A day ago I received a message that I would not be back at Bergendal on Thursday. Today, Claude de Jager was to pick me up spend a little time giving me his perspective on South Africa, education, poverty, and the issues that impact the schools in Paarl. Claude is the principal of Amstelhof Primary and is very knowledgable about the local school sytem. We started off by taking a ride to the University of Stellenbosch. I had heard about this university the night prior from Mr. Thomas. He was talking to me about accessibility to South African universities, and whether or not blacks and coloureds could get a fair shake at “university.” Regarding Stellenbosch he said (paraphrasing), “How could one expect to get a fair chance sitting in classroom with the same professors who had told them that blacks and coloureds did not belong in schools with whites because they lacked the mental capacities... the same professors who had voted for Apartheid?” Mr. Thomas said that if perhaps, on the long mile to freedom, they had each walked a half mile he could make sense of it, but since blacks and coloureds had walked a half mile and whites had only walked a few meters, it didn’t make sense. 
So with these thoughts in mind I arrived at the University of Stellenbosch, which would simply be a site to set the stage for my day with Claude. We went there to have coffee and to begin a dialogue. Having been in the midst of the impoverished sections of Paarl and inundated with the narratives of the children for the last few days, driving through the streets around the university was a bit surreal. It could have been almost any university in almost any U.S. city… beautiful buildings, students hurrying to and from classes, signs about upcoming functions, and very few students of color. The school is priced out of consideration for most non white South Africans. Stellenbosch is one of South Africa’s former all white institutions and the powers that be have fought to maintain its cultural heritage; thus, the primary language of education is still Afrikaans. Afrikaans was used in schools in South Africa very much in the same way that English was used throughout America’s history. It was used to exclude and prevent certain groups from both attending schools and from achieving in schools. Some could forcefully argue that the English language is still used for exclusion and subordination in American schools today. Claude’s own daughter attended Stellenbosch. For Claude, his daughter’s attending and graduating from Stellenbosch was a way of conquering a myth that students of color couldn’t compete with whites at the university level. It was a way of “showing them” that we were/are every bit as good as they are. This narrative echoes those of many African Americans who desired to prove to whites that they were/are every bit as intelligent as whites and able to compete academically at the best universities. Claude also discussed South Africa’s educational legacy… that blacks were to be educated as laborers, coloureds were to be educated as artisans, and whites were to be educated to be society’s elites. At one time it was against the law for a black man to pick up a hammer or a trowel in South Africa. The black man’s tool was the shovel. This subordination was perpetuated in the schools through the Bantu laws, and substandard curricula for black and coloured schools… the different teacher student ratios: 1:20 for whites, 1:50 for coloureds, and 1:Whatever for blacks. A black school could have 100 learners and 1 teacher. Blacks were typically educated to a 5th grade level, coloureds to a 9th grade level… reminiscent of industrialized education for blacks in the Jim Crow era… actually worse. Keep in mind that South Africa today has approximately 49 million people: about 4 mil white, 5 mil coloured, 1 mil Asian, and the rest black. A hierarchy was set up which even taught the coloured man to fear the black man. Can you see what was happening? All of this was designed to keep the majority at bay while this small group of immigrants, who now claim to be indigenous people, raped the land of its resources, became filthy rich, and took ownership of the land. It was genius in its insidiousness. It was so powerful that it continues to manifest 15 years after Apartheid. According to Claude, whites in South Africa still own 87.5% of the land. This against the backdrop of informal settlements (squatter camps or shanty towns), and inadequate housing throughout the country which are inhabited by blacks and coloureds. LAND equals WEALTH equals POWER. So even though you have a black government in charge in South Africa, the prevailing question is “Who really has the power?” To most South Africans, the answer to this question is obvious.
In terms of teachers… teachers in South Africa were once educated to an 8th grade standard, and required to attend a teacher’s institute for 2 years to attain a teaching certificate—again similar to what was happening with rural teachers trained at places like Hampton Institute in the U.S.—many of these South African teachers did not receive the proper academic training in subjects like math, and some of them are still in the classroom today. Eventually the requirement was extended to make grade 12 matriculation a requirement, but for many teachers already in the system, this amounted to little more than writing an essay. Then they extended the requirement to demand 3 years of training beyond matriculation which could be done in the form of a correspondence course. According to Claude, this ended up being more of an on paper requirement, than one requiring elevation of teaching skills. “He/She is now 45 years old, completing a correspondence course, and still struggling in the classroom.” So today many of South Africa’s teachers can say that they have met the 12th grade matriculation plus 3 years post requirements and hold all of the appropriate credentials although they have not been in a formal educational institution since age fifteen. In all fairness, the people who are taking this circuitous route have full time jobs, families, other responsibilities, and live great distances from the universities. It would be impossible for most of them to just put their lives on hold to go and fulfill these requirements any other way. Its probably worth mentioning that the same low standards did not apply for white teachers in South Africa.
“I hope you see this whole spiral of reasons why we are struggling in our schools.”
Claude de Jager
The question going forward, "So how do you lift the standards in the schools with this backdrop?"
From Stellenbosch, Claude took me on a tour of his pride and joy, Amstelhof Primary School where he is the principal. Before we went to the school, we drove through the neighborhoods where the children who attend the school live. It is painfully plain to see that the conditions for learning begin to take shape well before the student enters the classroom. At Amstelhof Primary one need only look through the schoolyard gate into the adjoining informal settlement… shacks, people with no jobs, no healthcare, little food, trash, drugs, gangsters, squalor, and abject poverty all intersecting right there for all to see. The teachers here can’t deny the harsh realities of their students’ lives.
As we drive at a slow crawl through the settlement adjacent to the school, Claude speaks to everyone. A teacher is still respected in many places here and Claude has been an educator for over 30 years. It rained yesterday and the sun is shining bright today. These are the perfect conditions for clothes washing in a place where everyone still washes by hand and dries on a clothes line (clothes dryers are a commodity, even for working class people), thus the community is bustling with clothes washing activity. Women pump water at a communal tap, as though they were living in a rural village, not in the heart of an urban area.
They scrub clothes in plastic basins, and carry the clothes back to their homes where they hang them on clothes lines. We drive pass a set of communal toilets. They look like permanent Porta-Potties made of concrete with sinks adjacent.
Lots of children scurry about. Some are school aged children who should be in school at the time we are driving through. Many more are preschool aged children who would benefit from early childhood development centers.
Many are unemployed or hustling… selling candy or other goods from their homes, selling an illegal home brewed alcohol, drugs, doing hair, etc. Julius Wilson documents similar practices in the ghettos of Chicago in “The Disappearance of Work.” One of the things that has always amazed me about poor people is their resourcefulness.
It takes great resolve, courage, and oftentimes genius to hustle and survive in the throngs of poverty. Many of these poor people display the same kind of leadership qualities and ingenuity that it takes to be successful in the corporate world. These are some of the realities that the children of Amstelhof face everyday before they even get to school.
Once at school, I am told that the children of Amstelhof engage in practices that are designed to build basic math, writing, and reading skills before they enter into a more formal class schedule. Claude likes to point out that on one side of the school are the informal settlements and on the other side of the school is the highway—metaphorically the highway to the world beyond the throngs of poverty—. The school, or EDUCATION, then serves as “the pathway to the world.” Great concept made concrete by the fact that you can stand outside of the front door of the school and see both sides.
Amstelhof would be more consistent with what I would call an urban school. Though I am able to clearly see differences between the urban schools and the farm schools (like Bergendal), what’s most telling are the similarities. The students and the teachers are fighting the same war on different terrains. It is essential that the educators at these schools understand their terrain, and the sources of opposition they must face in these environments. They must also align themselves to share each others successes and failures in order to better implement best practices. Claude showed me around and explained to me how he leverages resources, and how the generosity of many contributes to his unending efforts to provide the best education possible for the students of Amstelhof. He demonstrates that good leadership is a key to the success of schools. Research has shown this time and time again. School leaders who are tough, determined, committed, and inspired can make a difference. Claude is clearly a man of great faith.
Mandela (Madiba) House
Next we visited the house that Nelson Mandela stayed in during his final months of incarceration. The house remains largely intact and helps to tell the story of his continued movement towards an amicable negotiation of the end of Apartheid. This was the last prison that would ever house Mandela, and the gates we walked out of were the same gates he walked through as he strode to freedom.
Visting a place where such an incredible human being lived was nice. Personally, I was mentally preoccupied with what I had seen over the last few days, and I was struggling to keep being a tourist on this trip. I was processing, and praying and wishing I could help people. Taking pictures at Madiba House just didn’t seem important.
To that end, I was treated to a trip to a development that was committed to making a difference for the families of Farm laborers in South Africa… Dennegeur…
Dennegeur is a community built for local farm laborers with donated monies. The idea of Dennegeur shows that situations like Flakte Brick farm do not have to be… There are other paths that farm owners can take to ensure the well being of their employees, and to repay them for their decades of hard work by ensuring that they have adequate housing and resources that position them to give their children a better future. Dennegeur was paradise for a farm laborer compared to what I had seen so far. In addition to a rugby field, basketball court, pavilion, huge swimming pool, health center, daycare center, and educational/spiritual training facility, they are growing their own food and installing tunnels for tunnel farming. The community is clean, with green backyards and beautiful gardens in the front yards. Its secure and it feels safe. It has rules to foster social cohesion. It is night and day from the housing that I have seen for most poor South Africans up until now. In addition, the people will own these properties and pass them on to their children. This is a a far cry from living on a farm where your employment is directly tied to your housing and the education of your children. More info here: http://www.la-motte.com/index.cfm?event=centralContent&intCentralContentID=7957
From Dennegeur we took a quick ride up to a French village amongst the Paarl mountains called FRANSCHEOK. It’s a quaint little town that looks like its for the wealthy. We grabbed a cup of Rooibos tea there before heading back to the bed and breakfast.
We finished off the day at our final dinner with the Bergendal staff. The restaurant, De Kelder, boasted a “Bottomless Ribs” special on Thursday nights. We ended up cleaning out their ribs… SERIOUSLY! Most of us were on our 3rd slab of babybacks when the waiter told us that they only had 3 slabs left. I wanted to come back later and vandalized their sign so that it would read “LESS Ribs,” but that’s not why I was in South Africa. It was another excellent time of fun and fellowship. Bergendal really adopted us, and loved on us. They made Tristian and I feel very special. Great day.
Written by Frederick A Hanna
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