Community

This evening, after leaving the office late, I was tempted head straight home and go to bed early. This past week I’ve had very little sleep; the unfortunate juxtaposition of my obssession with early morning starts, and my partner’s obligation to study well into the morning hours for his Ph. D. Call it burning the candle from both ends.

An early Friday night seemed awfully tempting on a cold and rainy winter’s night, but in the end I stuck to a promise I had made myself earlier in the week, that I would go to synagogue to practice my Hebrew and connect with my community. Now don’t get me wrong, I am about as religious as an apple can be an orange; however, religious event aside, there is something special about being part of a community, being connected to people of similar backgrounds and interests.

Community is important. It connects people together to a common project to better their lives and the lives of the people who live around them. Education without Borders’ mission is to empower parents, teachers, and students to build a community around their schools. The long term objective is not just education, it is also to create a community around the schools EwB supports.

Yet EwB also indirectly helps build community amongst South Africans living abroad. Our NGO achieves this by offering meaningful cultural and fundraising projects (such as the Vancouver South African Film Festival) that bring expats together in a common cause to help improve the lives of fellow South Africans.

In the end everyone is looking to belong somewhere. We are all in search of a community where we can contribute, and where we feel we belong, and where we can be better human beings. Projects such as EwB help build that sense of community for so many people, whether in  Gugulethu at the start of another school year, or here in Vancouver on a cold raining night.

 

We Are Fezeka

An insight into how our learners spend their weekends:

 

My Weekend

Basiame Selebano

Today I am writing about my weekend. I had  lots of fun and dreams. I was happy that I could tell the world that I am happy. I had lots of fun playing soccer with my friends, riding bikes with my friends and having a boys chat with my friends. It was Saturday that day when I woke up early in the morning, I cleaned myself up and ate breakfast and went to the library to do my assignment and after that played some computer games and chating on Facebook, and then I went back at home.

I went to the field to play soccer for my team that is Lucky Stars Football Club and unfortunately we lost the game but fortunately I scored a goal in that match. But football is a game of having fun on and off the field, and I went back at home and took a shower while I was showering my mom cooked one of my favourite dishes, it was green salad, rice, potatoe salad, broccoli and sausage. That’s one on my most favorite dish in the world.

Then I went to my friends played with them soccer, riding and racing with our bike, and chating our boys chat with my friends. Then the day was over with lots of like I was having fun in one year. The next day on Sunday I woke up early again preparing to go to church and my day was blessed again and got back from church and I ate my favorite dish again so that how my weekend was blessed with fun and dreams.

 

Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves.

In a recent article, which can be found here, Professor Jonathan Jansen of the University of the Free State discusses the current state of the South African education system. Specifically, he dissects and argues against the current coding system implemented by the Department of Education. This article has made the rounds throughout EwB, but the reason for really mentioning  it at all is that the core argument behind it has constantly cropped up in the last two to three weeks. Here are some of my thoughts on the article itself.

Obviously coming from the U.S., the idea of passing with a 30% (or 40%, 50%, and 60%) is ludicrous. If you only know 30% of any material, do you actually know it? Learners are happy with passing with their 30%, and why shouldn’t they be? They are lauded as an educational success story, they passed, they can be someone. However, by continuing to maintain this 30% they will, as the article says, continuously be behind in school, university and work. This will create a generation of inept, incompetent and quasi-useless work force.

At school, I have had many discussions with teachers and tutors over this new-ish code system that rewards mediocrity. The big complaint being that the learner’s are not really learning anything, and a 30% pass for a class is almost like saying each grade has an automatic promotion. You really have to actively try to fail a grade to not move on. Within the program we continuously try to make the magic number 60%, always saying that you can’t get into university without those numbers. So we try to deflate the idea that 30% is a successful grade and continue to make them work hard to raise their own levels instead of rest on their laurels.

Yet, I do have one grudge against the article. The way it is written seems to blame students for some of the problems. While I believe that their ineptness is a product of the system, they are just working in what they know. It is the governments responsibility to change the educational system to one that is more representative of the actual situation. On top of that, it is universities responsibility to curb their admission requirements accordingly or they will continue to face high drop out rates and attrition. It is common sense. It is impossible to start a ground-up attitude for ALL learners, it just won’t ever happen. This needs to be one of those rare places where a top-down approach is best used. The biggest reason being, why would a learner actively try to change something that does not benefit them. Why would they support something that no matter what makes them a worse looking student.

However, on top of this Professor Jansen must remember that changing the codes isn’t the only thing that must be done. To create better learners, you need more efficient and effective use of resources, better teachers, computers, incentives, schools, field trips or a myriad of other things that could influence a child to want to be better. Its a problem with no simple solution, but one that needs to be fixed immediately if South Africa wants to take that next step in development.

We Are Fezeka

A learner in response to the questions “What is your dream job”

Grade 8 Learner Quincy Janjies

“My Dream Job”

By: Quincy Janjies

I want to be an archeologist so that I can reunite bones and I can tell what is this, where bones come from and tell which kinds are this bones. If it’s a human bones I can tell if it’s a male or a female.

 

I can be archeologist by working hard and focusing on my work. When I am in higher grades like grade 11 I will pick these subjects; maths, history and natural science.

 

My obstacles that can overcome my dream are that it may be hard to get a bursary and people bringing me down saying that “I think that I am perfect” and “I am better than them”.

 

EwB can help me by teaching me to think about what people think of me and helping me to be good at math’s and English. I can achieve my goals by joining the EwB Company for the year. I will work hard until I get what I want to be in the future. I can also achieve  my dreams by helping others to be what they want to be and in return they can help me too.

Be A Good Student

Be A Good Student:

By: Ronell Warren Alman

Be a good student
Learn as much as you can
Always be willing to grab education
For the time is at hand
Study your books
And strive to be the best
Focus on your studies
And be a cut above the rest

We Are Fezeka

There has been something missing from this blog. An important element that I am not capable of reaching. An aspect that none of us writing here can articulate. We see it, but we have not lived it. This is why I wanted to start “We are Fezeka”, an attempt to hear the stories of those that have lived or are living IT. It could be a simple telling of what they did that weekend, or who there favorite athlete is. It could be an in depth dissection of the importance of math or an attempt to express the apprehension of going to a new school. Anything to understand the daily lives of those at Fezeka. If we do not take the few seconds to get to know them, then we miss something.

The very first blog under the “We Are Fezeka” comes from one of our brand new grade 8 learners, who just joined our program this school year. Her name is Dianetsi Mosiuoo, and in an exercise where learners were asked to pick a word from a group and write what it means to them, she chose the word freedom. This is what she wrote.

Dianetsi Mosiuoo: Grade 8

Freedom

Freedom brings peace to our people and our nation. Peace is the first thing that a person should have. Nelson Mandela brought freedom to black people so that they could have peace with white people. Peace make people love you and black people to have peace with white people.

Freedom has bring happiness to black people. Happiness is the joy to black people. Our country has happiness with other countries. Happiness is the joy to white and and black people

Freedom brough respect and peace in our nation to love each other. Respect one another, respect our beliefs and respect our religiouns from our cultures. Respect elders because if we do not respect our elders we will order bad luck for our future and for our nation. Freedom has brought us respect.

Freedom gives us opportunities to have a good education and a opportunity to have good jobs when we group up. Nelson Mandela brought us opportunities to have all things that we want like white people. If Nelson Mandela was not here we should not have the opportunities to have education like white people. Freedom has come with opportunities in our country.

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.

The World Schools Debating Championship is an annual English speaking international debate competition for students going to non-university schools. A vast majority of participants are high school aged learners. A little more information about the actual competition can be found here and here.

Why do I care about this? Well other than the fact that debate is a highly technical and useful skill to have, and the art of debate is quite fascinating, I am afraid my reason for writing about it is a little bit more selfish. This past Monday, Fezeka High School and EwB were privileged to host a delegation of debaters from four different countries as part of the international competition. These students are the best their respective countries have to offer. Since they choose individuals and not school debate teams, you could say that they are the all-star team of their countries when it comes to debate.

Lusanda Ngqose welcoming the teams

Coming to Fezeka were debaters from Hong Kong, Romania, Philippines, and Bermuda. All the organizers asked from us were three simple things.

1) Make ready four classrooms for preparation, with two of those classrooms set up as debate areas.

2) Have a 30 minute “Welcoming” prepared for the debaters.

3) Try to procure some sort of an audience of learners for the debates themselves.

Well classroom prep was a cinch, and if you follow this blog at all you know the reputation of Fezeka welcomes (I was told by one of the judges that the choir “Sent chills down her spine” and that the welcome “was quite possibly the best of any school hosting”). However, it is this last item that I want to touch on quickly.

 

One of the things that we at EwB have tried to instill in our learners is confidence when speaking English. It is not always easy. We have started to lean towards using debates as a way to get them to speak English in front of groups of people and to also use critical thinking skills in forming their arguments. It covers facets that they need help in. In this visit was an opportunity for our learners to see the pros in action, and they were hooked. On top of  learning from the actual debaters, the judges were kind enough to run a workshop for our learners while the debate teams were preparing their arguments. Not only was it a great learning experience for them on a purely academic level, but socially they found their curiosity about these debaters and judges to much. Every time I turned around, there were learners crowding around debaters, coaches and judges asking questions. How did you learn to speak English so well? Why did you argue that? Is it hot in Bermuda? What countries border Romania? What kind of phone is that?

Judges working with some of the learners

As you can see, the conversations started out in a more serious nature and quickly became more familiar. It ended exactly how we wanted. They came together as students, they left as friends. It could not have been a more successful day.

Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

It is that time of the year again. Time for teachers to write their lesson plans and get their classrooms ready. Time for the administration to create time tables and endure a never ending amount of meetings. Time for learners to wash and polish their school uniforms and follow their feet back to school. Last but not least, it’s time for us here at EwB to get back to work at hand. This past week was the first few days back at school and was a generally exciting time. The Fezeka administration and teachers were a positive combination of still being on a high from the matriculation results from the previous year (over 70%) and coming back to school well rested and excited for the new year. The learners, especially those in the program, were looking forward to continuing their academic achievement and progress through this year. When stepping on campus, Vimbai and I were bombarded with hope and genuine excitement from all parties. Learners in the program were rushing to tell us about how they received code 5,6 or 7 on their final exams and wondering when the tutoring would start again. Others were rushing to Angeline to ask when they could come help out or hang out in the library.

Teachers on the first day of school

What this means is that we as an organization have started to put the pieces together in the first, but important, step. That being fostering a communal sense of academic achievement. You cannot teach someone that does not want to be taught. You need to help instill a desire to succeed. Fezeka, especially the learners within our program, have started to create this communal desire to succeed academically. They hang out together, they study together, they are all in the same classes (pure maths and physics for most!) and they cannot wait to continue their successful progress. The light seems to have switched on with these kids. It’s nice to be pestered with “When is the program going to start again Courtney?” instead of the excuses “I don’t think I can go today because I have chores” or “I don’t feel so well” that crops up occasionally. Its palpable excitement, and a great way to start the year.

Education in South Africa

Many of us in Canada take for granted our access to education. In fact, one may argue that Canada, like many countries in the West, has an excess of accessible education. As long as one has an interest and desire to learn, post-secondary education is reasonably accessible, whether directly at universities and colleges, or online through the internet.

In South Africa the situation is vastly different. As highlighted in a recent Globe and Mail investigative piece, South Africans face enormous barriers to access affordable public education (1). Waitlists for post-secondary institutions are in the thousands, and all this despite a well document need for a more educated work force.

Education without Borders helps to fill the void for many young South Africans seeking to improve themslves through better education. By providing access to improved education, EwB gives the students we support the tools to be one step ahead in the competitive process to access post-secondary education and rewarding jobs.

(1) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/worldview/in-johannesburg-a-desperate-bid-for-education-turns-deadly/article2297297/

Poker Fundraising Nights

Rodney, one of our volunteers and supporters, hosts a regular Education without Borders poker fundraising night.

The night includes plenty of beer, refreshments, and prizes. For those who are interested in joining the activities, please contact us at Education without Borders, and we’ll put you onto the mailing list. Activities typically take place at the Shark’s Club in downtown Vancouver.

Participants are not pros, and are out to support a great Canadian-South African charity.