Cracking calculus on my own
I decided not to ask for a smartphone and Wi-Fi connection because that would mean my family had to choose between those facilities and providing food for me
time and to be disciplined. My slogan is “Direction is better than speed”. It has helped me to stay calm and continue to study in my own pace without being pressured to finish the term’s work. I took each day as a school day.
I was able to listen to classes on radio. These classes gave me clarity on some topics that I could not understand. I struggled a lot with mathematics, even though there were some maths classes on radio, but they were not effective for me.
I decided to use different study guides — I had to try and understand maths. It took me more than two weeks to understand differential calculus. My slogan kept on motivating me to work hard. But the time I spent trying to figure out differential calculus was worth it: I did it on my own!
When the lockdown was extended, my school started to teach on WhatsApp; these classes were later closed because most learners could not afford to buy data. It was difficult to study at home with no code of conduct or a teacher to monitor our progress. My family played a very important role during this time; they always reminded me to listen to the radio and always stay focused. Being disciplined also made me remain focused and hard-working.
What I love most about studying from home is that there are no bullies and you don’t get competition at home. I was able to work on my own, get information by myself without having to worry about what my peers would say.
I learnt to be independent and strong during this time. I focused on where I wanted to reach as I was studying and didn’t focus on my speed.
I hope this experience was teaching me the culture of learning at university. Guess what, university: I am ready. I can manage my time and crack complex subject content on my own. My wish is to become a nuclear scientist.
ELLA RABE, 9, in grade 3 at a private school in Cape Town
On the first day of lockdown, I thought it would be fun. And it was fun, at first. I had always wanted to be home-schooled. When my brother, who is seven, got to be home while I was at school, I always thought “lucky him”. The good part about learning under lockdown is that I am always able to get help from my Mamma or Pappa, because they are in the home with me. When I am feeling sad, they are always there to give me a hug and extra love. When I get back to school, I will not get to share a desk with my brother either; now this has been fun!
But now, after lockdown learning, I would rather be at school with my friends, and learn at schoolschool and not at home. The reason for this is that during lockdown schooling, especially the first few weeks, I had so much work to do that I used to finish all my school work quite late. The latest time was almost nine o’clock in the night! There was just too much work to get done for the day. It took much longer, having to do it all on a device, and share devices with my brother, or write out the work, take a photo and submit online. It really took a long time.
And what bothered me most and caused me to feel sadder as the days went by was that every time the school work took this long, it meant that I could not just play or read! I have a beautiful doll house my Oupa made me and I like to spend time playing with my dolls, or composing songs on the keyboard Ouma gave me or do jamming sessions with my brother on his broken drum kit and me on the ukulele! I also love writing stories, but I cannot do any of that if my school work is not done for the day. That was possibly one of the hardest things. Doing school at school and having home time for chats and play is the best!
Luckily, I have gotten into a routine of school work now, and we get less work per day, so some days are earlyish days. If I do not get too much work, I can handle it. I think it would be lovely if the only work we get is Read Aloud, some mental maths maybe and have the rest of the day for play time, because as you play, you learn at the same time.
Here is a poem I made up: When I am stuck at home / all I want to do is roam / Sometimes if I’ve got too much work / I may feel overworked/ Some days I feel happy / other days I feel unhappy / Now I can work with my brother / then we can be with one another / So now that is the end / so goodbye dear friend!
I am very grateful to God that I can access the internet. But this gift I have also makes me a bit worried because not all friends have that. I have a pencil case at school with a quote from Nelson Mandela on it and it says: “Education is the most powerful weapon.” It reminds me we should soak up all the learning we can get. Also, Malala [Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist] said in her book that I read: “One book, one pen, one teacher and one student can change the world.” I think it’s true!
My tip to share with other friends is that wherever you are, you can learn. Ask questions, cook and learn quantities, read and learn from what you read, get inspired and write stories. Lie on your back and try to interpret birds, find patterns in the clouds.
I know many friends did not choose their difficult circumstances and other friends do not have enough support or enough money or even food! Many got to eat at their schools and now that has been impossible. At night, when I pray, I ask God to help with many difficult circumstances and decisions because He is God and He can help!
Thank you that I could tell you my story.
HANNAH DUNCAN, 14, in grade 8 at Rustenburg Girls’ High School in Rondebosch, Cape Town
Ifind online learning easy because my school provides iPads for all learners. We get daily emails saying that we have new work posted up on Google Classroom. I love the fact that we can manage our own time. I find it easy because I have a good work ethic. I found it fun learning outside of my schooling environment. I was able to learn from my parents, older brother and sister and not only within the classroom. I enjoyed having a bigger picture of the South African authenticity due to all the media and openness of Covid-19 and the many voices that spoke about the discrimination in SA.
BUT this is NOT the reality for many other 14-yearolds and this is why I wish that I could have a voice to challenge the injustice in the South African education system today.
I consider myself to be privileged because my learning during lockdown has NOT been disrupted. I am very fortunate to have unlimited Wi-Fi access in my home and all the relevant devices to facilitate my learning. At Rustenburg Girls’ High School we will most definitely be able to practise social distancing once school has started. We have the luxury of space and a limited number of learners per classroom. This has got me thinking about the poor and vulnerable in SA. There are at least 50-60 children in ONE classroom. How will they practise social distancing? How will teachers manage all the added responsibilities pertaining to health and safety of learners in poorer schools?
Sending the grade 12s and 7s back to school during this time, especially in the rural areas, is a crazy idea! Most rural areas don’t even have running water and proper bathroom facilities. How are the learners going to get to school safely? Taxis, Golden Arrow buses and lift clubs are going to get even fuller, which creates more of a risk.
I wonder how many learners have had no access and no learning for this entire lockdown. Covid-19 has again exposed the inequalities in our country. Nothing has changed in our country for the poor and vulnerable.
“Until we get equality in education we won’t have an equal society,” according to justice Sonia Sotomayor from the US Supreme Court. We need equality in education before equality in society.
My parents and many other black South Africans missed a whole year of school in 1985 due to apartheid. Most of them turned out just fine. Instead of using this time to send children back to school, why does the government not take this time and work on the problems in SA’s education? We need a new curriculum, we need equal access and we need equal resources. If we don’t fix this now it will just become worse and when we face the next crisis the inequalities will again be ripped wide open.
As a 14-year-old I do have a voice and I will use it to continuously challenge inequalities in my country.
KAITLYN JOOSTE, 18, in grade 12 at Northern Cape High School in Kimberley, in the Northern Cape
Home-schooling has always been a dream of mine. The idea of not having teachers constantly breathing down my neck about homework and giving detention for eating in class excited me. So, now that I had the opportunity to learn under lockdown, I was overjoyed that my dream was finally coming true. No teachers, no homework and no detention sounded like paradise.
I thought that this would be a walk in the park but it turned out to be a walk in the woods.
The first two weeks went exactly as planned. I woke up, did my chores and started to work. I was productive and determined to make learning under lockdown work. I was on a roll. A week before the school was supposed to open, the president extended the lockdown. Schools couldn’t reopen and I was stuck at home for who knows how long. There goes all my determination and productivity down the drain. Knowing the schools wouldn’t reopen any time soon, I knew that this was not going to end well.
As the weeks flew by, the work was piling up and my books became a breeding place for who knows what. It was difficult not having any teachers explain the work or to help with anything! Trying to understand physics and accounting without a teacher was harder than I expected. How am I supposed to know what Markovnikov’s rule states, or that isoamyl acetate, also known as isopentyl acetate, is actually the smell of bananas and pears?
I was starting to realise that I was not cut out for home school. There were too many distractions and I had little to no self-discipline to actually pick up my pen and do my calculus. I was getting nowhere pretty fast and it was scary.
Two weeks turned into four. Four weeks to six, and in the blink of an eye I had been at home for two months. This was not going according to plan. I was supposed to wake up every day energetic and enthusiastic to start my day. Work for about six hours and have a relaxing yet productive afternoon. But did any of that actually happen? No! Try waking up at 11am all groggy and cranky, doing at most two hours of work on the best of days and just lounging the rest of the day away. Procrastination and I became as close as bark to a tree. And not to mention all the work that was being thrown at us from all angles. Do this essay, complete these 200 activities, read that book. I didn’t know if I was coming or going. Just know that I had to step up my organisation and prioritising game.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t all dark and gloomy. Learning under lockdown had its good moments, too. For example, I could analyse and dissect Othello at my own pace and understand the Shakespearean language better. Having blank pages in my book was a thing of the past because I completed all my summaries and worksheets. I developed a note-taking system in my books that makes it easier to jot down notes when the teacher decides to speak at lightning speed. I’d honestly have to say that I had the confidence to answer any question my biology teacher had about genetics and inheritance. So overall it wasn’t as awful as I initially thought.
The lockdown made me realise that I’m not cut out for home-schooling, however. I’d have to say that I prefer the good old-fashioned chalkboard over learning at home.
NOMATHAMSANQA KHWAZA, 19, in grade 12 at Barkly East High School, in Barkly East in the Eastern Cape
Learning under lockdown was fun and easy at first because no-one was telling me what to do and there was no-one busy checking up on me, whether I did my homework or not. I studied on my own time, everything was going like I wanted it to. As more days went by without me being at school, I started feeling the pressure of how much work, “new work” to be precise, I had to learn all by myself. I now struggled with time management.
My home is a place that I would call an unfriendly study environment as I can only study at night. That is, when everyone is asleep, because that is when the entire house is nice and quiet. I started with easy things like summarising and making notes. I also used this time to test and see how long I could stay up at night. This technique helped me understand and challenge myself more. Since I was struggling with time management, I decided to draw up a study plan for myself, which of course I did not follow for at least 14 days. I had to encourage myself to try and get out of my comfort zone and finish what I started. This is when I started enjoying doing my school work. I now had a plan which I followed.
There are some radio shows and television channels that would broadcast grade 12 content. This was great because I needed all the help I could get, but I was facing a problem: the shows were broadcasting at the same time when my family wanted to watch their evening shows. I sometimes could not tune in because they just did not let me. It was always six people against one.
After the president announced that the lockdown was being extended, I was shocked. How could this happen? It was very heartbreaking and stressful at the same time. Another full month at home, trying to fight procrastination. Online learning and other methods of learning were being introduced.
My school started WhatsApp groups to help bridge the gap of online learning since it was expensive and some learners could not access it. With that said, I had to try out more things by myself, like watching YouTube videos and also going on educational websites. You know what that means — more data, and more data means more money. I had to stop because now my family was starting to complain that they were spending more money on data than on groceries. Fortunately I was able to reach out to a friend so that we could study together.
My time-management fun was short-lived as I had to start all over again. With my new study plan made, I had to spend more hours studying. I now had to adjust to studying both in the afternoon and at night. In the afternoons I did the work that I found easy and at night I practised the difficult subjects. This is what is helping me right now. I miss school, even though it is kind of fun not waking up early in the morning. I miss the school vibes, interactions with other learners.
My advice to other learners is to draw up study plans, to improve their time-management skills, and that with every subject they must make notes on what they do not understand and ask those questions when schools reopen.
With that said, my personal lockdown experience was both difficult and easy at the same time.
Learning under Lockdown, featuring the voices of around 500 South African schoolchildren and edited by Jonathan Jansen, professor of education at Stellenbosch University, and co-edited with Emily O’Ryan and Mkululi Nompumza, will soon be available in book and electronic form. Proceeds from sales will go towards feeding children in poor schools in SA.
I decided to draw up a study plan, which of course I did not follow for at least 14 days