ARCHIVES: RURAL SCHOOLING OP-ED: Our rural education system is broken — we must learn from our ancestors that it takes a village to educate a child
We are currently hearing a great deal about how the culture of performance, honesty and professionalism in our state-owned enterprises and organisations like the South African Revenue Service was destroyed by State Capture and corruption. And that in addition to sorting out the infrastructure, systems, staffing and governance issues, it is going to take time to restore the culture.
The schools there have retained a strong culture of learning and teaching, including in science and maths. This dates back to their historic inheritance but more recently to the 1920s when the first community-controlled school in Venda was built in 1920 by Domba initiate girls. The girls made the mud bricks for the construction of their community school, called Camp School, where both girls and boys could practise their traditional culture and at the same time receive a good education.
In places like Vhembe, however, the chiefs, parents and educators continued to nurture the culture of learning and teaching, including emphasising the importance of studying maths and science, and this has survived in these communities. But they are far too few and far between in a country like ours.
As part of this, NMU’s Faculty of Science, together with the Faculty of Education and CCS, is working hard to make maths and science accessible again. We visit and host maths and science exhibitions, workshops and expos, and encourage parents and communities to take an active interest in the children’s education.
As the Faculty of Science we collaborate in maths and science programmes with several schools in the distant rural areas, including Cala and Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape; Thembalethu in the Southern Cape; and with schools in the Vhembe district. All these schools are producing strong results because the learners, parents, community and education officials are working together as a team.
I also urge graduates and professionals who grew up in rural communities to support community schools. Many of us still call our rural communities home and we will be buried there. We need to help to rebuild a culture of achievement in these communities, and to share scarce skills.
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