We had an amazing experience at the Itsitsa Primary School
yesterday morning. Before we left Elmira
College, we broke up into two groups and planned some activities with either
older kids or younger kids. Our students
who worked with younger kids planned some games and songs and storytelling
(keeping in mind that the younger kids at the school wouldn’t speak much
English). Our students who were working with the older kids planned to do small group discussions on general
topics such as politics, gender, schools, and stereotypes. So we showed up at the school with a
plan. Of course, the moment we arrived,
everything was different—and really fascinating.
We drove through Khayeshilita to a different
neighborhood than we were the other day. We could see, above the single
story shacks and small two-room houses, the outline of a larger and modern
looking brick building rising up in the immediate distance. As we got closer, we saw that it was the
school where we were headed. When we
arrived, we saw that the building was not yet occupied and was still had
workers on site. The school was in
temporary quarters, trailers for the most part, on the grounds next to the
building. There were a lot of trailers
set side by side, forming small dirt courtyards of a sort. As we walked in, we could hear the sounds of
hundreds of kids at work. As they
spotted us, a kind of cheer went up and suddenly there were kids at all the
windows and doors yelling and cheering and laughing. We could actually hear teachers trying to
keep order in the classrooms. Those kids
were so excited to see the Americans that it felt like we were some kind of
Hollywood royalty or something like that.
Our first stop was one of the few buildings on site, it was
a longer cement block building with plain wood beams on the roof. This double classroom also served as the
music room, and rickety plastic chairs were set out for us. As we walked in and sat down, we could see
the school choir—kids ranging from about 8-18—standing at the front of the room
in their uniforms. They looked serious
and very very nervous. And then they
started to sing. Wow. They really came alive with the music,
singing and swaying, and dancing, and they were amazing! All the songs they sang for us had the
multi-part African harmony, sung absolutely beautifully. As it turns out, the school’s choir is a
competitive and award-winning choir, and they proudly brought out their
trophies to show us.
We were welcomed by S.W. Ulana, the young and energetic
Headmaster of the school. The school has 1500 students from grades
1-12. It is considered a ‘no-fee’
school, which means that it mostly serves the poorest of the poor. Schools in South Africa are all free, but
parents are usually responsible for fees for books and lunch and uniforms and
other related expenses. But in some
townships, where poverty is very concentrated, the government subsidizes those
fees. It helps a lot in urban areas, but
schools in rural areas often see kids unable to pay school fees and having to
skip years while money is saved up (some grades will have a few much older kids
in them, some of those students even in their early 20s). Itsitsa School is subsidized. But money is clearly still an issue. Many of the kids were wearing uniforms that were
clean but patched or visibly mended. The
trailers were sparsely equipped and packed with kids. The Headmaster told us that they have some
lab equipment but it doesn’t work so they have to teach science without
labs. Everyone is looking forward to the
moving into the new school, but the government paid for the building and there
is not yet any money for equipping it.
There isn’t even money for books for the new library. It is clear that the teachers and Headmaster
are working really hard to support these kids, and working in extremely
challenging conditions.
After the choir sang, we were prepared to meet with the
kids, but it turns out that many of the younger students at the school had
their lunch period. So our EC students
went out while the kids were eating, and stood and talked with them in the
courtyard. We were immediately swarmed
by kids who wanted to talk, touch, kiss, or hug us. Those kids wanted to touch our hair and
faces, hold our hands, or just stand near us.
Everyone was laughing and talking and smiling, and there was some
dancing and singing, and lots and lots of hugging. At one point, I looked out and saw that every
single one of our students was literally surrounded by a swarm of young children
and I could hear the happy sounds of laughter ringing around the courtyard.
After the children had their lunch, we broke off into our
groups. The EC students meeting with the
younger kids played games and sang songs back and forth, and Corey read them
the book Green Eggs and Ham. The children
didn’t understand the words, but repeated them back after each line. Our other group broke up into small
discussion sections, most of quickly turned into question and answer sessions
with the older students. We got asked
about President Obama (the ‘Yes We Can’ idea has a lot of fans here,
understandably. President Obama is
clearly seen as more of a symbol here than an actual policymaker). We got questions about ourselves, our goals
and plans, and we got some questions about pop culture too—Beyonce being a
particularly favorite topic it seems.
At the end of our visit, the Headmaster did a question and
answer session with us about education in South Africa, and we gave the school
a gift from the class.
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