Education - but how?: rethinking education by rethinking school architecture in Orange Grove

Abstract

South Africa continues to experience a skilled labor shortage as a result of the job discrimination during Apartheid which lingers in the collective psyche of many South Africans. The legacy of Apartheid in both traditional and vocational schooling systems will be investigated to see the impact it has had on traditional and vocational schools and people’s perception of them. Despite substantial changes to economic and political policy, a systemic and structural residue of the Apartheid system is still to be found and people continue to pursue the traditional academic track as it is perceived as ultimately leading to better paying jobs. The vocational or skills route is widely viewed as “low status”, not only in South Africa, but globally. The South African government has been looking for ways to increase vocational school attendance for many years now, with minimal success. This report intends to show how the negative view associated with vocational education may be changed. The aim of this report is to create a community trade/vocational school that caters to both pre-matric and post-matric programs. By exploring alternative ways of education and investigating better learning environments, this report aspires to change people’s perception of vocational education through architecture. The reason why certain education systems have worked, whilst others have not will also be canvassed. Furthermore, there will be consideration of how education can be rethought/redefined through architecture. Examples of both traditional and vocational schooling systems in Johannesburg and globally will be examined in order to have a better understanding of how traditional and vocational school buildings have evolved as the world around them has changed. In this process, the positive elements of those designs will be extracted and incorporated into the proposed building of this report