Monday, July 28, 2014

Visiting "Ex-Model C" Schools

During apartheid, white students attended schools that were called Model C schools. Today, 20 years after the end of racial segregation by law, these same schools are now known to many as "ex Model C" schools but it seems that not much else has changed. All government run (public) schools receive the same amount of funding per student; however, some schools charge fees. Emafini, the primary school with all Xhosa students is a "no fee" school, so the parents do not have to pay any money for their students to attend (except of uniforms and supplies), whereas the "ex Model C" schools charge
R20 000 - R34 000 ($2,000- $3,400) a year for students to attend. While the nation is no longer legally segregated by race, they are still very much segregated by socioeconomic status, which is along racial lines. 

We attended Grey Junior School today which felt like I stepped into Hogwarts from Harry Potter, except that it was an all boys school. All school students wear uniforms but at Grey they wore blazers and everyone's uniform was clean and new-looking. The school facility was old but still in wonderful condition, every teacher had a computer in their classroom and most had interactive white boards, there were about 30 students in each class as opposed to 50+, and all students were required to participate in sports including: cricket, rugby, football(soccer) and hockey (field). The resources that the students had available were vastly different than Emafini. 100% of the students at Grey pass the matriculation exam, which is taken in grade 12 to determine whether the student can go on to college or not. In comparison,  the high school that Emafini feeds into, Lungisa, has a 59% passing rate. Students who do not pass the exam can pay, if they have the means, to take it again, but they mst pass the test to be eligible to go to college. At Grey, we went into a grade 7 English class with 30 boys and only 3 of them were black, which is drastic increase in diversity since 2008. While black students are now admitted into Ex-Model C schools, they are typically at a disadvantage because they are not being instructed in their home language (Vandeyar, 2007). Despite learning English as their 2nd or even 3rd language, these students are judged on their academic performance based on their mastery of the English language which does not seem to be a fair comparison. Black students in Ex-Model C Schools must learn to cope with this language barrier as there is little to no academic support for them.We have realized despite the ending of apartheid in 1994, not much has changed and no one seems to know how to implement any changes. Although, I can't say that we have the right answer in the US, because our schools are still very much segregated by socioeconomic status.

Grey Junior / Senior School:


More pictures of my students at Emafini:



References

Vandeyar, S. (2007). Shifting selves: The emergence of new identities in South African schools.
International journal of educational development. 28. 286-299

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