BEACONS OF HOPE
Pupils flock back to kasi schools
● A school in Soweto that was on the verge of closing, and another in Daveyton that started as a refuge for “unsuitable” youngsters, now have pupils beating down their doors for admission.
On Wednesday, Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi singled out Unity Secondary School in Daveyton on the East Rand and Bhukulani Secondary in Soweto as township success stories, saying efforts to improve standards were beginning to pay off.
He said a new wave of confidence in township schools was rising.
At Unity Secondary, more than 2,000 applications have been received for the 150 grade 8 spots available next year. The school is already bursting at the seams — it has 640 more pupils than its design capacity of 1,700.
The school had its origins 30 years ago in the efforts of James Wandile Makhubu, who is now the principal but at the time was a young teacher concerned about the countless young people who were loitering on the streets.
Begging the principals at two local primary schools for space, he started a makeshift school for these youngsters with the help of five unemployed teachers who worked for free.
Makhubu, 61, said Unity Secondary’s own classrooms were built in 1996, and the name was chosen to symbolise the efforts of everyone the school had brought together.
Over the past five years, the school has had an influx of grade 9 and 10 pupils moving from former Model C schools.
Makhubu said pupils were attracted to the school by its good results — last year its matric pass rate was 92%. The school offers extra classes on weekends and during school holidays.
“We just ask for a R400 donation annually. So when we have projects at the school, parents are very generous because they are saving on school fees and transport,” Makhubu said.
Unity Secondary is a quintile 4 school, which means it can charge a maximum fee of R580 a year.
Anna Nkosi moved her son to Unity this year from a former Model C school after his grades started to drop.
It was a major shift for her son because he now has to learn Zulu, but she said the extra lessons offered at the school were helping him catch up.
His marks had improved “tremendously”. “I think the travelling time played a role because he used to spend four hours a day travelling to and from school.”
Xolani Jobela, who has two children at Unity Secondary, said the dedication of teachers and the principal was obvious. He had moved his children to the school because it was closer to their home and he could be more involved in school activities.
At Bhukulani Secondary, when Mduduzi Mathe took up the post of principal in 1998 he had to beg the then education MEC, Mary Metcalfe, not to close it.
The matric pass rate was 20%, there was a serious lack of discipline, and crime and drugs were rife. But last year the pass rate was 92.8%.
“When I came to the school, I basically took over a shell. There were no doors, windows or even a gate,” Mathe said.
“But the teachers were really dedicated, and offered extra classes for matrics.”
He said he had led by example. “I had to be the first to arrive at school and the last to leave.”
With the help of small businesses in the area, the school was rebuilt and by the end of 1998 staff could start focusing on education again.
Mathe said experts from the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation had held workshops and offered counselling to help give both teachers and pupils a more positive mindset.
Fezile Ntloko, who is now the school’s acting principal, said the school had received more than 1,200 applications for the 300 spots in grade 8.
Parent Zanele Khumalo said that when she was retrenched from her job in March last year, she could no longer afford to pay the R1,200 transport for her daughter to get to her previous school.
“I still wanted the best possible education for my child, and the matric results at Bhukulani speak for themselves.”
Another parent, Nicholas Shezi, said he was impressed by the school’s good results and discipline. “Every time you pass the school, you can see education is taken seriously there.”
Gauteng education spokesperson Steve Mabona said the department planned to convert more schools in townships to English medium to accommodate the demand for this from parents.