Abstract
This study dealt with the question whether farm school teachers cope with their teaching
and learning on a daily basis. The fact that farm schools are situated in remote areas
has a problematic nature of its own, which includes obstacles and challenges such as
transport problems, bad roads, dilapidated buildings and facilities, no accommodation for
teachers from different places, poverty and under-development of learners, lack of
involvement of the parents and no interest whatsoever from the community or the farm
owner.
On top of these challenges the task in the classroom is no easier. Through data
gathered in interviews it became clear that teachers struggle to teach in small, dark,
unattractive, and ruined rooms, which are at their best too overcrowded and insufficient
for any effective teaching and learning to take place. Because the best teachers prefer
to move away and teach in towns and cities, the ones staying behind are mostly underqualified,
in need of guidance and assistance, ignorant of how to implement the new
curriculum, and too shy to apply transformational changes in such a faraway place
where people are under any circumstances not too keen on anything new and strange.
The data further revealed that the overarching problem that challenges teaching and
learning of any kind, irrespective of the caliber of the teachers or the learners, or
whatever their level of education or motivation, is poverty. Poor, unemployed and
uneducated parents can not be an inspiration to their children; and hungry, tired and
cold learners can for whatever it is worth, not concentrate to learn at school.
These are the findings of this study – findings that most definitely should be taken notice
of by the highest authorities in the Provinces and on National level of the Departments of
Education. Urgent and abundant assistance is needed to make these institutions
function effectively and save another generation of learners from the vicious circle of
ignorance and poverty.
Doctor M.C. van Loggerenberg
Doctor Lloyd Conley