Johannesburg - Fakazi Ngwane has been a teacher for the past 24 years. And what’s kept him dedicated to his craft, even with its challenges, is the space to mould and transform young minds.
He is a history and life orientation teacher at Thulani Secondary School in Snake Park, Dobsonville, Soweto.
The area was characterised by high rates of unemployment, teenage pregnancy, child-headed households and orphaned children who are brought up by grandparents as a result of the impact of HIV/Aids-related deaths.
“The children we teach come from this community, and the only change we can bring is by educating them. If these kids don’t have an education, making it in life will be harder.”
Ngwane said his school had infrastructure issues. Similarly, some of his colleagues from surrounding schools have 40-50 students per classroom.
“Our roll stands at 1 200 students, but we have applied for additional mobile classrooms because we can’t accommodate all of them. They have not arrived, so our classes are bursting at the seams,” he said.
Ngwane said another challenge was textbooks. “I teach Grade 12 history, and not all my students have textbooks. We are awaiting a delivery.”
Ngwane said he hoped the 2017 Budget would address some of the issues teachers faced in their schools.
“With funding for schools there is a certain quota or allocation for specific functions, but it’s not enough. There are other challenges within the school that require financial resources to address them, but that money has never been enough,” Ngwane said.
In 2016, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said that over a period of three years, the expenditure on education would reach R254 billion. He also made commitments towards rebuilding unsafe schools by 2018.
This year, the minister said the National Treasury would spend over R249 billion on basic education. The allocations for school buildings would increase by 12.5 percent a year. Spending on learning and teaching support material would increase by 9.5 percent over the next three years.
“Improved education is a central priority, and particularly the quality of basic literacy and numeracy achieved in the first phase of schooling. We must increase funding for proven interventions,” the minister said in his speech.
According to Ngwane, the minister is making the right moves in basic education.
“What the minister said is in line with our needs in schools. I am encouraged because the Budget also pays attention to things like teacher support and development, so I really am looking forward to the change.”