The Golden Gate Special – Using Drama in Environmental Education

“Welcome to the Live studio of Wilgenhof at Golden Gate Highlands National Park! You are here today, because your school, Mariam College, have received free tickets to this awarding winning talk show – The Golden Gate Special. Our programme will start rolling in five minutes. As this is a Live recording, please kindly switch off all mobile and sound devices. Please also kindly refrain from talking to one another during the show. Are you ready?”

After addressing the audience, the host settled down in her chair, and her assistant, Nelly, helped to neaten her hair as camera man, Koketso, started to count down to the start of the show. “5, 4, 3, 2, 1...”

“Good Evening, and welcome to the Golden Gate Special! I am your host, Chi, and we are honoured to have the presence of Mariam College today as our audience. The focus topic for tonight is - The San People. We have several important guest speakers who would be sharing and discussing their knowledge about the different aspects of the San people. First up, we have Professor Kirsten and Professor Kaylee, anthropology experts from the University of Cambridge, who will share with us who exactly are the San people and how they look like.”

“Hi Chi, thanks for inviting us to your show. First, I would like to bring out my models to better explain who the San people are and how they differ from the Khoi Khois.... “

It was a wet-weather programme for Mariam College. It had been raining continuously Golden Gate for the past few nights, and they were not able to go on a night walk to Holkran's where they would learn more about the first inhabitants of the area – The San People. Prior to the start of the talk show, learners were divided into six different groups. Each group were given information from various articles concerning a specific topic and area of focus about the San people i.e. physical appearance, social structure, food & water, language & beliefs, culture & art and current challenges. The group then had to select two key guest speakers who would share information about what they have learnt. During their sharing, other team members were integrated as part of the show in many ways e.g. live models, acting in a “documentary video”, demonstration etc. Each team was then interviewed by the host and the audience. The host then showed the audience photographs and summarised key points to wrapped up the segment before introducing the next guests. The structure of the programme was modeled after famous talk shows like the Oprah Whitney Show and Dr Phil.

It was indeed an academy award winning show! Other than the first guest speakers who introduced the physical characteristics of the San people with the help of models, “professors from the University of Reitz” also shared the social structure of the San people through a “documentary video”. “Language experts” taught the audience how to pronounce the different clicks “!”, “/”, “//” and “=” of the San language. A “team from National Geography” shared how the San people hunt for food and how they obtained water. “People & Conservation officers” also shared the culture and beliefs of the San people, with particular focus on rock art. “Representatives from UN” also generated a discussion on the fate of the San in modern society, with particular interest in the current San community who is facing oppression in Botswana.

Through the various presentations from their peers, and with the questions and further inputs from the host to fill up the content gaps, learners from Mariam College were able to learn about the San in a much more fun and engaging way! Let us continue to try and think of creative ways in which we can engaged our learners in environmental learning!

Challenges of SA Educators

The knots above their eyebrows became tighter as they frantically looked through their packed calender to find another suitable date for us.

“You must find a date for us before the final submission on the 31st Oct, and make sure that the things that we talked about are in the final portfolio. There can only be one result and that's for us to succeed!” My co-colleague, Thami pressured the educators from Pheta Primary School again.

This would never be a scene that you will see in Singapore. Let me put it into context for you. Imagine you are writing a report or doing up a portfolio for the MOE NE Award, and the people from Singapore Discovery Centre not only demands that you make time for them during your lessons, present your portfolio to be critically assessed by them and you will also be pressured to be on your toes to complete tasks and guidelines given. I cannot imagine our Singaporeans teachers humbly appreciating this gesture, we just have too much pride.

Many schools here apply for the Eco-School award, do a lot of school improvements, but fail to give themselves a pat on their back due to their lack of interest or capability to put together a portfolio. Our job is to guide the educators to put together this portfolio. There is a lot of communication and hand holding to help the educators in this process over the year, from workshops to one-to-one sessions. I feel that it is a meaningful additional gesture by SANParks to help the community. Being with so many schools in SANParks, it is obvious that there is a great gap between the quality of education in different schools, especially between the private schools in the urban areas VS the public schools in rural and poor areas. And hopefully through simple gestures like these, it could help to expose the educators in more rural areas.

My co-colleague has this genuine interest to help the schools to achieve, especially for Pheta Primary School. She had seen a lot of improvements in the rural school, but was concerned when I feedback about the lack of content in their portfolio to her (based on what i had observed during the eco-school meeting). And thus she was really adding pressure on the team of teachers. I could fully understand where she was coming from, but my heart also went out to the educators.

Let me bring you back to the first scene where the educators are frantically searching for dates in their calendar while my colleague added verbal pressure. The Principal was standing behind and looking over their shoulders while the Deputy Principal sat beside them with equally tight-knotted brows. It was the 7th of Oct, exams are around the corner, and there was a list of more than 10 items for improvement on our notes.

Is the disease for awards spreading in this globalising world? I do agree that awards help to boost the morale of the school, educators and learners, it is also an effective guideline for the school to check that their systems are in place. However, it can also be equally demoralising for the unprepared educator.

One thing that is for sure, the educators here are also not having an easy time. As quoted from a South African teacher, Parween Khan, in response to people who comment how lucky teachers are to have a half-day job and have four holidays in a year, “Frankly this is a simplistic view and I have come very close to committing murder in response to this comment. So often have I heard this inane and uninformed statement, spoken in a patronising, holier-than-thou tone – and by so many different people – that it is just by the grace of God that I have not become a serial killer!” (“Setting Things Straight”, The Teacher, Sept 08)

Take a peak into the lives of an educator from an urban area -not only do they work long hours and write long reports, they are often also potential victims of violence. Items such as screwdrivers, penknives and the occasional gun can be items found during random searches. Not to mention having to deal with the many other problems such as teenage pregnancy/AIDs/discrimination/poverty of such Mt Everest magnitudes that sometimes make us look silly when we always have so much to complain on our little Bukit Timah Hill.

I agree that back home we are really working very hard and sometimes we multi-task so much that we burnout or forget our duty as classroom teachers. But we also do get world class training and support (in terms of funds and facilities). And really, looking at what the educators have to deal with over here, I feel that we need to just stop complaining, appreciate what we have, and just start acting. Let us manage the system and not let the system manage us.

Eco-School Workshop on African Time

“I live in a country where the speed limit is 90km/h, please put on your seat belt and hold on to the door,” I told my passenger as I, not so confidently, tried to maneuver down the curves of Golden Gate Mountains at 130km/h. It was already 8.55am, and the eco-school workshop was suppose to start in five minutes time at 9.00am.

I was panicking.
I don't like to be late.

It didn't help that Senitel Primary school was probably another 36km away at Qwa-Qwa, and that we were, er hrm, also the organisers of this workshop.

Thankfully (although it should not be an excuse), the rest of the educators also functioned on African Time (i.e. anytime). When we arrived at 9.20am, only two out of six schools arrived, not including our guest speaker from a neighbouring school just down the road less than 1km away. Those who arrived before us seemed to be relatively calm and accepted our apologies as if they were very used to such situations.

After the arrival of our guest speaker, we finally managed to start the workshop at 10.00am with a total of three schools. Slowly but surely, more schools arrived, including one school whom we did not invite. One school did not turn up, and even the teachers from our hosting school apparently lost their way too.

Nevertheless, it was a good and fruitful session for the 5 schools and 10 educators who attended the workshop. Three out of the five schools gave feedback that the time allocated for the workshop was too short. In fact, after we ended at the workshop at 12pm, packed and cleaned up the place, there was one more school that was still deep in discussion with our guest speaker. It was heartwarming to see the interests and commitment from the educators, including the guest speaker from Letotolo Primary. Despite a rocky start, I believed that the success of this workshop was due to the following factors:

Focused
There was no frills. The main objective of the workshop was to help our eco-schools in their portfolios for submission on 31st Oct, and the agenda was simple: 1) Recap on the programme objectives & expectations, 2) a sharing by a green flag eco-school, 3) discussion & sharing of porfolios and 4) sharing of common problems with eco-school portfolios.

Expertise
There were three “experts” to help the educators check their portfolios and to share their experience. Thulani – an eco-school evaluator in 2007, he was able to share what the evaluators look out for, and what were some common issues with rejected portfolios. Mr Finger – a fellow educator that can empathise with the challenges faced by the schools and could give practical advice. Moreover, he had the spirit of sharing by showing his portfolio (both 2007 & 2008) for others to learn and ask questions. Myself – an educator that is also familiar with putting up portfolios & reports for school awards in a competitive education system. Thus, there was a high ratio of facilitators to schools, and schools were able to attain critical and constructive advice for their individual portfolios.

Sincerity & Passion
All the facilitators had a genuine interest to share their experiences and also constantly encouraged the teachers to believe in the value that they are doing for their learners and schools. One school provided feedback that the workshop was “constructive” and “motivational”.

However, during the course of this workshop, I feel that although a lot of issues were addressed, I still feel that many of the portfolios would not be able to meet the standards. The main problem was that right from the start, most of the schools did not know how to use to audit to help them choose their theme. Many had mismatches, e.g. their school audit shows that they did well in the theme “healthy living” and were poor in “heritage and culture”. Yet, the school still choose “healthy living”. Also, during the celebration of water week, they had lessons on how to save water (which falls under “resource use”). Thus, there was a lack of consistency. It was also difficult to educate the teachers on this concept. Moreover, it was already impossible to change the theme and their plans for the coming submission. I fear to think that the schools might just eventually change the results of their audit to match their theme. This will definitely defeat the purpose of the programme!

This opportunity to organise and conduct the workshop actually kind of motivate me to look forward to help the KIPs schools this year embark on the eco-school programme and project next year. To be fair to the schools, I feel that we need to inform them early, and probably also conduct this workshop during the mid-year. I feel that with proper guidance, educators need not be told one month before submission that their fundamental focus was wrong. It can be very discouraging, especially for a school who had taken effort in their programmes & portfolio but chose a theme that did not support the gaps that surfaced as a result of their audit. Ok, enough said.

Kids in Parks ~ A Great Concept

“Kids in Parks” is a great concept! Sponsored by Pick N Pay (equalivant to our NTUC), pupils from disadvantaged homes/schools have a once in a lifetime opportunity to stay at Golden Gates for 3D2N. Once they arrive, there's a goodie bag with a t-shirt, hat, squeeze bottle and snacks! They experience various activities, such as canoeing, abseiling, hiking, horse riding, campfire etc. There is also a lot of learning opportunities on resource use, cultural heritage and outdoor lesson on water. It can be really packed and tiring. Imagine this, the first school comes in from mon to wed. when we send off the school on wed, we immediately pick up the next school who will be with us from wed to fri. i.e. every other day, there will be hiking, canoeing/bseiling/horseriding and campfire! thankfully we rotate our duties and there will be only two nights that we would have to work late! There are 10 schools in this programme, from late July to early September.

Nevertheless, It was very heartwarming when i read some of the reflections from the pupils. Many of them are thankful for this opportunity and for the simple things like food and nice dormitory where they slept overnight. The food that they had were really filling, and with fruits for every meal! With some schools, it was obvious that the pupils really appreciated the sumptious food which they may not have back home. The pupils just came back for second helpings and they really just ate! They were also thrilled by the opportunities to canoe, abseil and horseride!

I was very impressed with the pupils from Machaea Primary School. The pupils were very reflected in their learning, and respectful towards us and their teachers. They raised their hands to answer questions and even to ask questions. What was heartwarming was that although they did not speak English very well, and could only use simple sentences, every sentence that they spoke “hit the nail on the head”, and were reflective/good answers!

Unfortunately, not all the schools were deserving of this opportunity. Just finished with a school where pupils had flashy handphones, nice clothes and wasted food. I am not saying that they should not be given this opportunity to attend the camp at Golden Gate. In fact, they should attend the programme, but perhaps as a paying school. This fully sponsored camp should be given to schools who otherwise would never have the funds to bring their pupils. To be honest, for that few days when I was attending to these more privilege kids, I questioned my decision to come here. I felt that it was ridiculous to abandon my own pupils back in Singapore who probably needed me more. Moreover, some of these kids were more privilege than my own pupils back home! Nevertheless, this is only one school out of the many schools out there that are really disadvantaged.

After Kids in Parks, these schools will embark on another more long term programme – Eco schools, which some schools view it as very prestigious. Went to an Eco School Flag Raising Ceremony – Letotolo Primary School. It was more grand than our Speech Day. They had various VIPs, performances and the raised the flag with the national anthem, a mini police squad and salutes. It was an eye opener for me. The teachers doubled up as cooks to prepare a really sumptuous lunch for the VIPs. The whole staff room and main office was converted to a preparation kitchen. It was amazing!

Nevertheless, not all schools are successful. They also face the same problems where some teachers see it as additional work. Most of the schools that are successful have very supportive principals. However, it is important to bring the message across that building an eco-school is not about aiming to get the award or the flag, but rather strengthening curriculum & making experiences more meaningful for learners, and the flag/award is just an affirmation(& recognition) that the school's systems are in place. wow! Singapore MOE has trained me well =P