GLP's School-To-School Partnerships serve to create a dialogue between schools participating in our High Literacy Clusters from around the world and the USA.

Our pilot program between the South Africa and the USA has had wonderful participation from Thabisile Primary School in Soweto and Chatham Day School in New Jersey.

Chatham Day School (CDS), New Jersey, USA

The teachers at CDS will tell you: "Our students love school!" As they note... "They are actively engaged in an education that provides social, emotional, and intellectual growth. Students are given strategies to maximize their learning, and graduate from Chatham Day School with self-awareness, confidence, and a quest for knowledge."

These are the very qualities that encouraged us to pair CDS with Thabisile Primary School.

With its dilapidated fence and modest building peeping out at you, as you approach the school grounds in the heart of Diepkloof, one could excuse the first time traveler to this corner of Soweto for wondering if this school has what it takes. However, as soon as you encounter the students and teachers, you quickly realize that Thabisile students love school also!

Thabisile's vision “to produce independent, competent, responsible and excellent learners, staff and parent body” is not merely a few typed words on a piece of paper - but a way of life which has ensured that this school, with its limited amount of resources and staff, has not only survived the 1976 Soweto Uprisings, but now looks forward with the goal of being an outstanding beacon of academic excellence for the community that relies upon it.

Learning About South Africa <----------> Learning About New Jersey and the USA

The partnership between the two schools involved a number of learning situations. Many of the CDS students would not have heard about Soweto or had never perhaps thought about the nation of South Africa. This encouraged a number of CDS teachers from a range of subjects to integrate global issues and awareness into their lessons. CDS students would also develop materials reflecting their new understanding of the geography and history of South Africa.

While CDS students learned about South Africa, Thabisile students were getting their first exposure to New Jersey. The Global Literacy Project volunteers who visited provided funding for the purchase of maps showing the USA and allowing them to locate New Jersey. When their new friends from CDS sent the first "cultural packets" there was a very interesting series of discussions to explain why the New Jersey students didn't seem to live lives like on television. One quick learning outcome was the realization that students in New Jersey and students in Soweto shared many similarities.

The Schools May Be on Different Continents But the Thirst for Knowledge is the Same

Speaking to the staff of the Chatham Day School is eerily like speaking to the staff at Thabisile Primary School. If you closed your eyes you would hear students being urged to seize opportunities to enrich themselves inside and outside the classroom, in hopes that they graduate as well-rounded and socially enlightened individuals.

Mrs. Vilakazi, the principal of Thabisile notes that their students are told that "It doesn't matter what subject you're taking, you must be just like a sponge." The right to education is enshrined in South Africa’s Bill of Rights – not only for children but also for adults. The South African curriculum (Curriculum 2005) is based on the concept of Outcomes-Based Education which regards learning as an interactive process between educators and learners. Intended to replace the "banking concept" of education characteristic of education in South Africa during the Apartheid era and first years of the new South African regime, OBE regards learning as an interactive process between and among educators and learners, with the learner at the center and the teacher as facilitator. The focus is on what learners should know and be able to do (knowledge, skills, attitudes and values). The goal is to produce active and lifelong learners with a thirst for knowledge and a love of learning.

The Exploration of Commonalities and the Legacies of History

Exploring American Bill of Rights became an opportunity to explore south African history. Chatham Day School Social Studies teachers were able to host discussions about how the principles of the American Bill of Rights resonated with the South African Bill of Rights.

These discussions also fostered an awareness about the idea of our common humanity and the need to hold up universal principles such as those developed in the Human Rights Charter of the United Nations.

Teachers were encouraged to brainstorm with their students about the nature of human rights. Students were asked to name things that everyone needs to live their life, no matter where they live or how old they are. For example, food, water, a place to live (shelter), to be safe from harm and to travel freely in your home country. They were then encouraged to look at historical events such as the long struggle for Civil Rights in the USA and apartheid in South Africa to see how these rights often had to struggled for.

Reflecting on the Life of Nelson Mandela

The CDS and Thabisile students also shared the story of Nelson Mandela and his vision that ordinary South Africans have always viewed education as something worth struggling for. Both were inspired by Mandela's speech on 16 June 1994, the anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, were he said:

[W]e should first and foremost, approach it from the point of view that the heroes of those struggles had a noble mission. They were inspired by a thirst for knowledge:

• knowledge which knows no co lour;
• knowledge acquired through persuasion and hard work;
• knowledge that taps talents and releases creative energies; and
• knowledge that puts South African youth on par with the best in the world.

A Striving For Excellence Despite Life's Challenges

The long term vision of CDS students, if they think much about it, probably simply assumes that they will do well at CDS and then move on to high school, college and then the world. These steps will seem simple and logical to many American students largely because to accomplish all of this, American students have an economic system that generally supports easy pursuit of academic learning. The dreams are very similar for many students at Thabisile but the road is somewhat more difficult. Township and rural schools are playing a mighty game of "catch up" in order to deal with the legacy of the many years of apartheid.

Most township schools remain more or less in the same material position as under apartheid.

While Thabisile is in the Soweto of a new South Africa, many vestiges of apartheid remain – poverty is entrenched, many students live in shacks, and family structures are dramatically challenged by the impact of HIV-AIDS. Despite a promise of opportunity, 52 percent of people aged 16 to 25 are unemployed. With so much demand on its resources, the South African education system has evolved into a "skim off" system for many lower economic students.

For instance, every grade 12 student in South Africa is required to take a series of "Matric" exams based on the subjects they study. These exams determine access to higher education, jobs, and future success. High results can help students gain entry to university, but most students in places like Soweto, if they pass, simply receive a school-leaving certificate, the equivalent of a high school diploma, which effectively closes off most future career options that would earn enough to move them up the economic ladder.

Part of the School-To-School relationship is to inspire students on both sides. For those who already have opportunities, they are inspired to reach out and help those who have the passion but need support. For those seeking to transform their future they are inspired by learning about the options that are available in the wider world.