Some shafts of light amongst the gloom
ONE OF THE more interesting parts of my volunteer work for the Eshowe Community Action Group is going on site visits to some of the rural schools where ECAG has provided expensive infrastructure like classrooms, toilet blocks and science laboratories.
Last week was particularly good for that because ECAG had a visit from two of the board members of US-based NGO Africa Classroom Connection. This Minneapolis-based charity has so far raised enough money to pay for 153 classrooms, through constant fund-raising, and they are planning for 2025 to be their biggest year yet
There is plenty to be depressed about in the education space in South Africa, and it is consequently easy to overlook the few positives. However, watching the genuine excitement on the faces of two very accomplished women as they interacted with the local kids underlined for me that South Africa still has the indefinable “something” that many other countries lack.
Dr Michelle Biros is the Ruiz Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School and was the only female in her graduating class. Not surprisingly, she is a strong proponent of providing girls with every possible educational opportunity.
Robyn Coquyt is the Executive Director of Africa Classroom Connection and says she was “forever changed” by her first visit to rural schools in South Africa. Before setting out for a visit she gave her hosts instructions: “You have to promise me,” she said with a straight face, “that you will stop me if I try to take one of the kids home with me.”
Among the schools they visited was the Little Flower Primary School in Eshowe, where these photographs (above) were taken. Little Flower is an interesting school because it is a state school in the Model C cohort, but its buildings are on church land belonging to the Catholic Diocese.
Add to that the fact that the principal, Mrs Megla Chinsammy, is a practising Hindu and it’s not surprising that the school is firing on all cylinders. Like any rural school that starts to improve standards, Little Flower is now overwhelmed by additional parents wanting to send their children to the school.
Enrolment has increased from just over 600 when Mrs Chinsammy took over in 2023 to 1045 three years later, an astounding 75%increase. At R2 500 a year the fees may be lower than other Model C and private schools in the area, but the fact that local families are prepared to spend in excess of R2.5-million a year on their children’s early education is a really positive sign for the future.
Inevitably, South African realities also intervened: at Princess Langazane High School the visitors were scheduled to meet the principal, but unfortunately he was not available as he had just lost his brother, shot dead in an outbreak of taxi-related violence in Johannesburg.
Instead they interviewed one of the teachers, Mr A S Hlabisa, who had matriculated at the school in 2008 and had now returned to his alma mater to take over the Science Department, despite the school having no science laboratory and only one laptop.
In the face of these considerable difficulties, the 2024 Matric class of 256 learners achieved a 94.1% pass rate with only 16 failures, 171 distinctions and 169 Bachelor’s passes. Another hopeful sign, but we need many, many more.
