The exposure of black people to a variety of career options with the advent of democracy relegated the teaching profession to the doldrums.
But this seems destined to change as an interest in teaching has been reignited and is beginning to take root as shown by three Alex youngsters who have volunteered their time to run reading clubs in two schools as part of the help2read programme.
Ekukhanyisweni and Iphutheng primary schools are where it’s all happening for Judith Ramokgola, Mahlatse Mkansi and Khosi Mfeketho, the three Alex literacy tutors of the help2read project which helps improve the future of primary school pupils through literacy support.
Prospective teachers… Judith Ramokgola; children’s book author Refiloe Moahloli; Mahlatse Mkansi and Khosi Mfeketho. Ramokgola, Mkansi and Mfeketho are literacy tutors of the help2read programme at Ekukhanyisweni and Iphutheng primary schools in Alex. Photo: Sipho Siso
Teaching was once the in thing among many black people, as it was one of the few careers available during the years of racial segregation under the apartheid system of government. And the flame seems to have been reignited as more and more school leavers are now opting for teaching as their preferred career choice.
Ramokgola, a former matriculant of Alex High School’s Class of 2014, said she has an undying passion for teaching. “Teaching is one profession where you can literary and rightfully so, claim any walking person on earth as your product,” she said in an interview with Alex News during Literacy Week in August.
“Be he or she a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer or even a professor, he or she has to start in a classroom, which is where I truly belong myself. I have an unflinching love for this profession and just love working with kids.”
Prospective teachers… Judith Ramokgola; children’s book author Refiloe Moahloli; Mahlatse Mkansi and Khosi Mfeketho. Ramokgola, Mkansi and Mfeketho are literacy tutors of the help2read programme at Ekukhanyisweni and Iphutheng primary schools in Alex. Photo: Sipho Siso
Mfeketho, a Northview High School 2016 matriculant, said she was in the process of registering for a teaching course in one of the tertiary institutions in Johannesburg. “I was exposed to teaching in the help2read programme as a literacy tutor and I have fallen head over heels. There’s no looking back at all,” she too told Alex News.
Mkansi, the only male among the three literacy boffs and a product of Abel High School in Bolobedu, Limpopo, was equally ecstatic about the teaching profession.”I can safely say that I am a born teacher – if there is anything like that. Teaching has always been part of my DNA, even when I was still at school, and being involved in this help2read programme as a literacy tutor came as natural,” he said.
Mkansi, who is also in the process of registering for a teaching career, described teaching as not being one of those jobs people do to make loads of money but was a calling.
