Challenges aside, teachers are passionate about their career

Seeing pupils succeed is what drives most teachers to look forward to going to the classroom.

This is the view shared by some teachers who spoke to Sowetan to mark World Teachers’ Day on Tuesday.  Several teachers said despite the challenges they faced in the classroom, they would still choose teaching as a career.

Vela Xanko, a teacher at Bazindlovu Senior Secondary School in Mqanduli outside Mthatha in Eastern Cape, has been a teacher for 13 years.

“The greatest reward of any teacher is to see their products prosper. I usually tell learners we don’t teach them  to be like us but to be better than us because should they fall short we would have failed. Our success is seen through our learners,” he said.

Xanko said being a teacher was difficult as they were faced with many challenges, such as substance abuse, ill discipline, lack of proper support from stakeholders, earning peanuts and being undermined. 

“I love teaching and I believe that there is still too much to offer to help build the future of our youth despite everything,” he said.  

Sindiswa Malgas, a teacher in one of the secondary schools in Alexandra, northern Johannesburg, said she had been teaching  for 15 years.

“Poverty is our biggest challenge as this leads to crime and also parents who are not hands on with children’s education. However, there is a lot that needs to be done by us as educators to help those poor helpless children from different back grounds,” Malgas said.

Yanga Mnyuko, a primary schoolteacher at Indwe in Eastern Cape, said: “Teaching is about giving back to the learners and also giving them hope. I teach in a rural school where there are no resources and I have also learnt that communication with the learners is key. I have a good relationship with my learners and I have taught them to understand and respect each other.”

Enoch Shishenge, a teacher at Eqinisweni Secondary School in Ivory Park in Ekurhuleni said: .

“I like rekindling new ideas everyday and being part of changing lives. We are faced with growing population and slow response to that by our government has led to overcrowding in our classes. I think I still have passion for teaching. To motivate my learners I have written books with them and some have been published as novels, short stories and poems.”

Mugwena Maluleke, general secretary of South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), said: 

“We are celebrating World Teachers’ Day, for the second time in a row, under a dark cloud of the devastating Covid-19 pandemic that caused untold disruptions to schooling, economy and life in general. In the first year of the pandemic alone, 1,650 teachers lost their lives and dozens more continue to die. As Sadtu we salute the teachers for the role they have played in ensuring that education continues under these trying times.”

Maluleke said the country needed more teachers, more resources, more training and better working conditions.

“Quality education for all is the only sustainable way of recovery where the teachers are at the centre. We therefore demand that education be classified as an emergency in order to realise the required financial relief required for an inclusive and sustainable recovery,” he said.