By Akani Nkuna
Ntombozuko Mkizwana, crowned as South Africa’s new best teacher at the 2024 National Teaching Awards, has urged educators to rise above adversity and pursue excellence and exceptional performance.
After being named as the winner of National Best Teacher Award, Mkiizwana told Inside Education that teachers must strive to overcome obstacles and not allow their backgrounds to define or confine them.
“In our corners, we are all blessed teachers, but what is important is to go beyond the call of duty. Go beyond the prescripts of the curriculum assessments policy statement,” she said.
Mkizwana’s upbringing was marked by humble beginnings in the rural Eastern Cape village of Marombe, Katkop, where she was born into a family of seven. She had a simple but challenging childhood, walking long distances to school barefoot and
living in modest circumstances.
But she managed to rise above her difficult circumstances.
Mkizwana said was excited at the recognition bestowed on her at the National Teaching Awards in Ekurhuleni over the weekend, but dedicated her academic success to the village teachers who saw her potential and pushed her to excel
beyond the limitations of her underprivileged background.
“I am a product of a village education where my only beacon of hope was my teachers,” she said.
She wanted to study law, but teaching became a calling. Drawing from her own inspiring educators, Mkizwana was determined to shape young minds.
“After I qualified to teach, I fell in love with the impact and difference I was making in the lives of my learners, and my teaching with inspiration grew drastically,” said Mkizwana.
Her teaching journey began in 1997 at Balizulu Junior Secondary School, where she taught English to Grades 4 to 6.
Her career took an exciting turn in 2014 when she was handpicked to join the newly established Mandela School of Science and Technology in Mvezo, Nelson Mandela’s birthplace. Today, she proudly serves as the school’s deputy.
“Education is the centre of any development in the country. It is also important to ensure that teachers are making the difference. Because it is the difference that they are contributing that will make the sector open other horizons for us to excel as teachers,” she said.
She outlines her mission as cultivating compassionate leaders equipped with values and confidence who defy rural-urban education stereotypes.
“My experience in dealing with learners is not just teaching for compliance – I am shaping global citizens, and I always have a strong commitment and drive to overcome the barriers of race and the socioeconomic backgrounds of the learners,”
she said.
Her teaching extends beyond the English classroom; Mkizwana has made a lasting impact as a multifaceted educator, excelling as a researcher, community builder, mentor and leader in her school communities.
“No matter how much teachers try to teach other subjects, without ensuring that a child gets quality teaching in languages, all those efforts will be in vain,” she said.
Mkizwana has called for language developmental programmes to be enhanced so that they directly impact the National Development Plan Vision 2030.
“We ought to expand the horizon of learners, especially with co-curricular programmes, because it is through co-curricular programmes that we can see the realisation of the impact of languages,” she said.
Mkizwana says the hallmarks of a successful teacher are stimulating students’ intellectual curiosity through reading, presentation, discussions of current affairs, and promoting critical thinking and promoting effective argumentation.
She said her instructional strategy included a jigsaw approach to empowering all learners and promoting collective responsibility, inclusivity and language equity.
This ensured that each pupil’s unique strengths were embraced and their potential unfettered.
Mkizwana is no stranger to winning accolades for her work in improving education in the country, particularly for pupils in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape.
In 2016, she received top honours, earning the Provincial Award for Outstanding Secondary English Teaching and the prestigious National Teacher Award for Secondary English Education.
She represented the Mandela School of Science and Technology in Germany during the 2015 exchange programme, promoting cultural exchange through sports and dialogue inspired by the leadership of South Africa’s first democratic leader.
Through a non-profit initiative she established, Mkizwana provides free English literature lessons on weekends, impacting schools across the district and beyond and sharing best practices for improving student outcomes.
“My influence on shaping learners to become global citizens is shown by how some of them transcended beyond the barriers of poverty and are now working in China, Singapore, America, Kenya, Rwanda and Mexico,” she said.
Considering recent efforts to move from traditional teaching and learning to internet- based methods, Mkizwana said there were challenges associated with the endeavour to produce quality content and make it accessible.
She advised that it could be addressed by supplying devices specifically designed for education and establishing comprehensive management and maintenance frameworks to enable remote schools in rural areas to access quality learning resources.
“Matric alone without practical skills won’t save our sector; there is a need for the skills that were [not] in schools before. And also, progress is needed to mitigate the staggering drop in pupils reaching matric, as echoed by Professor Jonathan Jansen,” she said.
Mkizwana called for more resources for other forms of education to diversify the nation’s skills, particularly in arts, music, dance and drama academies for learners in rural areas.
“Motivate teachers to continue making a difference in their different corners despite the plethora of challenges they face,” she said.
“But most importantly, encourage them to participate in the National Teaching Awards because they are the light and the reason for the change we see in our county,” she said.
INSIDE EDUCATION
