Catherine Joubert of Wellington was one of many caught in a dead-end job that was grinding away at her soul.
When her Grade 1 schoolteacher passed her while she was working in road construction, waving her flag as she regulated the traffic, she would drop her gaze, ashamed.
But all that changed after she took up the challenge of volunteering at a homework centre in Wellington, her home town.
This year, Joubert is one of two young women, along with childhood friend Tayala Afrika, to become the first in their families enrol at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Wellington campus, with the hope of eventually becoming teachers. This, thanks to two remarkable women who stepped in to provide the support and financial backing to help them complete their schooling and further their studies, and inspire them to succeed.
It started out with a project in Wellington focusing on helping teachers cope with their particular challenges, called .
The school homework club grew from an initiative of the Teacher Well-being (TWB) project.
Dr Karen Corlett, researcher in the Faculty of Education, University of the Western Cape (UWC) was the project facilitator, working in collaboration with a funding partner and retired Groenberg Primary School principal Gloria Samson.
Teachers felt demoralised by the then low achievement levels of learners and the high number of learners that required additional support owing to a range of language and learning barriers. The staff identified a homework and study club as a strategy to improve learners’ academic results and build a stronger supportive relationship among learners, teachers and parents/guardians.
“Groenberg Primary School was one of the four schools we worked with,” Dr Corlett says, “but because of Ms Samson’s passion and love for teaching, they started a homework club at the school catering for all the children in the area, aimed at improving learners’ academic results. The homework club focused on supporting the learners, as their parents are often unable to assist them with their homework tasks.”
Both Joubert and Afrika attended the homework club when they were at high school, and continued to attend in high school. And when Joubert came back as a volunteer, she found Afrika was already volunteering – working with kids, helping them find solutions for themselves.
“Samson is like a mother to all the children she has taught over the years,” Afrika says. “This journey is very exciting for both of us because she connected us with people who want to see us succeed and break the chain of poverty in our families.”
Joubert, one of the beneficiaries, who also received donor funding, says she is very passionate about teaching and education on the whole, having opened many doors for her childhood friends.
“I want to thank Ms Samson for believing in me since day one. After completing Grade 12 I went to work as a municipal worker, and Samson saw me on the road as she drove by and called me,” she says.
“She asked me if this is what I want to do for the rest of my life X and when I said no, she asked me to volunteer at the homework club, which is where I gained more experience in teaching and how to work with children.”
She believes her homework club experience will help her with her teaching course, which she will be doing at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.
Samson, a retired principal of Groenberg Primary School, says the school staff and community are proud to celebrate the achievement of these learners-cum-teachers. “I have known these girls since they were very young,” she said, “I was their Grade 1 teacher and saw them complete their high school careers X excelling in their academics.”
