Mpontshini

I have spent this week in Mpontshini Primary School teaching the year 7 children (aged 13).

I arrived yesterday to be given a set of lessons that I would be teaching – English, Social Sciences (mainly geography and history) and Life Orientation (everything from personal health to study skills). The head of year 7 was, thankfully, understanding when I suggested it would be helpful to observe the lessons for a day. This gave me a chance to see what and how they were being taught.

Most of my expectations have been fulfilled. Here are some examples:

1) The children sing beautifully.
2) Religion plays an important part in the day. All the children squeeze their eyes shut and bow their heads for prayers in the morning.
3) The classrooms are jam packed. I have 70 in my class. I can barely pronounce a single name as most are Zulu and are not pronounced phonetically. If I stay at the school I will have to come up with nicknames.
4) The classroom atmosphere remains very old-fashioned. The children greet a teacher that enters a room by standing up and chanting, ‘Good Morning Sir. How are you today?’ They stay standing until asked to sit down.
5) Teaching style is ‘chalk and talk’. It is difficult to do otherwise as there are almost no resources.

One misconception is that all the children are desperately enthusiastic and keen to learn. They are children. While their behaviour is much better than in the UK, and much greater respect is retained for the teacher, there are plenty who would prefer not to be there. For them, friendships, parental wrath and the promise of a lunchtime meal act as the determining factors.

The staff have been very friendly towards me. My lack of Zulu will be a barrier to getting to know them well. Nonetheless, they involve me quite naturally. Today I was given the ladling chicken broth (served at 11.00; the children arrive at school at 7.00 so the timing feels right). The pot was quite enormous. I stood serving for approximately 20 minutes as hundreds of bowls passed. I felt very mean with my portions but nobody asked ‘Please Sir, Can I have some more?’