MOSSEL BAY NEWS - To stand at the head of a high school that is only nearing its fourth year of existence is no small feat.
Edgar Gelembe stepped into the principal’s shoes at the newly established Garden Route High School in April 2022 - and has been wearing them ever since.
Tracing back his steps, Gelembe had been the deputy principal of Hillcrest Secondary from 2020 to 2022, taught at Imizamo Yethu Secondary in George from 2017 to 2020, and prior to that, started his now 30-year career at Murray High in Plettenberg Bay, which also happens to be his home town.
Growing up
“I am from a very impoverished family. We are five children; I am the eldest and the only one who went to college. Things started to change when I started teaching and could look after my parents - but it wasn’t easy.”
Gelembe describes his entry into education as “quite interesting”. He had heard that the former Lennox Sebe Teachers College in the then Ciskei was looking for students to sign up, but they were to study in Afrikaans.
He decided he had a good enough command of the language to fit into an Afrikaans class, and off he went.
On arrival, he joined a long queue, and finally, he said, had to sit through an interview with Afrikaans-speaking white officials who tested his skills in the language. He qualified and thus started down his education path.
The career and the Garden Route
Throughout his career, Gelembe has taught social science, history, English and tourism. At Garden Route, he currently teaches social science for Grade Eight.
“I felt excitement, but later reality came,” he said about the moment he received the news that he was to be principal. “It is a huge task, and not for anyone.”
In 2022, the school started with between 200 en 300 learners and eight teachers. In the short time since, it has grown to over 1 000 learners and 27 educators.
Some of the greatest challenges in Gelembe’s current role, he said, is discipline (or rather the lack thereof) among the children, staff shortages, novice teachers who must still gain the experience of their more senior counterparts at neighbouring schools, and logistical difficulties due to the school’s temporary structures.
The school environment is a competitive one, and there is constant pressure to perform. “We are still the new kid on the block,” he said, pointing out that this makes it difficult to catch up to the schools that have existed for decades.
Positives
Considering these challenges and more, Gelembe thinks long and hard before the positives come to mind.
Something his journey at Garden Route has taught him, which he will never regret, is understanding, accommodating and accepting different cultures. This knowledge he considers extremely valuable and tries to pass it on to those around him, including his team at school.
But does he have hope for Garden Route High to be able to reach the other schools?
“Yes, of course! Because even those schools that are there now - go to their staff rooms, look at their certificates and performance, especially Grade 12. You’ll see they all started at the bottom.”
Then there’s also the promise Gelembe made. “I promised the director [Eden and Central Karoo’s district director, Jewel Jonkers], circuit manager Rozelle Smith Neethling and myself that we are going to move, because our target for this year is an 80% pass rate for matric.”
He ends off by reiterating: “Principalship is not everyone’s cup of tea. You need to pray very hard; every day you need to have luck; you need to understand the community and your staff.”
And a strict and firm hand is non-negotiable.
‘We bring you the latest Garden Route, Hessequa, Karoo news’
