Yes, we can!

1
Yes, we can!

• Libraries for South African Schools
• A project of South Africa Partners

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South Africa 350 Years of Resistance

• First settlers arrive in 1652 and the process of
  disenfranchising the indigenous population began
  immediately
• Violent appropriation of land
• Laws enacted to segregate and limit access of the
  majority population
• Land Act
• Group Areas Act
• Pass Laws
• Immorality Act

3
Apartheid Becomes Law

• Election of the National Party in 1948
• Enactment of Apartheid legislation
• Further segregation and loss of opportunity
• Bantu Education
• Repressive Laws i.e. 90 Day Act
• Imprisonment and banishment of Leaders
• Years of steady erosion of human rights

4
Bantu Education

• There is no place for the Bantu in the
  European community above the level of certain
  forms of labour ... What is the use of teaching
  the Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it
  in practice? That is quite absurd. Education must
  train people in accordance with their
  opportunities in life, according to the sphere in
  which they live.
• - Henrik Verwoerd, Minister of Education, 1958

"We shall reject the whole system of Bantu
Education whose aim is to reduce us, mentally and
physically, into 'hewers of wood and drawers of
water'."Soweto Students Representative Council,
1976
5
Ending Apartheid

• June 1976 Soweto uprisings ignited new wave of
  activism call to make South Africa
  ungovernable
• International solidarity
• Divestment and Sanctions
• Free Mandela Campaign

6
The Road to Freedom

• Secret negotiations begin in 1985
• Nelson Mandela released from prison in 1990
• First democratic elections held April 1994
• Nelson Mandela elected president
• The fourth national election took place in April
  2009

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The Province of the Eastern Cape
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Fort Beaufort Education District
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Building the New South Africa

• After the 1994 elections, South Africa faced the
  challenge of integrating the former White,
  Colored, Indian, and African departments of
  government.
• Provinces that included former homelands had the
  added burden of integrating those departments as
  well.
• The Province of the Eastern Cape, with two
  homelands, integrated 6 separate departments into
  one unified Department of Education

10
Status of Education in SA

• The most recent government report
• of overcrowded schools has fallen from 51
  (1999) to 42 (2006)
• School electrification has risen from 11,174
  (1996) to 20,713 (2006)
• Schools without water has dropped from 8,823
  (1996) to 3,152 (2006)
• Schools without on-site toilets dropped from
  3,265 (1996) to 1,532 (2006)

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Status of Education in SA

• Current areas of debate
• Mother-tongue instruction when is English
  introduced?
• Outcomes Based Education how to be successful
  when the tools needed are not available
• No-fee Schools ensuring these schools are
  centers of excellence
• Instituting Standards for School Principals
  setting qualifications and course work

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South Africa Partners

• Grew out of Anti-Apartheid movement
• Strives to build two-way exchanges based on
• mutual engagement and participation
• openness to learn from each other
• mutual respect, trust and open-mindedness
• Prioritizes partnerships that strengthen
  community, build institutional capacity, and
  foster local leadership

13
Finding Ways to Support Education Reform

• Libraries for South African Schools was
  established to
• Increase access to school libraries and improve
  collections
• Empower teachers with knowledge and skills that
  will enable them to plan and manage effective
  school library systems
• Provide financial resources to purchase books and
  other materials
• Stimulate the South African book industry and
  expand the number of childrens books published
  in the country
• Strengthen advocacy for the strategic importance
  of school libraries.

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Libraries for SA Schools
Training of Teacher/Librarians Partnership with
the University of Fort Hare to train
Teacher/Librarians Linking US and South African
schools providing a forum for ongoing contact
and exchange of ideas and strategies Annual
Education Tour to South Africa
Developing Infrastructure Grants to schools to
purchase needed bookshelves, library furniture,
relevant books and resource materials
Promoting Literacy through South African
Childrens Books Ensuring the availability of
appropriate childrens books through the
Masifunde Sonke Let Us Read Together initiative
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The Melani School Library Project

• Cluster of 11 rural primary schools identified by
  the E Cape Dept. of Ed.
• Project designed in partnership with the Univ. of
  Ft. Hare

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The Melani Cluster

• Melani Cluster schools serve 1636 learners
• Town of Alice, has a municipal library, but lacks
  the necessary
• resources to make it
• fully useful to its patrons

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Melani Resource Library
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Pilot Project Training Modules

• Thus far, the Projects
• curriculum has focused on three
• main areas
• Introduction to librarianship
• Collection development and maintenance
• Preparation of library materials and stock

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Creating New Opportunities

• In 2004, the IBBY Conference was held in Cape
  Town South Africa
• Librarians from Cambridge, MA used the
  opportunity to visit the Melani Cluster
• They raised funds so that 4 of the
  teacher/librarians to attend the conference
• They advocated for the Melani Cluster to be a
  beneficiary of the IBBY Conference book donation

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Accomplishments

• Development of a training curriculum
• 11 teacher/librarians have received two rounds of
  training in basic library management and
  integration of library materials into the
  curriculum.
• Teachers and librarians have received over 2500
  books as well as small grants to purchase
  additional books, shelving and other supplies

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Future of the LSAS Project

• Have identified cluster schools in two additional
  education districts
• Also envision sustainable sister-school
  partnerships between U.S. and S.African schools

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Masifunde Sonke Let Us Read Together

• Making leading South African childrens books
  available in the U.S.
• With each purchase, a second book is donated to
  an under-resourced school in South Africa

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Establishing a Culture of Reading

• Response to lack of library resources in LSAS
  Project schools
• 30 childrens books written by South African
  authors and published in South Africa
• For every book that is purchased from the
  Masifunde Sonke Project in the US, another copy
  is donated to an under-resourced school in South
  Africa

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Masifunde Sonke House Parties

• House parties in U.S. generate sales of South
  African published books.

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SA Partners Education Tour
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• Out of the experience of an extraordinary human
  disaster that lasted too long, must be born a
  society of which all humanity will be proud.
  Nelson Mandela at his inauguration as President,
  May 10, 1994