Varsity Newspaper (University of Cape Town)

4 May 2007

‘MOST of them go to school on empty stomachs,’ says Asanda Lugalo from the South African Education and Environmental Project (SAEP). He’s talking about learners in underprivileged areas: ‘Even though they try, they can’t really give hundred percent focus on their studies.’ According to Asanda, even if they pass matric, many students have to work and support their families instead of studying further.

The SAEP is an NGO that provides skills-building programmes to disadvantaged learners in Cape Town. The project works in conjunction with several student -run community development projects, including the Media School, lnkanyezi, the Township Debating League, and TeachOut.

Difficult circumstances
Asanda’s statements are in line with national concerns that the social traumas of poverty put many high school learners in an almost impossible situation. Circumstances are already difficult, to the extent that a classroom might have as many as 70 students to a single teacher, according to Asanda. ‘That’s a lot of work for one person,’ he notes.  He says lessons in many local schools are conducted in Xhosa, which leaves pupils on uncertain ground when entering English-medium tertiary education.

Besides the gap in deficit in language, IT and core skills, there is also growing concern about the dual plagues of drugs and gangs. At Oscar Mpheta High School in Nyanga for example, the drop in matric pass rates has been attributed to school violence. Last year, they had a 37 percent matric pass rate — down from 69 percent in 2005. According to Mr Mawise, the principal, ‘We have been affected negatively by the effects of gangsterism. It produces a negative atmosphere of learning.’ The school made headlines late November after a pupil, Hlalanathi August, was partially paralysed in a knife attack.

Funding
Even if students manage to achieve in matric, the cost of tertiary education is inhibitive, to say the least. There is some financial support government institutions such as NSFAS (National Student Financial Aid Scheme), and corporate sponsorship are at hand for just that purpose.

UCT’s standard academic bursaries sit at R 12,000 — although the funds are handed out on a ‘first come, first serve basis’, half of those are set aside for previously disadvantaged applicants.

Yet while these recourses do exist, setting needy pupils in line to receive them is another matter entirely. ‘The information’s not necessarily getting to people it should be getting to,’ says Asanda. ‘The students, most of them don’t know about those things.’
 

The learners’ insight
 

VARSITY spoke to matric learners at Sinethemba Senior Secondary school in Philippi, about the challenges they face as they prepare to enter university.

Some learners said living in overcrowded homes often made studying difficult. ‘I would prefer another space to study. At home you have to do chores,’ said Ntombifikile Mzamo, who shares a home with 13 other relatives.

Mustering up the hefty wad of cash that UCT requires, is just another obstacle. All those interviewed by VARSITY said they would be applying for bursaries. Mzamo said she ‘is looking forward to a bursary’: both her parents are unemployed, and only her aunt provides for their household.

The learners have mixed feelings as to whether they would be able to hack it at UCT. ‘I’ll manage. I’m a hard worker,’ said Yonelani Mbi.

‘I’m not confident,’ said Sisa Ngculu, ‘But I’ll try. You must not fail to try.’