What I Learned at Cornwall Hill College

A school I taught at a decade ago is, like many other private or wealthy government South African schools, having its moment of reckoning with allegations of institutional racism.

Cornwall Hill College is a private, co-ed school just outside Pretoria. When I briefly worked there, the school was known for its very, very strong academics, its great facilities, and, particularly in the junior section of the school, its strong sports programme. I remember a very well-run music department, and great school plays and musicals.

I don`t recall there being any racial controversy at all whilst I was there, so when the school hit the headlines this week, I carefully read the articles to find out what had. caused the parent and student protests, knowing that if there had been major racial issues, it was quite possible I had just not known about them, being myself unaffected.

I found the most discussed allegation to be one from a female black student about an incident seven years ago when a teacher told her that her hair was messy and that she should use a straightening product.

Clearly a very insensitive thing to say to a little girl, and I hope that the issue is resolved and the teacher concerned reprimanded. It should be noted that most of these schools do forbid hair relaxants officially.

A similar controversy also had the hair issue at the centre of it at a high school also in Pretoria, perhaps one of the most prestigious government schools in the country, Pretoria High School for Girls.

I could not find any other specific charges, which did surprise me, as the protest was significant enough to make headlines and the politician in charge of all education in the province attended the protest himself. I later read the governor of the reserve bank had also attended as he is a parent at the school.

(I remember there being many notable public officials and diplomats who were parents at the school.)

In one video, a black student speaks about the chief issue being teachers not being aware of the fine line between “comments and micro-aggressions that are discriminatory - that is where it starts, not understanding the fine line.”

It seems once again that this is a case of protesting against a culture, a system, in which black students take an opportunity to express a sense of alienation within their own school.

I am sure this alienation is real. There is a culture collision in South Africa. And I know that teachers, like everybody, are often not pleasant people, or can be quite bitter. Add that to cultural division and you will get conflict.

When I was at the school, I remember the chief cultural collision at the school not being between white South African culture but a vague kind of American culture which had seeped into the school. I remember being very unsure what to make of black students using the n-word, or hearing `rap battles` outside my classroom.

I had a kind of middle management role so I did deal with some disciplinary issues. I never recall having any difficulties with a black student. I also remember the head boy being black whilst I was there. This was not seen as unusual and I recall him being very comfortable in his role, speaking to the school at all assemblies (far more than the executive head did), and using his platform to promote his passion for the scouting movement.

I also remember there being a shooting incident at the school gates, and at the shopping centre down the road. My family lived down the road and we were tied up in our home one night by armed robbers. Wealthy places are not immune to violence.

One more interesting fact about the school, as far as I know, the name Cornwall Hill comes from the name of a British regiment that camped on the school`s site during the Boer war. Down the road from the school is an old concentration camp where the British allowed tens of thousands of Afrikaner women and children to die in terrible conditions in order to demoralize the Afrikaners into yielding their successful guerilla campaign against British imperialism. South African history and contemporary society is filled with these tragic quirks.

But I thought it might be interesting for some readers to hear about the most important thing I learnt at the school.

While I was there, a programme was launched whereby students from poorer schools in the area would come to the school on a Saturday, receive two good meals, and be taught substantial lessons in English, Maths, Science, and Biology, to help them catch up ahead of their final examinations.

I was involved and I vividly recall a large class of students arriving for my lesson, superbly attentive, eager to learn.

Here`s the important thing - each week I would ask them what they had done in class recently. Each week their answer was the same - nothing. Their teacher had missed most of the lessons.

This is not unusual in South Africa. The teachers in the government sector are notorious for absenteeism and being poorly qualified. There are stories of teachers arriving to mark leaver exams, being asked to write the exam to show capability, and then failing the exam they were then about to grade. Teachers can`t be fired because their union is so powerful and is an important ally of the ANC.

Many schools go without textbooks or even toilets. This is despite South Africa spending vast amounts of money on education. Most agree corruption is to blame.

One task I set for these students was to write an essay on their future goals. This was heartbreaking. Almost all of the students wrote about escaping poverty and being able to provide for their mothers. Yet they had hardly any help to get there. Most would not achieve this goal, I feared.

On the same day as the protest at Cornwall Hill was in the headlines, statistics were released about unemployment in South Africa. The most shocking piece of data was the fact that 75% of youth are unemployed. My fears had come true.

This was not in any headlines I saw.

Instead of education ministers and reserve bank governors rushing to crisis meetings to address this overwhelming social disaster, they found time to criticize a school whose students have basically won South Africa`s lottery. These students are receiving a world class education on an island of excellence surrounded by an ocean of failure and despair.

The education minister at the protest has been in his role for nearly a decade, by the way.

The Reserve bank governor stated the following at the protest: “The school has got to consciously go out and look for black teachers to give our children pride to actually look and know that there are black people who are excelling in the education sphere.”

Allow me to respond:

None of these sentiments are going to matter at all in a few years time. Feelings of pride will be meaningless in a society that is in the midst of being utterly destroyed.

Feelings of alienation should be dealt with - but they are minor compared to young people starving and never even having a hope of being employed. Media making headlines of them while other people starve is bizarre and almost criminal.

The liberal think tank, The Institute of Race Relations, polled the country a few years ago and found that only 3 percent of people listed racism as a serious problem.

“The report found that only 3% of South Africans see racism as a serious unresolved problem in the country. In comparison, 40% cited unemployment as a serious issue, while poor service delivery (34%) and inadequate housing (18%) rounded up the top three biggest worries.”

South Africa left the British Empire 60 years ago. 27 of those years have now been under ANC rule.

It is time to take responsibility for the present. The country is burning down. Every speech or event, no matter how sincere or well-founded, that distracts from the fire allows the destruction to spread. Listen to the people. Prioritize the poor.

I am sure Cornwall Hill has serious flaws which can and should be resolved. I also know it empowers all its students with a very strong education. No student fails high school there. That is why the Reserve Bank governor sends his child there, and not to a school run by his own government.