Impressive bundle of school goodies
I have not yet seen kids using colored pencils or paint, but it’s a nice gesture.
Some math supplies
South Africa spends a larger percent of its GDP on education than any other country. Besides some of the obvious expenditures such as support for facilities, textbooks, and faculty and administrative wages, some of the money goes toward things such as free lunches at all rural schools and to qualified learners in urban schools, and a packet of school supplies per child.
The packet of supplies is somewhat tailored to the grade level of the learner. Basically, each child will receive a number of workbooks, pens, pencils, eraser, pencil sharpener, ruler, colored pencils, paint brushes and paint packets, glue stick and bottle of glue. Learners in the higher levels also receive a calculator and math kit to include a compass and protractor, and stencils for drawing shapes.
I have been told that in the past learners would receive a smaller packet at the beginning of each term. However, reportedly, the supplies would disappear over the course of the year and by the last semester, there was not enough to go around to all children. Now, the children receive their full annual allotment at one time and are responsible for keeping track of everything for the duration of the year. Not going to happen. In most classes I observed during term four a few months ago, there were maybe 2-3 rulers and 1-2 pencil sharpeners remaining in each class. Learners were writing with pencil stubs no longer than one-half inch. Such a problem.
