Thandulwazi Intern-Teacher Programme success story Miss Lucia Mangolo

Thandulawzi subscribes to the findings of the 2007 McKinsey Report, “the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers”. Hence, a key focus of the Thandulwazi Maths and Science Academy is to equip both current and new teachers with better subject understanding, pedagogical content knowledge, and classroom management skills.

Thandulwazi’s vision is a South Africa, where all our young people receive quality basic education, delivered by teachers who are professional, competent and confident in their subject knowledge, with practical and international skills that will ensure the effective delivery of the curriculum to their learners, hence, the academy offers programmes focussed on teachers to achieve this goal.  

One of these is the Thandulwazi Intern-Teacher Training Programme, a pre-service, full-time teacher training programme offered over a maximum of over 5 years and aims at growing capacity in the South African teaching corps.  In 2018, 43 Interns have been training on this programme; and we hope to grow the programme organically to 50 Interns by 2020.

One of the Thandulwazi Intern-Teacher Training Programme beneficiaries is Miss Lucia Mangolo, who has been a part of this pre-service teacher training programme and who graduated from the programme in December 2017 and was awarded her Bachelor of Education from UNISA this year. Lucia is now a full time employee of the St Stithians Girls’ Prep and is living on Campus in our Akhani building. 

The amazing part of Lucia’s story is that her first interaction with Thandulwazi was at the Thandulwazi Saturday School, which she attended in 2010 as a school girl.  She was part of the bursary scheme at Waverley Girls’ High and came to St Stithians to assist with her maths and science studies.   At the time, she found St Stithians to be quite an intimidating space, but now calls it home – in more ways than one!  Lucia’s Intern-Teacher journey began in 2013 when an intern position became available on the Thandulwazi Intern-Teacher Training Programme.  Lucia started her Thandulwazi journey in the St Stithians Junior Prep – the Gateway to the college - and spent her first three years in this space (2014, 2015 and 2016), she then moved to the Boys’ Prep and Girls’ Prep in 2017 and completed the final 5 modules required for her to complete her degree.  Lucia was invaluable in this space and as a result, was offered a permanent post at the St Stithians Girl’s Prep from 2018. 

She wrote the following to Mesdames Johnson and Mngambi in August of this year: 

“There’s a saying that goes: It takes a village to raise a child! I was only 21 when I came for an interview that was about to change my life. The journey that was about to unravel in front of me was not one I was ready for. It was not always easy but with the great support of fellow interns (who have now become friends), staff, mentors and the entire Thandulwazi family I have made it this far. I have accomplished more than I could ever imagine. From living in a tiny shack in Soweto, never did I imagine that all those sleepless nights and constant fear of failure would lead to me sitting in a Saints classroom as an independent young teacher and moulding young minds.  I did not always have the zest in me during class observations and I made tons of mistakes, but all those obstacles have helped me develop my confidence both personally and professionally.  Thank you for taking a chance with me and giving me the amazing opportunity of learning from one of the best teachers and schools in South Africa. Most importantly thank you for helping me obtain my qualification, proving me with a meal a day and depositing money into my account so that I could also look presentable and be able to arrive at work each day.  I would have not being able to reach this milestone by myself. For that I thank you so much and may you both be continuously blessed”.

We are incredibly proud of Lucia and her achievements thus far.  She is a much-valued and loved member of the St Stithians family.  Not one to rest on her laurels, Lucia has applied to do her Honours in Early Childhood Development in 2020 and we wish her well on this next part of her journey.

For more information on Thandulwazi, visit: www.thandulwazi.com