I.
I HAVE just returned from Murray Farm district where I visited two Kraal schools and made arrangements for the opening of another. You will have noticed that I have made some general reference to these schools in previous reports, but it is possible that more definite information about them might be welcome by you. It is with this thought that I now tell you something of the work done in Kraal schools. As the grants-in-aid are not very generous and the educational standard is still low, this type of school does not stand high in the educational scheme of this colony. Yet these schools are very important, as most of the natives who receive any education at all are educated in them. When missions began work here and organised village (Kraal) schools they had not any high standard of education in view. Along with Bible lessons, people were taught to read and to write and to do simple arithmetic. Some financial help was given, but the government was not interested enough to demand or to expect great progress or results. However, when Native Education came under a separate department this easy and complacent attitude gave place to a more forceful and progressive policy. Inspectors were appointed; better teachers were introduced: a higher standard demanded and more generous grants given. An increasing number of these schools now employ certificated teachers while few have any teachers under Standard VI qualification. As well as the ordinary academic subjects, instruction in sewing, basketry, gardening, and agriculture is given. As a result there is a general improvement; but when the best has been said about these schools, it has to be admitted that the standard is still deplorably low.
The grants have been increased so that for a certificated teacher a mission now receives £24 per year. But be it noted, that for all teachers who are not certificated, the grant is only £12. The day is still far off when all teachers in Kraal schools will be certificated teachers and so for the present we have to do our best with the Standard VI teachers available. But that means that a considerable number of our Kraal school teachers earn a grant of only £12 per year.
Although these Standard VI teachers of ours have no certificates, and although they earn grants so small, they must live just as surely as others. Many of them are married; all are Christians, and all are expected to set the pace for progress in the community in which they live. They have to clothe themselves, their wives and families. They must have sufficient furniture to constitute the basis of decent civilized homes. Their own calling as teachers; the demands of the Educational Department; and the expectations of their own people set them, along with their houses and families, in the forefront as examples of decency and order. But all this cannot be maintained without money. To expect teachers to live as guides and leaders on 5/- a week is to expect too much. They may be able to live on 5/- a week but not as teachers, and it is here that missions must come in with financial support. This is why the church’s grant to native teachers is always one of the largest items in the mission accounts.
Let me emphasize that despite the Government grant-in-aid, and notwithstanding that no school can be opened or continued in operation except by the authority of the Government yet each school remains the charge and care of the mission in whose name it stands. In 1924 the total number of these teachers in our Mission was only 5. Of these only one was above Standard III., and for this small number the home grants were £55 to-day including the Kraal school at Ingwenya there are 18 Kraal school teachers under the Mission. Of these 7 are certificated while all the others are of Standard VI qualification. When we look at the difference in the number and the quality of teachers as between now and 1924 we see that the amount asked for last year £130 was remarkably small. But, however, we may regard this question of grants to native teachers, I hope to show that it is money well spent. One idea that the Educational Department has in view in connection with these schools is that such schools should be of some use to the community, and consequently teaching in the school is given from this angle. Particularly in matters of hygiene, agriculture and building as well as in the moral standards maintained by him, the teacher is a leader. His work is hard and full of discouragement. He comes with a set of new ideas and standards and he has to maintain and assert these over a long period of years. Many of the people among whom he works are indifferent to his new ways. Others are distinctly antagonistic. Yet he must not go back. If he is to be a teacher of any value to his people he can only go forwards and upwards. For the teacher who goes to reside among heathen people, and who patiently labours on, year after year, until he sees a change come over them I have the deepest sympathy and the highest respect. I look up to him as one of the finest products of the gospel and one of the greatest forces in the shaping of Africa’s future. Discouraged and cast down on account of disappointments one teacher wrote asking me to be relieved of his post. This was in 1927, I think. I wrote to him and persuaded him to go on, and held out the hope that he would yet see a blessing on his work. Only last year he recalled that letter. “I am continually thankful,” he said, “that you persuaded me to stay on here and that the Lord gave me strength to do so. Not for all the money in the world would I have missed seeing the change which has come over the people here through the gospel and the school. More than that, I have a good hope of meeting in Heaven some of my pupils who were blessed by my Bible teaching in school.”
Now with this idea of school, teacher and community clearly in mind we will go further. I will remind you that this is a Mission school. In our case it is a school belonging to the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and it is run on lines which are in accordance with our Church’s beliefs and practice. It is quite distinctive. Other Mission schools will teach arithmetic just as we do, but otherwise there are many differences between us. For instance—some Missions organise sports on the Lord’s Day, we do not. Others make no distinction between education and regeneration, we do. Concerts of a completely worldly kind are held in many schools, but with us the World and the School are as far apart as the World and the Church. In all this the teacher is not left to himself. Each school has a committee and the composition of this body includes, at least two office-bearers. With a Christian teacher who is helped and guided by Christian office-bearers the school becomes a very real part of Christian effort in the community. To make school children acquainted with the Scriptures is very valuable work indeed, but we err greatly if we think, that in bringing the gospel to the community this is as far as the Kraal school goes. Where we have intelligent men, men who have experienced the power of the truth, men who have a deep desire to make the school a means of blessing, men who are office-bearers and have the authority of the Church behind them, and where we have such men linked up with the teacher and the school, then, I think we have a combination we can hope in. We have something which we can sincerely pray over and upon which we may expect a blessing. An early prayer meeting is held each Thursday morning before the school opens. The children are present and a simple address is given to them. The children are also present at the prayer meeting on Sabbath morning and again at the Sabbath school. In the evening a Bible class is held and a number of the bigger children attend it. On weeks-days the school is visited by office-bearers, and absentees from these services are looked up. Sickness among the children also offers a valuable service to the keen elders. Along with the teacher he visits the sick children in their homes, and generally holds a prayer meeting with them. In this way contact is made with many who would never attend the ordinary services. Teachers are not all alike, some have greater zeal and more gifts than others, but with a good office-bearer in the background we may rest assured that a fair amount of solid truth is being conveyed to the children and through them to others.
There is one good thing all teachers can do and in fact all do thoroughly. Children are taught to commit large portions of the Bible to memory. Lately I visited a school and I found Standard I. had memorised the whole of the 14th chapter of the Gospel according to John. The school had reopened only six weeks before. All the Bible schemes for these schools have been drawn up at Ingwenya. One has to keep in mind the low standard of the children and the limited capabilities of the teachers when making these schemes. For the most, the lessons are drawn from incidents recorded in the Gospels and the Old Testament. Of course, if a teacher has a mind for it, he can easily teach doctrine through these lessons, but for the most part teachers are inclined to stick more to the naked details than to draw lessons from them. Something more was needed to give body and unity to the lessons and to provide these a Catechism was prepared. A simple little book; it is divided into sections with an average of about eight questions in each section. Under their respective headings the divisions include questions on, The Word of God, The Creation, The Fall, Law and Sin, God in Three Persons, The Saviour, Repentance, Faith, The Church, The Sacraments, Last Things. It will be seen that although the questions are simple, yet most of what we regard as essentials are covered by them. It is written in the vernacular, but will require revision before it takes permanent form. For the present, somewhat clumsily, it is made up on typewritten sheets. Visits to these schools are made by superintendents four times a year the Government contributing £1 per visit towards the expense of visitation. In some cases this sum covers more than the cost of petrol while in others it does not, and, of course, it falls far short of meeting all the expenses involved in keeping a car in running order. The question will be asked:— “Are the people able to contribute anything towards the upkeep of these schools?” Well, some Missions do charge a fee per pupil. The amount varies very much. A number of Missions have schools in towns and mines where wages are paid monthly. It is a fairly easy thing to gather monthly fees in these schools. We have no Kraal schools in towns or in mines. In the Reserves where there is no steady wage to be earned it is more difficult to gather fees, but as we see people getting into a position to help, we will introduce some system of payment. There are Missions who will open a school only on the promise of fees being paid but I cannot bring myself to do that. I look on any call to open a school as a call for the Lord to begin his work in that district and bargaining of the kind mentioned does not appear to be in line with the spirit of the gospel. At any rate that is how I see it.
(To be concluded).