Arethabeng School

The best moments of our trip were at the Arethabeng School. I really enjoyed those moments and will treasure them in my heart. Arethabeng school is situated in Soshanguve, the township of Pretoria.





This is how the school look likes. It has two long buildings opposite each other were the class rooms are. In the middle of those buildings you see the shelter/roof under which the morning assemblies and other events that involve the whole school occurs. It's also a place were food is distributed for the poorest who have right for the free meal at school. On the other end of the school yard that is between the class room buildings is the administrational building and on the other end of the school yard there's a building wiht computer class and bathrooms. Outside of this complex there is still one building were the pre school and aid class are and a little library.


The school starts at 7 o'clock. first thing that happens then is cleaning. Children take brooms and sweepers and start wiping the dust away from the yard. Some has to do school patroling and others arrange classrooms for the days work. It was amazing how this all happened very independently without strict supervision and it all got to be done. Maybe they wanted to please us visitors but anyway that impressed me.

After the cleaning session the schhol gathered under the roof for the morning assembly. They do that every morning at the first quarter of the school year and after that only on Mondays and Fridays. The whole school assemblies every morning at the beginnig of the school year are important for the first graders who need to get into the school's habbits, songs etc. Music, sports, arts or handcrafts are not taught at school. All the songs they sing they learn at the assembly and all the dances they dance too. Sports and music can be taught at the clubs after school but they don't belong to the curriculum.

The assemblies were awesome! It could last from 15 minutes to half on our and children stood still the whole time. First they did some simple excersizes. Orders were given in English and the first graders learned that way some words of English. The language of the school is Northern Sotho but while it's a small language the school language changes into English gradually because there isn't any materials in Sotho. After excersizes it's time to sing and pray. Oh boy, those songs! I loved them! I even tried to learn one dance. Children laughed so probably I wasn't very good.

By the way those who don't have their school uniforms on have their birthday. It's the day when you get to were your normal clothes. The birthday girls and boys were asked to come forward every morning and then they were sang happy birthday. It was a nice tradition. I enjoyed those extra verses they had saying: How old are you now, how old are you now... (the whole school asked that), I am twelve years old now, I am twelve years old now... (the person had to answer her/his age) and She is twelve years old now, she is twelve years old now... And of course they now sing one verse in Finnish too.

One other song they learned to sing in Finnish is part of their national anthem. That part is called Nkosi sikelelel' iAfrika. It means God bless Africa. We have it in our hymn books on a name Kuule Isä Taivaan. It's a very popular children's hymn here in Finland. Every child in here knows it. That song was very important for the black while they were fighting against the Apartheid. Since from the year 1997 the national anthem of The South Africa has been the combination of the former apartheid time anthem and this Nkosi sikelel' iAfrica. It's sang in four different languages. South Africa has 11 official languages.


Well, here some pictures from the assembly:

As you can see some of the dances were rather living!

There are over 400 pupils (or learners, the way they call pupils in South Africa) in Arethabeng School. Many of them come from the unformal settlement areas living in shaks. The amount of pupils in one class varies from 40 to 80. Even the first grades are huge with 40 pupils and they start school at the age of six! It's hard to imagine how those teachers survive. Discipline has to be tight. Otherwise it just doesn't work. The children don't have school books. In stead they do their work on booklets. I wish we would have had more time to just observe the teaching there. I know we could have learned a lot! I learned to appreciate those teachers. It's easy to get good PISA results with such a good resources as we do have here in Finland. These teachers do excellent work with their loving hearts in conditions where I wouldn't survive as a teacher.

Here's the sixth grade with 80 learners (all don't even fit to the picture):

The other one of the first grades (40 learners all together):


This looks familiar. The only difference is that older pupils weren't allowed to use a carry (do you call "memory number" that in English - my dictionary said so).
On an English lesson.
Lunch time. The needy ones get a free meal at school, others eat their own sandwiches etc.
I hope you enjoyed my photographic tour to Arethabeng School. It's impossible to provide the real picture with the hot sun, smiling and interested leaners, relaxed athmosphere, loving and welcoming attitude towards us etc. I left a big part of my heart to Arethebeng!