I have recently been appointed principal of Nombulelo Secondary School. I arrived in the second last week of term just when marking and reporting deadline stress is at its peak in any school.
I have recently been appointed principal of Nombulelo Secondary School. I arrived in the second last week of term just when marking and reporting deadline stress is at its peak in any school.
What I discovered both delighted and appalled me. I was delighted by the welcome I received from the staff, by their enthusiasm and (despite it being the death of the year, and everyone being tired) their willingness to work long hours into the night to meet deadlines and cover for their colleagues who were away marking provincial exams, in hospital and the like.
Mostly I was amazed by the staff’s energy and commitment despite chronically bad working conditions. The conditions I refer to are both physical and psychological.
Two years ago the boys' one toilet block was badly burned (the skeleton is still in place but there is only half a roof and the facility is completely dysfunctional).
Despite the obvious urgency of this situation in a school of 1100 learners, the repairs (the responsibility for which lies beyond the school) are still awaited with no resolution seeming imminent. In the meantime, staff and learners endure the stench.
Some learners go home during the school day to use facilities there (and who can blame them) and thus a culture of truancy has become embedded over the years.
In addition to this, a recent spate of night-time vandalism has seen windows broken again and again, with people stealing metal fittings from windows and doors and wilfully trashing anything they find in classrooms.
The damage to windows leads to further damage from the elements. Despite all this, as an example, one of the English staff, maintains a beautiful classroom with a tiny library in her cupboard.
She repeatedly puts handmade posters encouraging a culture of reading back up on the walls, fighting against the encroaching damp, and remains one of the most cheerful and determined people I have ever met.
I am deeply humbled by her resilience and dedication (and that of so many of the Nombulelo staff) remembering my own reluctance to allow Art exhibitions to happen in my classroom in VG over festival time lest I should have to – on just that one time in the year – take down and replace my posters!
These factors are all in addition to the generic despondency of learners in this area who no longer believe, as their parents once did (and as the school motto says) that “knowledge is life with wings”.
They see the never-changing unemployment statistics in the Eastern Cape (even for many with a tertiary education) and the continued poverty. Many learners feel that education is pointless.
The question, “What’s wrong with education in the Eastern Cape?” is often asked in the media. It always amazes me that the answer, “the depressed job market”, is not more readily supplied.
Thus the staff at Nombulelo face the daily challenge of demotivation. I wonder how many people would remain enthusiastic and dedicated under such circumstances.
And so, I appeal to the community of Grahamstown for whatever support you can offer: I appeal to you, when the matric results come out, not to jump to overhasty judgements;
I appeal to businesses to offer support in kind; I appeal to individuals to offer even small amounts of time with whatever skills they have; gardeners, if you have indigenous or water-wise plants to spare;
DIY enthusiasts if you have more tools than your workshop can hold, or half tins of paint that you’ll never get back to; schools if you have spare blackboards or whiteboards that you have replaced with smartboards – please think of us.
The school will be open again from the 5th of January.
Nicci Hayes nhayes@vghs.co.za (with thanks to VG for the continued use of their email facilities until our own are finalised.)
