Sure is, but still I can’t help wondering why would everyone even want to go to the university. This seems to be the case on this side of the world, for example in Kenya, as a colleague told me. University – or nothing, seems like the options are there. That all boils down to not having a middle class, I guess. Getting to a university is a way (the only?) to climb the social ladder, with very sparse steps.
On Monday, we SA-YSSP’ers did our share in spreading the word of education to local schools. We were divided in three local schools with also high grades and with which the university had done co-operation before before. My group went to a scholl in the outskirts of Bloemfontein, almost in rural area. There were all grades from the 7-year-old 1st graders to the almost adult 12th graders, and they were all singing as we arrived to the spot (a bit late, no wonder). The principal introduced us young scientists to the pupils, and then they sang another song. The whole school was answering to my good morning as ‘good morning, sir’, pretty cool.
The idea was to have a chat with the oldest, the 10, 11 and 12 graders. Tell about ourselves, what did we study, what do we do as researchers, what kind of dreams or plans the pupils have, and so on. It was awesom to have this kind of experience, and see a piece of real life. This school was a free school, as the principal told us, the government pays everything from pencils to lunch, even a transport for the kinds (some live as far as 40 kilometres away and used to walk!). Do I need to mention that I saw no white students there?
And again it struck be: Go to university, work hard, and go to university. This was basically the message that our group leader (from Ghana) told to the youngsters. Having seen how the future options are advertised for the Finnish 9th graders, this was quite different. And, as said I mentioned above, I don’t think university is something everyone even considers. (A quick survey among the other two Europeans among us proved my point.) At least recently also professional training in Finland has really improved its status, and, hey, those people are really needed! I need to find out what other options there are here, if any.
My roommate noted that one of the reasons behind this large-scale university go-go, might the fact that universities were in the past only for the whites. Many black people in universities are first generation students and might not have the same kind of support from home, or even knowledge of their possibilities. Again, it feels like there are acctually two societies in this country. That is so wrong.
End of the deep thoughts for now. This Friday we’ll head to Cape Town, more on that later then! Finally, the latest bird observation is a red-and-yellow barbet. This guy is having a carneval season all year round.
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| Red-and-yellow Barbet (Trachyphonus erythrocephalus) Photo: Steve Bailey |
