Even after teaching for two decades, Slindile Patricia Nxumalo, says she still loves teaching.
|||When a 20-year-old, timid, yet excited, rookie teacher Slindile Patricia Nxumalo walked through the gates of Ngali Secondary School in 1992, she never imagined she would one day receive high honours from the Education Department.
Twenty years later, that is exactly what the conscientious teacher has attained.
Last week, Nxumalo, 40, of Vryheid, was presented with a certificate, trophy and a R20 000 bursary when she was named first runner-up in the secondary school teaching category by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga during the National Teaching Awards.
The awards, which were held in Joburg on Thursday, recognise outstanding teachers who have worked selflessly, often for long hours and under difficult conditions, to improve education.
“When I walked through that school gate 20 years ago, I was shy, scared but eager to teach. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would one day be recognised as one of the best teachers in the country,” Nxumalo said.
A grade 9 and 11 English teacher, Nxumalo said with the school’s limited resources and poverty in the community, challenges were the order of the day at the rural school.
But, she said enthusiastically, this had not deterred her from ensuring her pupils left her classroom every day having learnt something.
“For me, teaching is a calling. I could easily leave the profession and branch into something else but I love my kids and job too much.
“I can’t explain the feeling I get when I see my students succeeding in life and becoming something great, despite the adversity that I know they have encountered,” she said.
Today, Nxumalo, the head of department for languages, will proudly walk through the school’s gate with her accolades in hand.
“I’ve been with the same school throughout my teaching career and I know that my principal, colleagues and students will be very proud of me,” said the mother of two.
Speaking at the function, Motshekga said without highly motivated teachers, there would be no development in the country.
“It’s a special day to celebrate great teachers who have done us proud under extraordinary circumstances,” she said.
Deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe, who attended the ceremony, described teaching as a calling to which an individual responds to contribute to the betterment of young people.
“Educators are the legitimate custodians of traditions that define society. Indeed, we would be lost without supplementary parental roles played by teachers,” he said. - Daily News
E-mail Nondumiso: nondumiso.mbuyazi@inl.co.za