{"id":11301,"date":"2019-07-05T14:34:08","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T12:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentnewsgrid.com\/?p=11301"},"modified":"2019-07-05T14:34:08","modified_gmt":"2019-07-05T12:34:08","slug":"primary-school-teachers-the-unsung-heroes-of-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/2019\/07\/05\/primary-school-teachers-the-unsung-heroes-of-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Primary school teachers: the unsung heroes of education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>South Africa\u2019s education system is still reeling from the effects of Apartheid\u2019s Bantu Education Act. The government spent over R213billion on basic education from March 2015 to March 2016, yet South Africa\u2019s primary education system was rated 126<sup>th<\/sup> out of 138 countries in the World Economic Forum\u2019s 2016-17 Global Competitiveness Report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite this, I still see primary school teachers as the unsung heroes of education. Not enough recognition is given to their efforts at shaping the minds of children, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds. I recently spoke to Boitumelo Nte, currently studying for a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism and Media studies, as she reflects on her experiences as a foundation phase teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nte firmly believes that foundation phase teachers are important to a child\u2019s schooling career. Having taught intermediate phase mathematics and social science at Robin Hills Primary School in Randburg, she says that learners have certain expectations of teachers. \u201cLearners expect to be taught in a simple and enjoyable manner,\u201d she says. \u201cThe teacher has to exhibit an ability to diversify explanations if they do not understand a concept on the first attempt.\u201d General observations from teachers have shown that young children respond better to the use of different examples and analogies when learning. \u201cThe umbrella expectation to this is that the teacher must prepare adequately for the class,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nte\ngoes on to explain the effort that goes into teaching and caring for\nyoung children. \u201cThese teachers not only begin a child\u2019s\ncurricular journey, but play a crucial role in re-hashing life skills\nthat may have already been learnt at home,\u201d she says, citing\ndeportment, hygiene and morality as examples. Many teachers choose to\ngo the extra mile, voluntarily organising activities that stimulate\ntheir learners. She speaks about a news discussion slot that she ran\nfor her grade 5 learners every Friday during class. \u201cThis slot was\nmeant to encourage learners to listen to news on the television or\nradio. They could also bring in articles from the Randburg Sun, which\nwas distributed freely to their homes,\u201d she explains. \u201cWhile this\nwas an enjoyable slot for the children, I believe I managed to teach\nthem the importance of being aware of one\u2019s surroundings. They\nbrought stories about service delivery protests, the reflection of\nreported abuse cases on our society, and what the abandonment of a\nnewborn baby meant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite these efforts, Nte feels that primary school teachers are only appreciated on a nuclear level, at their respective schools. The role that these teachers play in providing children with an educational foundation is often forgotten in the eventual onset of their learners\u2019 matric year. \u201cIn larger contexts like the education system in its entirety, far less appreciation is exhibited. Instead, focus is placed on teaching efforts in the Further Education and Training (FET) phase ,\u201d she notes. Equal esteem needs to be afforded to the teachers behind the scenes, who built their learners up with the skills to reach matric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite\nthe glaring inequalities in the basic education sector, primary\nschool teachers work tirelessly to educate and care for their\nlearners. More appreciation needs to be shown for these unsung\nheroes, who are carefully shaping the minds of a new generation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa\u2019s education system is still reeling from the effects of Apartheid\u2019s Bantu Education Act. The government spent over R213billion on basic education from March 2015 to March 2016, yet South Africa\u2019s primary education system was rated 126th out of 138 countries in the World Economic Forum\u2019s 2016-17 Global Competitiveness Report. Despite this, I still [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":11302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11301"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}