is english. This begins in grade R. Although almost all of the students at the school speak isiZulu, there is only 1 teacher at the school that even knows this language. The students also learn afrikaans later in their schooling...which hopefully is starting to die out because this language is really not necessary to be learned in this country...

I sat in on a grade 7 class at Clairwood. The boys seemed very giggly and were eager to ask us questions about rappers we may have seen or if we drive mercedes! The kids were extremely polite and nice. They called all of us "Ma'am." I was not, however, impressed with the teachers. The teacher of the grade 7 class told me that she was not into reading south african literature because it didn't interest her at all. She also said that she hated Kuito--the most popular south african music. I'm not sure why she told me these things but I can't imagine having a teacher that didn't care about anything that had to do with her own country. Yes, she was indian, but she was not even first generation. She also said that it would be impossible to even teach isiZulu in the schools.

Yesterday, we went to Summerfield Primary School in Chatsworth (which is still part of Durban). This school, I felt, was doing a much better job at incorporating the different cultures of the children attending the school. The school had a mixture of black africans and indians, but it amazed me that every single student in the school was required to learn isiZulu. This is incredibly advanced for any of the schools I have heard of here. The students also learn english, afrikaans, and the indian students learn arabic. The headmaster here seemed very open to incorporating the different cultures in any way possible. Even at the end of the year concert that the students put on, they represent all different cultures. This was incredibly impressive. The school fees here were also much lower at R200 per child per year. I had a great time talking with the kids outside when they were on break. (I did sit in on a grade 7 class again, but there isn't much to say about that! The teacher left the room for about 20 minutes and left me and a friend to entertain/ask the kids questions! What a way to put us on the spot!) The kids were just interested in what it was like in America, while I was just as interested in asking them questions about South Africa. They are so willing to talk.

Today was a much different experience. We visited Westfield Boys' High School which is a former Model C school (all white, very well off). Here, the school fees come in at a whopping R20,000 per year. Now imagine what the differences must be. Mind you, all of these schools are public. There are hardly any schools that do not charge any type of school fees (which is very surprising to the people here). This school was mostly white students, with a few indians, and very few blacks. I suppose this is better than what the school was like during Apartheid, but it's just disheartening that this school with so many resources is where all of the academic power is and where the students who really succeed in the country are going to school. There is no way that many of the black families here could afford these fees. The school was a bit extravagent. They had every type of sport field imaginable, a swimming pool, an entire separate house dedicated to art...it was unbelieveable. I felt more uncomfortable here than in the other two schools!

The funny thing is, although Westfield was so extravagent and quite lovely, the hospitality at Clairwood and Summerfield was so much better. Even though these schools were obviously much poorer, they treated us to tea and desserts--and Summerfield even fed us an amazing lunch! The people there were so respectful and glad to have us. At Westfield, although we did get tea, we had to stand behind the entire staff to get it...and there weren't even enough seats for us to sit down. We were also not allowed to sit in on any classes at Westfield because we would be too much of a distraction...

Anyway, these past few days of school visits have been very interesting and I've certainly learned so much. Tomorrow I believe we're going to a township school which will also be an interesting experience. I'm going to make a separate post for pictures, so have a good night and I hope everyone is well!