INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD CARE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA

children at the center. Many of them spent their afternoons occupied with putting plastic
protectors over newly purchased notebooks, and it was apparent that they were all only in
the beginning pages of each of their textbooks. This allowed me to see the many
complexities that resulted from trying to meet the educational needs of fifty children,
many of whom faced further challenges from learning and physical disabilities. The
students occupied a wide range in grade levels from Grade ‘R’ (the national equivalent to
kindergarten) to Grade 11. These recurring challenges placed a heavy demand on the care
center’s staff, who had to deal with the transition of a new member into the role of
director of education.
While education is a concern for children at all ages at the center, it is perhaps most
in focus between 8 and 14. Very young children and older teenagers may be so
preoccupied with their transitions into or out of the center that education is not as
prominent. Also, it is in middle childhood that the greatest opportunities are developed
for study habits and self-esteem towards education. The older children were mostly
resigned to their level of aptitude, and this was reflected in the amount of work they put
into their academics. Those earlier in childhood, however, were more willing to make
adjustments and often saw the results of the changes they made to their study habits.
This was the center’s first time in many years to begin a school year without the
help of Magret Khumalo, its former Director of Education. Her role encompassed
everything from assisting in the administrative arrangements for children’s schooling,
teaching daytime classes at the creche, and supervising an afternoon study time. Just as
everybody called Pastor Mike by his job title, almost everybody referred to Khumalo as
“Teacher Magret.” Recently, the center had stopped housing and educating creche-aged
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