Executive Director’s Report

In the book Spirit Undaunted – the life and legacy of Joseph Wing, Wing is quoted as having written: “The Bantu Education Act has created a machine which makes teachers and children subservient to a political policy and people no longer matter. So called bantu education is bureaucratic and doctrinaire, whereas Christian education was personal and character building.”

Although the shadow of apartheid still haunts education today, the Historic Schools Restoration Project (HSRP) seeks to reclaim the memory and heritage of the historic sites that include the original school buildings. The missionaries’ greatest contribution to the people of South Africa lies in the schools they established and the legacy that these schools created.

Across the world in developed and developing countries the provision of schooling is being diversified and decentralised. In many cases this has led to partnerships between government and others. The leaders of the Centre for Development and Enterprise offer an alternative to reform schooling in South Africa. Analysis of the range of models that create diversity in schooling provision for the poor reveals that they can deliver forms of schooling at least as cheaply as the public sector, and often better quality. These schools are labelled differently – academies – but they involve a contract or agreement between the state and private sectors who run the schools with public funds in return for specified performance outputs. With a vision for key changes in the schooling system, the HSRP outlined such an envisaged school landscape with specific reference to governance powers and funding elements within a framework that is sensitive to local circumstances.

The HSRP is striving to re-create sustainable schools of excellence at educational sites of historical significance. These will lead the way for real comprehensive educational transformation in our country. There is a window of opportunity for South Africans to abandon colonial restraints that have been imposed on educational thinking: a chance to develop specific values-driven schools as a national priority. It is important that an appropriate and cost-effective, child-centred service mix is developed for each separate school. Ongoing academic improvement must become a primary commitment. The notion of the school as the extended family has, today, to be planned for and embraced: the difficult circumstances of many of South Africa’s children demand it. This requires a complete review of systems of management, discipline and control within schools and the implementation of fearless positive approaches and principal-driven empowering strategies.

Today the HSRP has two distinct phases, Inception and Planning, and Implementation. This paradigm shift has been necessitated through a range of responses and challenges identified broadly by the historic schools. There has already been a remarkable process of turnaround and rebuilding within many of the schools, and the role of the HSRP is to add energy and momentum. At the other end of the spectrum, there are schools which need systemic reform and a change of organisational culture. Our role in this regard is seen as enabling the schools to identify and implement the changes that are necessary to allow for greater functionality.

Building on their legacy as school communities with roots and a common desire to embrace the future, each of the historic schools has developed its own Education Roadmap based on their aspirations and practices. Through a process facilitated by the HSRP, the school leaders pondered the six qualitative components of the nature of an historic school: Values – Who are we? What do we stand for? What defines the soul and character of the school? How do we give expression to our legacy as historic schools? Academic direction and coordination. Promoting alumni relations and events, and drawing alumni into fundraising and school governance. How welcoming is our school (staffrooms, school grounds, classrooms)? How do we revive an extra-mural programme, which was a feature of the school historically? Resisting the trap of over-enrolment and engaging with DBE on teacher-student ratios. The key words and the distinguishing features of historic schools provided a framework for forward thinking and the development of an Action Plan for each school.

By the time you read this report, Minister Motshekga would have published the Department of Basic Education’s Minimum Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure. The present harsh realities are that 92% of South African schools do not have stocked libraries, 84% have no laboratory facilities, and 76% do not have a computer centre. It is perhaps easier now to understand the realities of weak educational outcomes. However, despite the lack of resources at one such historic school, Glen Cowie Secondary School (previously the Guardian Angels Catholic High School) is one of the three top performing schools in Limpopo and produced one of the country’s top students in 2012 with 100% in mathematics, accounting and physical science – without a laboratory. To make up for the lack of science apparatus the teachers improvised. Drawing on the support of the private sector and a culture of active citizenship the HSRP initiated a partnership for Glen Cowie which now proudly boasts a fully equipped science laboratory. Still, the learners do not have access to computers or the internet to do research yet the school enjoys a 100% pass rate every year and the teachers and learners work overtime to maintain this status. These are the priorities that should encourage all schools to find the best solutions to the areas that need improvement. The HSRP brings together businesses, NGOs, parent bodies, unions and community leaders to support the government in improving the quality of education.

This report reflects the HSRP interventions in the past year and some of our goals and aspirations for the future. Recognising that we would not have accomplished so much without the support of key partners in government, business, churches, and civil society organisations, we continue to engage with these stakeholders and appreciate their feedback and contributions.

I thank the board members for their valuable time, input and expertise during this reporting period and I would like to commend the HSRP staff and the principals and staff of the historic schools for their role in the transformation and implementation of programmes that meet the needs of the historic schools and ultimately the black rural child in South Africa.

Njongo Ndungane
Executive Director