Your place in making change
In the South African context, Grahamstown is unique in many respects. Here, I outline various facets and dimensions of its uniqueness as a university city. It is important and necessary for every student to ‘know your place’, not in the sense of being subservient to authority, but rather in terms of being able to operate and thrive, based on an understanding of this particular locality.
In some circles, Grahamstown is touted as a ‘Centre of Educational Excellence’. There is certainly some justification for this claim, namely the existence in the city of Rhodes University (the leading university in the province), various excellent but expensive private schools and some very fine public schools.
In addition, the city is home to institutions such as the College of Transfiguration, the National English Literary Museum (NELM) and the South African Library for the Blind (SALB). Finally, the city hosts annual festivals such as the National Arts Festival and SciFest Africa that feature prominently on the national calendar of educational events.
However, what this perspective disregards is the reality that the majority of the city’s children are subjected to poor schooling. The consequences of this are that about 50% of Grahamstown youth drop out of school before reaching matric and that many others fail to obtain their National Senior Certificates. As a result, and because of the absence of an adequate industrial base for the local economy, unemployment is pervasive.
The people who I am referring to – those who are subjected to inferior education, who drop out of school, who fail matric, who are unemployed – are all poor and black, and often female. The dividing lines in this place are deep and stubborn. This reality renders the ‘Centre of Excellence’ claim empty of meaning for the majority of the city’s population and therefore (in my view) null and void.
But this does not mean nor imply that Grahamstown is doomed to remain unchanged with its divisions and inequalities. There are several factors that point to significant potential for change in the locality.
These include the compactness of the city (thanks in large part to the successful resistance to the forced removal of Fingo Village in the 1970s) and its demographic profile. A large proportion of the local population is young and the 8000-strong annual cohort of Rhodes students comprises about 10% of the entire city population.
There is no other city in South Africa (barring perhaps Stellenbosch) where university students dominate the local population as much as here in Grahamstown.
The significance of this is that our 8 000 university students are universally energetic and smart; these are valuable attributes and qualities if one considers a local education challenge.
In my mind, Rhodes University students constitute a ‘critical mass’ in our local educational context; this term refers to a group of societal actors that is large enough to bring about significant social change.
It was consideration of this reality amongst others that led Vice Chancellor Dr Sizwe Mabizela to opt to re-position and re-imagine Rhodes University.
On the wonderful occasion of his inauguration in early 2015 the VC declared that under his tenure, Rhodes would be for Grahamstown and of Grahamstown as much as it is in Grahamstown. Since then, he has moved briskly and decisively to give substance to his commitment to this locality; his ‘Initiative to Revitalise Public Schooling’ moves into its second year of implementation in 2017.
In its inaugural year last year, the initiative mobilised about 600 students in a wide variety of educational interventions, including mentoring, tutoring, reading support and the facilitation of homework.
These services were offered at public primary schools and high schools, with the express intention of equalising educational opportunities in Grahamstown.
Specifically, Dr Mabizela wants to see an increasing number of local disadvantaged students being accepted to study at Rhodes. Tremendous progress has already been made in this regard. This year, about 80 local disadvantaged students will be admitted as full-time 1st-year students and a further 10 will be admitted as occasional students (whilst simultaneously upgrading select Grade 12 subjects at the GADRA Matric School). As many as 30 of the new full-time students were direct beneficiaries of Dr Mabizela’s initiative last year.
The labour market is becoming increasingly competitive. It’s no longer enough simply to have a degree, with potential employers looking for evidence that applicants have ‘that little bit extra’.
That may take the form of work experience, leadership credentials or community engagement, for example.
A further factor that students should take seriously is that those who volunteer in the education sector generally outperform (academically) those who do not. There are therefore a plethora of reasons for students to embrace the vision of Dr Mabizela; in the words of Gandhi, “be the change you wish to see in this world”.
• Ashley Westaway is the manager, Gadra Education