Changing education
Environment is important, as are children’s interests
ASCHOOL due to open in January is set to change the face of education in South Africa by introducing affordable primary school education which incorporates collaboration, exploration and relevance in its model.
The Streetlight Schools concept has been taking shape inside an unassuming block of flats in Jeppestown since October 2013.
Since it’s inception, it has consisted of an experimental aftercare centre that tests out the model that will ultimately be used when the school starts officially next year.
Melanie Smuts, chief executive and founder of the NGO, told The Star she had worked in a Khayelitsha school while studying to be a human rights lawyer, and this had pushed her to develop a different approach.
“That was my first experience of how broken the education system is,” she says.
After that, a stint at a lowcost rural school in India inspired and fuelled her vision.
“They used people in the community to work in and invest in the school. The problem with education in South Africa is we don’t have a clear vision of what a great education system situated right where people need it would look like. We see it in the national dialogue where they express frustration a lot, but we don’t see powerful solutions and that’s why I started Streetlight Schools,” she says.
Smuts says everyone loses out in the way education is currently executed. Streetlight Schools adopts a more innovative and fun approach which includes peer-to-peer, projectand technology-based learning, as well as classical instruction.
The school will expand on the current national curriculum and incorporate the Reggio Emilia learning philosophy.
“We bring in elements of learning that make it fun and interesting, without additional funds. It’s a paradigm shift. We try and interrogate everything.
“We ask why children have to sit in desks in a row or be in grades with ages. We have children drive projects through their own interests, we just guide them. It’s a wonderful way to engage,” says Smuts.
“But a lot of time goes into the invention of a model like this,” she adds.
Streetlight Schools has partnered with Bjala, the low-cost housing company that owns the building.
“Bjala understands you build communities through schools. We have rethought how school buildings work.
“Schools are built like a prison complex and are very expensive to build. We’re taking things like empty factory floors and turning them into a child-friendly space,” she says.
Smuts says she hopes to change the perception that schools are completely separate from someone’s home life.
Forty-seven children who live in the building and surrounding area attend the aftercare centre.
“The fact that we are on the ground floor and the kids live here has been an incredible way to get into their lives and understand them.”
Although the school is a work in progress and was under construction when The Star visited, it already looks completely different to any conventional school.
A large auditorium in one of the rooms is constructed from repurposed wooden palates stacked on top of one another.
On the other side of the room, a computer centre has been constructed out of transparent corrugated plastic.
Large, colourful Chinese lanterns hang from the ceiling.
It is an example of the beautiful, imaginative learning space the school hopes to create throughout, but it also uses revolutionary, low-cost technology.
Tyler Bairstow, the school’s project manager, explains how the Raspberry Pi micro-computers work.
Instead of the large computer towers traditionally used, these computers are run by palm-sized units powered by a cellphone charger and cost less than $30 (R400).
They have been developed specifically for use by children.
“This means we can set up one computer station for less than R1 000,” says Bairstow.
A standard tower acts as the server on which all the software is stored.
“We can take this and show it to schools across the country. Also, it won’t get stolen because people don’t know how to use it.”
A free online education course called KA Lite will be used to teach the children maths in an exciting way. Bairstow says some of them have already started racing each other to complete levels, making learning seem more like playing a game.
“It makes doing stuff like one plus one so much more exciting. You’re sitting at a computer, not in a classroom at a desk, slaving away.”
In other parts of the groundfloor space, which used to be a shoe factory, children sit at tables created from industrial spindles on brightly painted tyre chairs.
“There’s an underlying emphasis on recycling,” says Bairstow.
The first phase of the school will start with 80 Grade R and Grade 1 pupils and will be expanded each year until it reaches its capacity of 930 pupils. It then hopes to expand to other areas.
Although each child will pay a minimal fee, Streetlight Schools is running fundraisers to try to subsidise each child as they are not entitled to receive any government funding during their first year.
The cost to provide each child not only with education, but also a uniform, stationery, breakfast, lunch, and aftercare, stands at R9 375 per child, per year.
Their Turn on a Light for One Child campaign encourages people to sponsor a child’s schooling for the year.
Visit the website at www.streetlightschools.org for more details or to make a contribution to the school.