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Education In South African Education

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THE CURRENT CONTEXT OF SOUTH AFRICAN EDUCATION
The context of education on the South African schools is very different from that of the other countries, mainly due to the impacts of the legacy of apartheid education in South Africa during the apartheid era. This has led to the poor functioning of a large of number of schools that were previously taken as black schools in South Africa (Soudien, 2007). Almost all of these schools were and are still located at the utmost poor areas. The communities which they are located in are usually of disrupted communities where there are unhealthy relationships between the teachers and pupils. Furthermore, teachers and pupils not showing commitment in terms of school attendance, pupils involving themselves …show more content…
The schools are based and function in the same areas where most fail due to the challenges. With their overcoming against all odds, these schools are termed the resilient schools (Christie, 2007).
With all the challenges faced by many schools especially those which were impacted by the apartheid education these schools in order for them to survive and overcome the challenges there is a great need for the teachers who are ready to be the elements of change. This means, there is a great need for the teachers who will not just take the teaching profession as a job but will have the hearts and love to work with the young people and be willing to want to change their lives for the better (Fullan, 1993). This paper will be focusing more on schools as resilient organizations and on teachers as the agents of change.
As mentioned above, resilient schools are those schools which have faced challenges but against all odds they have come up with ways to overcome those challenges. Resilience in schools simply convey something that bends without breaking and when that particular thing is bent it is able go back to its original position like a spring (Vaillant, 1993). The resilient schools have got their characteristics which make them to stand out of all the other schools (Christie, …show more content…
Positive discipline means that learners are not punished in a manner that would hurt or embarrass them, for example the use of corporal punishment and the calling of learners by inappropriate names, but learners are given punishment that grooms them if they have done something wrong. Such punishments may include cleaning the classrooms, extra homework and the list goes on. For the teachers to understand the type of punishment to use on learners they first need to love and treat their learners as their own children, therefore in that way will be able to do what is best for their learners. So, basically resilient schools have got teachers that are passionate and have love for their learners as they were their own children. In most resilient schools past students still feel connected to the schools and still come for visits due to the way they were treated at school (Christie,

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