A weekend in Pietermaritzburg #ibmcsc South Africa

For our first weekend some for the group headed for the Drakensburg Mountains ( you can read about their adventures on Andrew's Blog ).   Three of us however (myself, Lou and Mirek) remained in Pietermaritzburg to explore a little of what there is around here.

On Saturday Lou and I headed for the Botanical Gardens



and had a fantastic time exploring these wonderfully diverse and well kept gardens.





As well as the plants there was also plenty of wildlife such as the Hadeda Ibis..

 ... a family of these ducks ...

.. and some impressive nest building.


We stopped at the restaurant near the entrance for our lunch and as we munched on our tasty repast we noticed a wedding party coming in to have their photos taken...


... and then another .... and another.... you can see 3 different groups in this photo.


Clearly an understandably popular place to come for photos and I noticed that they even have special entrance prices...


Should you be so inclined you can find plenty more photos of the gardens on my photostream on Flickr

Visiting Dundee #ibmcsc South Africa

Last Friday we had an early start (6:45am pickup from the hotel) for a journey north to Dundee for a meeting with another group of Science and Technology Subject Advisers.  Having previously spoken with advisers covering grade 10-12 we were now going to talk with the advisers who cover grades 4 - 9.

We stopped at a service station on the way north and I was struck by the ATMs which seemed to rely on satellite communications, another example perhaps of the complexity of connections that back home I take for granted.



As we headed north the scenery changed from the hills of Pietermaritzburg to a much flatter environment. We pulled in on the way at a shop called the Aloes which stood all by itself and stocked an incredible range of local meats. Freezer units in the shop bearing legends such as "Bones" and "Half Carcases".

 From here we carried on north through countryside that saw battles between British and Zulus in the past.

.. there were a few place names that I recognised en route to Dundee. Appropriately enough we passed near Newcastle and at one junction there was a sign ( which I was sadly too slow to get a photo of) which had Glen Coe to the left and Dundee to the right.

Finally we reached our destination ....
..and proceeded to have our meeting. We talked with the subject advisers about what they saw as the most significant challenges facing teachers in KwaZulu Natal Province's schools. We talked about the challenges of trying to do chemistry experiments when the school lacks any test tubes, or indeed chemicals, as well a myriad other topics. We also took them through the content on Teachers Try Science which received a positive reception so we will be back in Dundee in a couple of weeks to run a more detailed workshop with the subject advisers. I find that sometimes I am asked a simple question that really makes me stop and think. This was one of those times. At the end of the meeting one of the participants simply asked me what a similar group of people would list as the inhibitors if I was to ask the question back at home. The sad truth is that I think the response would have been very similar in that it would have including the need for more resources. "If only we had .... then we could do ....". Listening to the idea of a science teacher running a practical session without access to even the most basic of equipment certainly puts any challenges we might face in a UK school into a rather different perspective.

Meeting over we headed down the main street in Dundee to find a place to grab some lunch
 ... and then headed back down south

Rural secondary school #ibmcsc South Africa

In my last post I talked about our trip to a rural primary school.   When we had finished there, rather than take us directly back to the hotel our host took us down a different road


...past some more stunning scenery ...
... to a secondary school of  about 250 learners which had a very similar basic layout to the primary schools with buildings around 4 sides of a central area.
 
The principal did have an office here but again no internet connectivity.
The previous school was benefiting from a program of repairs so it was perhaps no surprise that there were more obvious structural challenges at this school such as many broken or missing windows.


What struck me most though was the barren classrooms. This one wasn't in use but was characteristic of those that were which were bare shells that simply contained desks for the learners and chalk boards at the front. 
 

As with the other school it was impressive to see that despite the obvious challenges the school was managing to improvise and deliver an education to their learners.  South African schooling ends with the "Matric" exam.  This school was focusing on business courses ( we got to drop in on an economics lesson during our tour).  Though there is a range of courses listed for the matric exam there is the practical issue of number of teachers and for a school this size there simply isn't aren't sufficient teachers to provide the range of specialisms that would be needed to deliver a wide ranging curriculum.  Struck by the contrast with the equivalent stage of schooling back home where we have Peter Symonds College and its phenomenal scale and range of courses on offer.

Meeting and tour of school completed we headed back out through the school gate....

.... and back down the track through the forests en route to Pietermaritzburg and our base.

Visit to a Rural School #ibmcsc South Africa

Wednesday was a day of working from the hotel where we spent time looking at the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements, starting to think about how the content on TeachersTryScience.org might map to it, and planning what we would do in a meeting with subject advisers set for Friday.

Thursday however was more out in the field.  We were keen to understand the challenges faced by rural schools so we could take these into account as we develop our recommendations.  A visit had been arranged for us to go to Mqolombeni Primary School which is one of the rural schools near Pietermaritzburg.

We left the hotel for the 1 hour journey to the school - after about 30 mins we turned off the main road and onto a gravel road

 that took us through the countryside to the school.


which you will note was also signed as a construction site.

The school had been damaged during a storm some time ago and the repairs, whilst largely looking complete were not yet finished.

We were greeted by the Principal and headed to his office ...

His office was also a store room and as we entered I was struck by a familiar smell - that of an outbuilding my grandfather had at his house in Tipperary. I suspect the presence of a lawnmower, gardening equipment, and all the other things being stored there will be what caused the familiar aroma. There is a nice looking new admin building on the site but until it is completed the principal's office remains where it is.

One issue that rural schools face is access to the internet.  They are too remote for landlines so the only connection is via the mobile networks and either a mobile device or a 3G USB data stick.  We wanted to do a short demo of the TeachersTryScience website so we were introduced to the internet connecting fridge.

I've previously come across the idea of an internet connected fridge but this was the first time that I'd come across the top of a fridge/freezer as a place to put your laptop in order to get the best chance of a mobile signal and access to the internet.  Running a demo of a website from a laptop perched on top of a domestic appliance was a new experience for me but a super example of the daily challenges that they face doing things that I just take for granted.

Meeting over we were given a tour of the school 


which is built around the central rectangle of grass - 2 buildings of classrooms facing each other, admin building and school hall making up the other 2 sides.
Classrooms were pretty basic but filled with eager looking learners

 We found an abandoned classroom but the mystery was solved when we saw the class outside enthusiastically learning the English for various parts of the body

With the tour over we said our thanks and goodbyes - fascinating to get an insight into the situation at this school and deeply humbling to see first hand just how little they have compared to an equivalent school back home but how they don't let that stand in the way of delivering an education to the children.