Lessons of South Africa

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. 
-Nelson Mandela

The Republic of South Africa is emerging from a bitter legacy of apartheid that, for generations, barred the country’s black majority from social, economic and political power. Since the early 1990s, when the policies of apartheid were struck down, the Republic has looked to education as a means to address corrosive inequalities among its citizens. Today, in three rural areas, black South African teachers are finding inspiration and support arriving from halfway around the world.

Yunus Peer is a tall, slender man whose deep-set eyes flash with indignation when he talks about his childhood in apartheid South Africa. Peer, an Indian, says that growing up non-white during the ’60s and ’70s meant that “every sphere of your life – schools, parks, beaches and public restrooms – was apportioned by skin color; separate and unequal.” After being educated in Indian schools and in neighboring Swaziland, Peer left the country in 1976 to escape the mounting oppression. 

Now, three decades later, the Academy social studies teacher, in partnership with Teachers Without Borders (see sidebar next page), is leading a grassroots effort by Hawai‘i educators to train and mentor their cohorts in rural South Africa. Since 2001, twenty-eight teachers from Hawai‘i – including eleven from Punahou – have participated in this unique effort to improve math and science instruction in South Africa. (Math and science are key requirements on the matriculation exam required for entrance to college.)

“Teachers are multipliers,” Peer explains. “We have the power to do incredible things. For example, through our workshops, we’ve taught 1,126 South African teachers over the past six years. Each teacher has 200 to 300 students in their classrooms, so, in reality, we’ve helped a quarter of a million children.” 

The Ex-Lax® Factor
The rural teachers, who are overwhelmingly black, face daunting odds. Many struggle with a desperate lack of classroom resources while trying to overcome the shortcomings of their own apartheid-era education. “It was unbelievable,” Academy science teacher Mike Hu says of his 2002 teaching experience. “The science teachers had never seen a lab; they had never gotten to do experiments, so they’re telling the students about labs they’ve never seen. They’ve heard of lab equipment, but no one’s ever handled any.” Hu says he wasn’t certain how the teachers cover equipment-intensive subjects such as chemistry.

For one of his activities, Hu set up a simple, acid/base experiment called a titration lab using commonly available items such as syringes, ammonia and Ex-Lax®. The activity was a hit among the teachers, who appeared to gain as much from the notion of rigging equipment from available supplies as from the science itself. “No one’s told the teachers you can use a syringe instead of a burette,” Hu says. “So you’ve got to show the teachers how to use whatever’s around them.”

Last summer, four-day workshops were conducted in the provinces of Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu and the Eastern Cape. The Hawai‘i teachers had researched the South African curricular standards beforehand and came armed with content, tools, and skills that were classroom-ready. Three hundred South African teachers crowded into the sessions, some of them coming for the second or third time. “What was so amazing was the teachers were giving up four days of their winter break to do this. They just wanted to learn,” says Heather Taylor ’92, Academy math teacher. 

Sustained by Faith
In Mthatha, Eastern Cape, a middle school science teacher named Pumsa sits down for a video interview in one of the classrooms. Her gaze is direct and her voice conveys the calm authority of 25 years teaching. This is her third time taking the workshop and Pumsa says she’s particularly pleased to learn how to build a miniature electrical circuit from wires, switches and batteries. Until the workshop, it was something she had only read and theorized about. “Now,” she says, “I can be able to demonstrate to my learners and also I can be able to give them the project … . What I’ve learned after I’ve attended this workshop is that there are many ways I can devise the material to teach. It’s not necessary for us to go to the shop or to the laboratories in the urban areas. We have to improvise.” 

All the same, teachers confront steep challenges in introducing hands-on activities into the classrooms. Pumsa explains: “In grade seven, we have one classroom for 115 learners, so it’s hard to arrange them because there are no chairs that can accommodate 115 learners.” Children squeeze three to a desk and the room is so tightly packed that she often walks across the desktops to reach children seated at the back. Some classrooms don’t have electricity and running water, much less textbooks, paper, pens, and rulers for the individual pupils. 

In the face of such daunting challenges, the South African teachers upheld a sense of optimism. “They have the energy and the commitment; one thing I didn’t run into there was cynicism,” says Will Best, Academy math teacher. “The teachers very much believed in the long-term power of education and were willing to give of themselves for education. They’re sustained by that faith.” 

They are also sustained by incremental signs of success. Mike Hu recalls that, after teaching in Kwa-Zulu, an administrator wrote to say that the number of kids that had passed their college entrance exams in the area recently quadrupled from 30 to 120 students. In a nation where half of the country’s 47 million people live in poverty, college acceptance is a critical passport to economic opportunity.  

Pumsa talks about two of her former pupils, one who is becoming a doctor and another who now works as a civil engineer. “I’m proud,” she says. “And I would like to produce more learners who can be successful and can have beautiful careers. And I would also like to be recognized as a good science teacher.”

Creating a Country
Returning to Hawai‘i, the teachers feel changed on many levels. They not only look upon their surrounding resources with greater appreciation, but feel part of a broader community. “We’re not very well served if we just focus on our school,” Will Best says. “That may be the primary focus, but there’s so much we can give to people who don’t have the same resources and background.” Heather Taylor feels troubled by the thought that she could have done much more to help. She wonders what the South African teachers will do once they’ve exhausted the eight activities she taught them. Yet, she finds their focus inspiring: “These teachers are so invested and committed to their students. It says so much about who they are and the importance of being hopeful. They’re educating the next Nelson Mandelas, they’re creating a country. And I feel as much hope and expectation for my students as the South African teachers do for theirs.” 

After three years, Junior School math teacher Jennifer Hong ’92 is preparing to return to South Africa this summer to assist teachers with technology and math. Her mentoring builds on Yunus Peer’s initiative to create computer labs in selected rural schools. “What excites me about teaching in South Africa again is that I think I can be more helpful this time around,” Hong says. “I understand the teachers’ situation, I’ve had a few years to think things through, and I’m prepared to help them with their needs such as open-source software.” 

South Africa has indelibly influenced Hong as a teacher. “Now that I’ve been there, I feel my students need to know more about what goes on in other parts of the world,” she says. “Most eighth graders don’t appreciate just having a chair to sit on – they can’t imagine what it would be like to stand and take notes. It has changed my teaching because I don’t only teach math now, I teach the students how they can change the world.”

In the act of reaching out to peers from across the world, teachers often find their own ideals about education revived. Nelson Mandela once said, “There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.” He could well have been describing the deeper lessons of the South Africa experience.

The South Africa program receives funding and support from Teachers Without Borders, the Cassim Peer Education Trust, Sunset and Metropolitan Rotary Clubs, Punahou School and the Peer family.

Teachers Without Borders
Fred Mednick has never been afraid to dream big. At 13, he announced to his family that he wanted to help teachers around the world. Today, as president and founder of Teachers Without Borders (TWB), Mednick heads up an international teachers’ movement that seeks to close the global educational divide. Teachers are uniquely positioned to influence social change, according to Mednick. “At 59 million, teachers are the largest professionally-trained group in the world,” he says. TWB currently works with more than 370 volunteers in countries that include Afghanistan, Rwanda, South Africa, and China. Through curriculum sharing, mentoring, translation, and in-service exchange, the organization helps teachers collaborate in strengthening the educational foundation of communities in need.

TWB’s grassroots philosophy is supported by a robust platform in high-tech. The organization recently launched an e-learning tool that allows teachers throughout the world to share curriculum, collaborate on articles, and create blogs.

Since 2002, TWB has partnered with Academy social studies teacher Yunus Peer in organizing teacher-training workshops in South Africa. Punahou faculty members who have enlisted in the South Africa exchange include: math teachers Will Best, Jim Clarke, Yukio Hamada, Jennifer Hong ’92, Mike Pavich, Heather Taylor ’92 and Mike Vogel; science teachers Ralph Dykes, Mike Hu, and John Proud; and Chaplain George Scott.

In 2006, Punahou’s partnership with the program expanded into China. 

For more information on TWB, please visit www.teacherswithoutborders.org; for more information on TWB-South Africa, visit www.twbglobal.org.