Ntshingeni JSS
We (Esme and Jade – university students from NMMU and I) arrived outside the Cofimvaba Education Department District Office by 08:05 after an exciting trip taking the back roads from the Coverside farm outside Cathcart. It was a windy morning covering everything with dust which made it very uncomfortable for everyone.
On arrival I sent off an SMS to notify Mr Mgijima that we were outside as per usual. The local hardware was visited to purchase a packet of screws to take with to schools. This used up a few minutes but by 09:15 the delay was too much. I went into the offices to look for guidance only to be told that Mr Mgijima was delayed with examinations somewhere. I asked for directions to Ntshingeni School as I knew that he had made all the arrangements. By 09:30 we departed from Cofimvaba arriving at the school after 10:00.
We were allocated a hall where the Grade 8 and 9 learners were waiting in neat rows with desks. I requested that they remove the desks and arrange the chairs closer to the front of the hall to make it easier to see the equipment. Unfortunately there was too much light filtering into the venue to make use of the data projector so ignored this component of the presentation.
Once again it did not take long to identify talented learners. One of the boys was exceptionally talented and answered the angle of the blades question with respect to the wind turbine. This showed great insight despite potentially not having experienced anything similar in the past. He was really chuffed with himself and will certainly make a good engineer in years to come.
Directly after this session the Grades 5 and 6 were lead into the venue and the same trends were identified. I tasked Esme and Jade to also mark the questionnaires of the learners who they thought showed talent. It was remarkable the degree of overlap we had. The experience for both of them is a powerful reminder of the bipolar education that we have in this country.
We returned to Cathcart via Queenstown to pick up supplies for a chicken potjie in the evening. The beauty of nature is very appealing especially when even the crickets retire after 20:00.
| Ntshingeni | ||||||||
| ### | ||||||||
| Grade 4 | Grade 5 | Grade 6 | Grade 7 | |||||
| M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | |
| 8 | ||||||||
| 9 | 1 | 4 | ||||||
| 10 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 5 | ||||
| 11 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 10 | 1 | |||
| 12 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 4 | |
| 13 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 9 | 12 | ||
| 14 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 6 | ||
| 15 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 5 | |||
| 16 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 2 | ||||
| 17 | ||||||||
| 18 | ||||||||
| 13 | 21 | 24 | 21 | 28 | 13 | 29 | 29 | |
| 34 | 45 | 41 | 58 | |||||
| 178 | ||||||||