ABSTRACT

Imagine that you are a sixteen-year-old girl who goes to school in a township in Cape Town, South Africa. Your school is in a high poverty area where crime and gangsterism are rife. You are late again, so you wait outside the locked school gate until the principal lets you inside. You are not concerned because your class teacher has no register. You have been at school for a term and she still does not know how many students are in your class. New students are still arriving at the school. You arrive halfway through the first period at the same time as your teacher, who ironically tells you that you should try and get to class on time. You stroll to your next class at the end of the period. There is no urgency because there is no school bell or clocks to mark the end of the period, and the teacher in this class never finishes on time. The timetable clash between your class and the geography class has still not been resolved. You stand outside and argue with other students about who is supposed to be in the classroom. This disturbs the teacher who comes out and disperses both classes. Finally you get into class. You are worried because you are supposed to write a test but luckily the teacher has forgotten. You have not been able to study because you do not have a textbook. The school did not order enough. You are not surprised when the teacher tells you to open the textbook (that you are sharing with four other people) to page 63 despite only being halfway through Chapter 3 yesterday. He does this often. You are aware that you need to leave the class early so that you can stand in the feeding scheme queue to get your only meal of the day. There are still not enough food portions allocated. The meal is your main reason for coming to school. You hope that some of the teachers don’t push into the queue today and demand they get fed. At least you will be able to concentrate in Mr P’s English class because he is a really good teacher.