Teach English in Shidu Zhen - Zhuzhou Shi

The world in which teaching and learning takes place in is much broader than most people perceive it. What happens at the homes’ of the learners, communities and even in their country can affect their learning abilities and hinder them in reaching their full potential. Learners in South Africa are mostly affected by socio-economic issues, lack of resources, cultural and traditional and historical educational systems Many learners in South Africa especially in rural communities come from child headed houses or they stay with grand parents and siblings. In most cases this senior citizens need to be cared for and this becomes the responsibilities of these children, leaving them with less time to focus on their school work and study time. Others stay in communities that do not have schools in them and the learners have to travel to other communities in order to access educational institutions. They have to pay for transport to and from those schools and most times some parent can barely afford to put food on the table let alone pay for that transport, so learners end up missing many days of school because of this. To reach their full potential learners need to be equip with all the proper tools they need learn. Most South African schools lack resources such as computers, study guides(textbooks/course books) and many other resources such as printers and teachers. So South African learners are forced to share old dilapidated books and teachers cannot even print extra material for the learners. Shortage of teachers is also another problem that learners have to deal with, whereby teachers are forced to teach subjects that they are not experts in or have no experience. This combined with the issue that there are not enough textbooks and learners have to rely on teachers as the main sources of information, now the learners sources of information are not reliable. Religion plays a huge role in most Souuth African communities to a point whereby it leads to situations where some parents perceive removing a learner from school in order for them to take part in some ritual practice, this interferes with the learners progress and academic goals as upon their return they have a lot to cover in a short time and some end up failing and having to repeat a grade because of such practices. Some communities regard attending school as a threat to their cultures as they believe that their children become indoctrinated to western traditions and lose their own traditions. For many years the white minority of South Africa had passed a legislation of apartheid which separated all the races of South Africa making the white South Africans first class citizens and other races were not treated equally this affected the educational system of the country. In 1994 when the democratic government took over it was faced with the challenge of redressing the inequalities of the past, which meant that everyone had to receive the same standard of education. Now the facilities and the available resources make it had for the government to achieve its goal leaving learners in old dilapidated building that do not even protect them from the weather be it, the cold winter days, dusty conditions, the hot summer sun and rain. So some learners find it very hard to learn in such condition. Learners face a lot of problems on a daily basis, that range from academic to social. These problems can affect the learners ability to progress on both social and academic level, they also shape these learners to become functional members of the community. From dealing and facing such problems learners acquire necessary skills that will help them progress in life and learn valuable skills such as problem-solving and self-reliance.