Christel House SA Blog

At the age of eight, Chadne Morkel told her mother: “I never want to struggle like you.” True to her word, she became 2011’s top-achieving Grade 12 at Christel House in Ottery, a school that boasts a pass rate way above national averages despite huge domestic and financial challenges faced by its students.

Considering the debates surrounding the education system after the release of this year’s matric results – especially with some prominent voices asserting that high pass rates could be attributed to low standards – it’s worth examining the approach of schools achieving results that don’t just look good on paper. At Christel House in 2011, all but one student passed unconditionally. But they weren’t just passes - 70.8% achieved a bachelor’s pass, and more than half the 2011 Grade 12s had results good enough to secure bursaries or learnerships. And this despite the overwhelming personal challenges facing many of them.

Hailing from Bokmakierie in Athlone, Chadne received a distinction in Afrikaans and walked away with the school’s top honour, a Christel Award. She has recently started a civil engineering learnership at Sutherland Civil Engineering through the Go For Gold achiever programme, with a bursary attached depending on performance during her learnership.

Against this year’s national average pass rate of 70.2% and the bachelor’s pass rate of 24.3%, Christel House’s results are an anomaly. And yet Chadne is just one of the school’s success stories. “Every year it’s magic that’s produced,” says Board Chairperson Elspeth Donovan. “I feel proud like a mother – there is nothing to stop them now.”

Christel House’s primary goal is to combat poverty through a holistic approach: a combination of education, lifestyle management and community outreach programmes. One hundred percent of the learners’ families fall below the poverty line, but unlike many other schools offering opportunities to the children of destitute families, children are not selected according to academic merit. As long as they are learning-abled, they may apply for acceptance, with the school offering every opportunity to bring out the best in them according to their individual abilities.

“At Christel House, we work with what we’ve got,” says Principal Ronald Fortune. “The biggest obstacle related to poverty is emotional trauma. So to fight trauma, we create dreams.”

These dreams are also sustained long-term. After matriculation, learners are taken in hand by the school’s staff to search for employment or further study opportunities. “Almost all of our matriculants are already placed,” says Fortune. In turn, alumni offer support to current learners. And the school offers community support to the families of learners, to ensure that difficulties at home do not impact negatively on their studies.

It is such a programme that made all the difference to Chadne’s family. Mother Noreen Isaacs explains: “I am very grateful for what Christel House has done for my family. When Chadne started, I was not working – I was at my lowest. But I attended some training programmes around HIV and substance abuse support, and after that I was inspired to take a course in home care. I began to care for elderly people at home.

“I will be honest – in my life and for many people in our community there have been times where there was not food. But for the first time I became that person who realises you can make a living on your own. I did not have to rely on an employer.”
Chadne herself has adopted a can-do attitude unusual in someone of her age. She is known as a mentor and support to her peers, saying: “People will try to drag you down. But you have to learn to avoid bad influences.
“Actually, I hate studying! But about two years ago I realised there is no way around it – you have to work for your results. So I made that adjustment and began working very hard.”

“Chadne is a terrific motivator of her peers,” says Fortune. “She was a mentor to most of the ones who struggled, both academically and emotionally.”

This year’s results at Christel House are not unusual. In 2009 and 2010, the school’s first two classes of matriculants achieved a 100% pass rate, with learners overcoming overwhelming personal odds to deliver outstanding results. 2010’s top achiever, Cimone Maasdorp, credited Christel House with keeping her off “the wrong path”, achieving two distinctions before embarking on a career in travel and tourism. The top achiever in 2009, Lericia Bailey of Manenberg, was formerly homeless, orphaned at a young age, and balanced her schoolwork with caring for her younger siblings. Her hard work earned her a distinction and a study bursary.

Perhaps the greatest legacy of Christel House will therefore lie not only with its own matriculants, but through the hope their results can offer to all educators, parents and learners in South Africa – the proof that nothing is impossible, and through hard work and support, anyone can achieve their dreams.

* Christel House is financed through donations. For more information, visit www.sa.christelhouse.org.