‘I want to improve the education they get’
MATHS and science teacher Phumlani Kubheka has built himself a mud hut on the grounds of a remote KwaZulu-Natal school in his quest to give his pupils the best education he can.
He is one of six teachers at Slang River Primary School who have given up their home comforts to teach children in rural areas.
Kubheka and his five colleagues do not have running water or electricity in their ramshackle accommodation. The school is about 35km from Newcastle, on the banks of the Zwaaihoek Dam.
Kubheka built a one-bedroom mud hut, which is attached to a makeshift kitchen used by himself and his colleagues to prepare their food and cook one meal a day for about 110 pupils.
Two teachers share another room that is attached to the kitchen and two stay in rundown caravans.
The school has electricity only in its three prefabricated classrooms — shared by several grades — and uses a plastic JoJo tank for its water supply.
In winter, the night temper- ature regularly drops below zero. One toilet, a pit latrine, is used by both the pupils and teachers.
“I do it for the children,” Kubheka said this week. “I want to improve the education these children get.”
He said urban schools had good facilities. “They have what they need. I want to make this rural school as good as any school in a town.”
Kubheka believes his pupils have potential but need access to proper resources. “There are pupils here who are very intelligent, but they don’t have access to things that can expand their minds and make them learn more. If someone could come on board and build one or two more classrooms, a library and a computer centre, it would make a big difference — for the pupils and the teachers.”
Kubheka travels to his home about 70km away on a Friday to be with his wife and child.
“There is no public transport to get to the school. The bus comes on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So if I don’t live on the property, I won’t be able to come to work and teach.”
KwaZulu-Natal education de- partment spokesman Muzi Mahlambi heaped praise on the Slang River teachers, but expressed concern about the conditions they faced.
The department, he said, was investigating the possibility of merging rural schools to ensure better access to basic services.
He added that the department struggled to attract teachers to these deep-rural schools.
“People, especially people like teachers who have qualifications, tend to gravitate towards cities that have developed and have various amenities. That is natural,” Mahlambi said.