Improving Schools

I went to the launch of UCT's Schools Improvement Initiative yesterday afternoon. Took a bunch of my students, jumped into our little bus and made our way to Ilitha Park. The launch was at COSAT School (all architecturally designed with green grounds and grass), and combined with the red roofs and front gardens of Ilitha Park, it looks almost middle-class as my one student pointed out. You could almost forget you're in Cape Town's biggest township. The launch itself, well, it was a launch. Flowers on stage and chicken-wings on the refreshment table. A choral interlude, a powerpoint, and speeches from politicians who observed protocol. I was impressed at the time, taken in by the concise presentations and choreographed singing, but now I realize I'm not as psyched as I thought I was.

The SII is, unsurprisingly, an intervention aimed at improving schools. It's not that it isn't a necessary, relevant, important intervention, it's just that in the sober reflection of an average Tuesday afternoon, the launch last night didn't show me how it is all that different from other necessary, relevant and important interventions. Khayelitsha is home to a barraging multitude of interventions like these, and the launch didn't leave me with the sense that this one is different. This one, yes, this one, is going to work. It's going to change things. It's going to be the intervention version of Obama's Hope poster.

Maybe I'm a cynic. Maybe working at the intersection of university and community has furnished me with jade-coloured glasses. Maybe the SII will be different, I really hope it will... In the meantime, I'll just nibble on the yoghurt-covered cranberries I found in my trail mix and try to remember and hold onto that initial spark of excitement I felt last night when the programme director welcomed us all.