Background
The Mzamohle Public Primary School is located in the Philippi township in the Cape Flats
area of Cape Town. It was started in 1994, and provides education to children from Grade 1
to Grade 7 (ages 6 to 13 years old) from the surrounding township. There are forty two members
of staff, including the principal (Constance Tamara Vilakazi), two deputy principals and
five head of departments.
There are currently 1716 children studying at the school (see 5.2 Enrolment in 1998),
but being a new school, the attendance is skewed towards the lower standards. Next year the
enrolment figure is likely to increase as the children progress through the school and the
lower Grades maintain or increase their current enrolment levels. The annual school fees are
R20 per child, if their parents can afford it.
The school has no hall or venue in which the entire body can meet - gatherings are
held the quad, weather permitting. The buildings are in need of repair - some of the
classroom doors do not shut properly, and a number of them do not lock. The main wing is
the most secure, and they have been promised burglar bars for this section of the school.
The school has applied for and been promised seven additional classrooms. (The Department
of Education will provide prefabricated classrooms). There is plenty of land on which to
place them.
Nutrition Scheme
The school realised the impossibility of educating children who are hungry and started
a nutrition scheme. With the help of the Peninsula School Feeding Scheme and a monthly
contribution of R10 from the children's parents (if they can afford it) they feed the
children on a daily basis.
The children receive a cup of hot soup or coffee when they arrive in the morning and a
slice of bread and butter with coffee at 10am. Lunch differs daily. During their break they
are given a meal of samp or rice, occasionally served with vegetables and / or meat.
The meals are prepared in a "kitchen" - a room with one small sink and some shelves.
Two gas cookers and an urn are stored in a strongroom, and brought out daily to cook the
food. There is no fridge or freezer and no cupboard space in which kitchen equipment can
be securely stored.
The children bring their own eating utensils, mugs and plates (often plastic margarine
containers), and are fed in two shifts; the junior grades are fed first and then the
senior grades. The teachers fill plastic buckets in the kitchen and serve the food from
these buckets to the children in their classrooms.
The food is cooked by some of the children's parents, many of whom are unemployed.
Some receive a small remuneration for this service, whilst others volunteer.
Educating The Children
There are 28 classes in the school, with roughly 61 children per class. The classrooms
measure about 8m x 8m and are equipped with blackboards and shelves; some classrooms have
cupboards. However, there are not enough classrooms for the number of Grade 1 classes,
and as a result two of the bookrooms have been converted into classrooms. Desks are shared.
There are no posters, educational material or children's work on the walls, except in the
junior grades' classrooms.
The children are taught in Xhosa (their home language). The teachers can speak English,
but the children learn English as a second language.
The Department of Education makes educational videos available to schools.
Mzamohle Public Primary School is unable to make use of this service,
as the school has no audio visual equipment - no overhead projectors,
television or video machine. There is one computer, which is used by the secretary,
and is locked away in the strongroom at night for security reasons.
In teaching mathematics they do not make use of calculators or geometry sets,
despite these being required by the syllabus. Neither the school nor the parents can
afford such equipment. There are no Atlases, maps or globes for teaching geography.
There is no dedicated science laboratory and only a minimal amount of science equipment
(a few Bunsen burners, test tubes, burettes and pipettes), which does not appear to have
been used. There are currently four qualified art teachers at Mzamohle Primary School,
and they are very keen to initiate art classes next year. There are five choirs at the
school, but there are no musical instruments.
Newlands Rotaract Club has previously donated over 1000 books to the school. However,
these have not been added to a library, as there is no available room for this purpose.
The children have been taken on tours to nearby community libraries and sister schools in
more affluent areas, in order to show them how a library works and where they can obtain
reading material.
Sport and Extra Mural Activities
At present the school has very little in the way of sports equipment; they have 20 hula
hoops, one rugby ball, two soccer balls and two netballs with one set of netball posts.
Netball is played in the quad. There are no sports fields at the school, but they do have
the use of fields nearby.
Areas For Development
The following sections provide a breakdown of the proposed development in the various
areas within the school.
Security
The present level of security at the school is not adequate. Before any equipment can
be stored permanently in any of the rooms (the valuable equipment is locked away daily
in the strongrooms), burglar bars will need to be installed. The possibility of installing
a burglar alarm is also being looked into.
Nutrition scheme
The school has applied for a double sink from the Department of Education. They have
no means of storing perishables, a fridge and freezer have been incorporated into the
budget. One urn is also insufficient for their needs; it would be necessary to purchase
two smaller urns.
The present situation, where the children bring their own eating utensils, mugs and plates
is not ideal. We have priced enamel plates, enamel mugs and stainless steel spoons for
durability. Storage space would need to be installed, and the current shelves could be
used as the basis for building cupboards. Locks should be installed on the cupboards.
Educating The Children
Audio Visual equipment
The classrooms in which the children are taught all contain plug points. We have
budgeted for a television and video machine to make use of the video scheme provided
by the Department of Education. A number of overhead projectors have also been budgeted
for, mainly for the senior classes.
Books
The budget includes both resource materials for the teachers to use and books
(dictionaries and atlases) for the children. The resource materials are based on the
principles of Outcomes Based Education which is being introduced into South African schools.
Educational charts (body parts, time, measurement, etc) and maps have also been included in
the budget.
When purchasing reading materials and textbooks for the teachers and children, the focus
will be on obtaining items in Xhosa where possible. We also aim to provide the school with
some non-fiction literature for the library.
There is no library at the school at present. Ideally a room should be set aside for this
purpose.
Art Classes
Much of the art material they could obtain from home, or from collecting schemes -
materials such as newspaper, corks, bottle tops, buttons, egg boxes etc. This said, they
would still need to purchase other art materials such as glue, paint, paper, crayons etc.
The department will supply the school with some of these materials. We have budgeted for
some of the non-consumables.
Sport and Extra Mural Activities
We have budgeted to supply the school with more basic sporting equipment to further the
development of the sports they are currently involved in. Rugby balls, soccer balls, etc
fall into this category.
The school is hoping to start hockey and cricket next year, so we have included an allocation
for cricket and hockey equipment. They would also like to begin Drum Majorettes.
There is a need for equipment to start physical education classes. For this purpose we
have priced tennis balls, bat and ball sets, hula hoops, bean bags, etc.
Music and Choir
One of the teachers can play the piano, but there are no musical instruments. We have budgeted
for percussion instruments as well as a second hand piano.
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