To an unsung heroine: happy World Teachers’ Day
EVERY YEAR ON October 5, the world celebrates Teachers’ Day. This was inaugurated by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) to focus attention on the contributions and achievements of teachers, and to highlight their concerns and priorities regarding education.
In South Africa, teachers have many concerns that impact negatively on their status and standing in society.
They seem to no longer be appreciated. Yet, if you can read, write or solve an equation, you know who to thank. So much of what we know about the world comes from our teachers who equip us with the knowledge, skills and wisdom we need in our lives.
But, the status and high esteem in which teachers used to be held is waning.
Recently, Gadimang Mokolobate, a 24-year-old maths teacher, was stabbed to death by a 17-year-old pupil in a classroom in Zeerust, North West, allegedly for reprimanding him for ill-disciplined behaviour the day before.
A 15-year-old pupil from Eldorado Park, Joburg, was arrested after pointing a gun at his teacher and threatening to shoot.
There is a need to reclaim authority and control over our schools and restore the dignity and status of our teachers. They are a resource and asset that can never be replaced. If you undermine or kill a teacher, you undermine and kill a nation.
Great teachers care about their pupils. They want them to succeed and are committed to helping them achieve their goals. Teachers care about their pupils’ happiness, well-being and lives beyond the classroom.
It is for this reason that on World Teacher’s Day, I want to pay tribute to my Grade 1 teacher, Motlaji Moche, from Marapyane village in Mpumalanga. The way she went about doing her work has left an indelible mark on my life. Her dedication to her work in a resource-constrained environment qualifies her to be one of the unsung heroes of this nation.
Allow me to take you down memory lane to 1972. She taught 100 children in a classroom under a tree. To cope with the numbers, a platoon system was used where 50 of us came to school from 7.30am until 11am. The next group arrived at 10.30am and finished at 2pm. There were no teaching aids, and we used small stones to learn how to write and count.
Even without teaching aids, Mma Moche was patient enough to use everything at her disposal to facilitate learning. She used to spread us around the school grounds and used sand to teach us how to write. She would patiently move from one pupil to the next to ensure that things were done right.
She answered the call of the liberation movement at the time when the apartheid government underfunded the education of black people, and vowed to use everything at her disposal to ensure that black children acquired literacy and numeracy skills in their first year of school.
Every teacher knows that there are some children who put their hand up for every question. There are others who stay quietly at the back of the class and strive to be invisible. It takes the special skills of teachers to encourage the quiet ones to speak out and have confidence in their ability, while keeping talented children grounded and respectful of others.
I was on the quiet side of Mma Moche’s class. But one day she took me by surprise during the school concert when her class was invited to perform some songs and poetry at a function.
At that concert, after the first song, without giving us prior warning, she pulled me from the second row of the choir, together with one other pupil, and asked the two of us to recite an Afrikaans poem, My Katjie. That was my first public performance.
Some of the world’s most famous people point to a special teacher as the inspiration behind their success. For me, it is thanks to my Grade 1 teacher who believed in me, and provided an opportunity for me to display my courage and recite a poem, that I owe all the public appearances I have made in different parts of the globe.
Careful, patient teaching brings out the best in all of us and helps us to fulfil our potential.
The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study report of 2107 found that 78% of Grade 4 pupils cannot read with understanding. This is a national crisis, and the majority of those pupils are in predominantly black schools with inadequate resources. Are we going to blame lack of resources, or the quality of teachers for that?
Mma Moche ensured that a black child could recite an Afrikaans poem with understanding in the first year of school.
Mma Moche turned 90 years old this year. Among her contributions to this nation is that from her Grade 1 class of 1972, she produced the dean of the faculty of education at the University of Pretoria and the vice-chancellor of UCT.
Happy World Teachers’ Day, Mma Moche, an unsung heroine.