JOHNATHAN PAOLI
Gugu Qwabe – South Africa’s Best Teacher of the Year 2023 – says “the best resource for any school is a motivated educator” and the English teacher and departmental head of languages at Mandla Mthethwa School of Excellence in Umkhanyakude in KwaZulu Natal, should know because she certainly walks the talk.
Qwabe, who has been teaching for 15 years, was honoured by Deputy President Paul Mashatile at the awards ceremony at the Heartfelt Arena in Pretoria on Thursday 5 October.
In his keynote address, Mashatile acknowledged that “teaching is a labour of love and passion, [and] as a government we are committed to reinforcing teacher support and prioritising the professional growth of the women and men who are key drivers of basic education”.
The National Teaching Awards were launched in 2000 and have become one of the ways in which the Department of Basic Education acknowledges the extraordinary efforts made by excellent teachers, often under very difficult conditions.
Qwabe, who has been automatically entered into the African Union Continental Teachers Award for 2023/24, is passionate about educating and grooming future leaders and has authored a book called Holistic Ubuntu Development — a textbook and a teacher guide.
The book focuses on the practical applications of African values to corporate aims, merging progressive thinking with models of sustainability. She said her motivation comes from being an author and her passion for technology, which she uses to assist learners. She also coaches other teachers and organises workshops for them.
Qwabe, who is pursuing an MBA at Regent Business School, supports the use of indigenous languages as tools of instruction, saying: “It has long been due for Africans to enjoy the fruits of their own existence. I believe that it is time as a country that we deserve everything others have.
“One important value is exhibiting resilience in the process, believing in what you’re doing, and meeting with policymakers,” she says, stressing the importance of uBuntu in developing a strong moral code and sense of social responsibility in learners.
Qwabe expressed her gratitude at being awarded the prize and an appreciation for her senior colleagues for recognising her vision of the humanising transformation of education for learners, especially for marginalised learners in rural areas.
Raised by a single mother, who was also a teacher, Qwabe, who has three other siblings, says her mother’s resourcefulness in the face of the struggles faced by their low-income household inspired her.
“My mother did not want me to do teaching since she was a teacher herself. She faced so many struggles, and being as innovative and different as I am in a system of conformity, she experienced a lot of resistance,” Qwabe told Inside Education.
After completing her basic education, which was interrupted by her transfer from a former model-C school to a local public school because of financial constraints, Qwabe graduated with a degree in Psychology and English from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and then transferred to the School of Education where she graduated in 2007.
Her teaching career kicked off in one of the poorest schools in Jozini, Amandla Awethu School. She taught Life Sciences and English without any formal teaching qualifications simply because of her “good English” in her Grade 12 results, she says.
The main motivation for her decision to teach in Jozini was that both learners and teachers were making great strides despite the school being badly under-resourced and with poor sanitation provision.
However, the teachers’ and learners’ resilience in the face of their challenges, strengthened Qwabe’s resolve that only educators with passion should be recruited into the teaching profession.
In 2009, Qwabe acquired a Postgraduate Certificate in Education before being recruited by a circuit manager, who recognised her potential, to join the newly formed Mandla Mthethwa School of Excellence (MMSE) in 2018.
MMSE is in Ndumo, a deeply rural area bordering Eswatini and Mozambique in the uMkhanyakude education district, and has its roots in an initiative dating back to 2001 when members of the private sector and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education collaborated in an effort to improve the quality of the lives of the people in one of the poorest and most under-resourced communities in KwaZulu-Natal.
MMSE Headmaster Dr BH Mthabela has described the school’s mission as instilling in learners values such as respect for themselves and others, level-headedness, self-control and self-discipline, compassion, and embracing others and the environment.
Mthabela said the school was designed primarily to offer the best possible education to learners in Umkhanyakude, in particular, and those from KZN and other provinces in general. Qwabe, he said, was a natural fit at the school whose pupils have secured more than 200 distinctions in its short existence.
Qwabe said she hopes the school system will attract “more teachers who are emotionally, morally and ideologically invested in ensuring equal and quality education for all children. We need more good people in our society, we need more people to stand up for the right things. Our learners need to grow up in healthy spaces.”
INSIDE EDUCATION
