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    How to Fix South Africa's Schools: Lessons from Schools that Work
    How to Fix South Africa's Schools: Lessons from Schools that Work
    How to Fix South Africa's Schools: Lessons from Schools that Work
    Ebook243 pages1 hour

    How to Fix South Africa's Schools: Lessons from Schools that Work

    By Jonathan Jansen and Molly Blank

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    About this ebook

    South Africa has an education crisis, despite the fact that the government spends the biggest slice of its budget on education, more than any other African country. And yet the crisis persists. Jansen and Blank looked at South African schools that work, in spite of adverse conditions -- schools in poor communities, schools with overcrowded classrooms, schools in both rural and urban environments -- and have drawn out the practical strategies that make them successful. 19 short films (included on DVD or available for streaming or download in digital editions) let you visit these schools and understand in the words of their principals, teachers and learners what makes them succeed. Then take look at the 10 key strategies identified and see how to implement them in other schools to effect transformation. As we have come to expect from Jansen, there are no complicated theories, not difficult to implement solutions -- just lots of common sense!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookstorm
    Release dateFeb 1, 2014
    ISBN9781920434656
    How to Fix South Africa's Schools: Lessons from Schools that Work
    Author

    Jonathan Jansen

    Prof Jonathan Jansen is a leading South African educationist, commentator and the author of several books including the best-selling 'Letters to My Children'. He is the former vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State, where he earned a reputation for transformation and a deep commitment to reconciliation. He is married with two children.

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      Book preview

      How to Fix South Africa's Schools - Jonathan Jansen

      LESSONS FROM SCHOOLS THAT WORK

      JONATHAN JANSEN

      MOLLY BLANK

      © Text: Jonathan Jansen, Molly Blank

      © Workshop guidelines: Dylan Wray

      © Photographs: Dispatch Films

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission from the copyright holder.

      ISBN: 978-1-920434-62-5

      e-ISBN: 978-1-920434-65-6

      Published by Bookstorm (Pty) Limited

      PO Box 4532

      Northcliff 2115

      Johannesburg

      South Africa

      www.bookstorm.co.za

      Schools that Work videos produced by Dispatch Films

      www.dispatchfilms.com

      Edited by Wesley Thompson

      Proofread by Sean Fraser

      Cover design by mr design

      Book design by René de Wet

      Ebook by Liquid Type Publishing Services

      The articles on pages 115–127 are reproduced with permission from

      Mail & Guardian, where they first appeared.

      CONTENTS

      Schools That Work videos

      What to expect from this manual

      3 resources you can use to change a school

      The state of education – 9 facts

      What will happen to South Africa if we fail to fix our schools? – 7 consequences

      What are we doing wrong? – 8 mistakes

      What do we know from research and experience? – 7 good practice lessons

      How we chose our Schools that Work

      5 reflections on visiting Schools that Work

      10 key strategies that can change our schools

      Using the videos for change

      Tools for running a school improvement workshop – 5 templates

      Acknowledgements

      SCHOOLS THAT WORK VIDEOS

      Each of the videos in the Schools That Work series can be streamed online or downloaded by clicking any of the links below. Also look out for links throughout this ebook that will direct you to the relevant video.

      Batswana Commercial Secondary School, North West

      COSAT, Western Cape

      Ethembeni Enrichment Centre, Eastern Cape

      Heatherdale Secondary School, Free State

      Kharkams High School, Northern Cape

      Louis Botha Technical High School, Free State

      Masana Secondary School, Mpumalanga

      Masiphumelele High School, Western Cape

      Mbilwi Secondary School, Limpopo

      Mondale High School, Western Cape

      Mpondombini Secondary School, Eastern Cape

      Mpumelelo Secondary School, KwaZulu-Natal

      Phumlani Secondary School, Gauteng

      Rietfontein Secondary School, Northern Cape

      Sitintile Secondary School, Mpumalanga

      Sol Plaatje Secondary School, North West

      Tetelo Secondary School, Gauteng

      Thengwe Secondary School, Limpopo

      Velabahleke Secondary School, KwaZulu-Natal

      WHAT

      TO EXPECT FROM THIS MANUAL

      This is not a book. It is a short and simple manual that any community, such as principals, teachers, or parents, can use to turn around a dysfunctional or ineffective school. The manual draws on research, the wisdom of practice and a good dose of common sense.

      There is a lot of published research on what makes schools successful in reaching their goals. Unfortunately most of this research accounts for schools in developed countries and in contexts very different from South Africa. We take what we can from this body of knowledge – for example, that a competent teacher is a critical factor in the learning prospects of children – but also look at the cultures, contexts and constraints within which South African schools function.

      We decided to take a unique approach by using film to tell the stories of passion, determination and leadership that are taking place in South African schools. Jonathan Jansen identified 19 successful schools across South Africa and Molly Blank travelled around the country with her camera capturing the stories of what is happening in these schools. These films tell the stories of schools that shift the paradigm and defy our expectations. They are stories of determined and resilient young people who arrive at school at 6 am for mandatory study, stories of teachers who have concrete lesson plans, and committed principals who lead with a philosophy and vision that is deeply felt throughout the school.

      As we observe these schools, we focus on what South African schools do, and say they do, in the turbulent contexts of post-apartheid schooling. We call this the wisdom of practice, the kinds of things resident in the heads and hearts of children, teachers and principals that they draw on to explain what changes their school. These men and women fight and sacrifice for their students because they know what’s at stake.

      Together, we used what we learnt from these stories to draw out the strategies these schools use so we could share them with you. As you read through the manual, you’ll hear both of our voices. You’ll also hear from Dylan Wray, who put together the excellent workshops at the end of this manual on how to fix your own school.

      Clearly a school in which teachers use the full instructional time available will be more successful than schools that waste the allotted time. A school with high learner attendance and low teacher absenteeism will also do well. We looked, therefore, for the simple things or common sense in drawing out lessons from Schools that Work.

      We like the phrase Schools that Work (a term used before in studies of schools in this country). It suggests labour, for no school changes without heavy investments of hard work by teachers and school leaders. But it also denotes functionality, the working together of all the elements in a school to ensure a quality education for all learners.

      Jonathan Jansen and Molly Blank, 2014

      3 RESOURCES

      YOU CAN USE TO CHANGE A SCHOOL

      The Schools that Work project offers three resources to school leaders (district officials, principals, school management teams, governing bodies and others).

      1   THE INFORMATION IN THIS MANUAL

      The first resource is this simple manual, which should be used as a reference; an indication of what the 10 strategies are that can change any struggling school. This is not a checklist and shouldn’t be viewed literally. Some of these elements of change will be more important in some schools than in other schools, and the order of implementation will differ from context to context. But we are convinced that in dysfunctional or struggling schools in South Africa, these are the 10 strategies that can change a school.

      2   19 VIDEOS

      The second resource is the 19 videos. We encourage school leaders to bring together teachers or communities or principals of schools to watch these videos, especially those from schools in similar areas, and ask, What is it that these schools do that we can learn from for our own school? Compare what you see in the videos to what is written in the manual and work out a plan for change for your own school.

      3   UNIVERSITY OF THE FREE STATE WORKSHOPS

      The third resource is the University of the Free State (UFS), which commissioned these videos and brought together the principals of these schools for the purposes of building the partnership for Schools that Work. The UFS is raising funds to run workshops around South Africa to help school leaders implement the 10 strategies for change outlined in this manual. The workshops will demonstrate how to use the material in this book and the workshop

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