Summed up: Eastern Cape teacher returns to teach grade 4 maths in the same class he was taught in 1988

On Monday, Malibongwe Nqanqase found himself giving a maths lesson at Tshongweni Primary School in Centane, Eastern Cape, in the very same class that he was taught maths 36 years ago. Making this lesson even more memorable was that in the front row was his former teacher — who is now his mentor. 

“It's like someone took me out and let me move through a time machine,” Nqanqase told TimesLIVE Premium. 

Back in 1988, Nqanqase was in what was then referred to as standard 2 (now grade 4), and Mrs Nomawethu Fadana would stand in the front of the classroom, writing out maths sums on the board.

Fadana paid him a surprise visit and observed as he gave a maths lesson to his pupils in the same class.

Nqanqase admitted that it was tough having Fadana there, and while she was impressed, she stressed there was always room for improvement.

“She gave me an 87% and said well done.”

“The lesson that I got from her was I must change when there is a part [from the textbook] that does not talk to the learners. Whenever there is counting that needs to be done, it must be done using real-life scenarios that they can relate to,” he said,

“She said to me [I should] localise teaching.”

I was yearning, looking for a parent because I didn't have a mother. I would go there looking for a parent.

—  Malibongwe Nqanqase

Besides taking over her maths class, Nqanqase succeeded Fadana as the school principal in 2022 after her retirement in 2021.

“It's nerve racking because you are thinking of the person who is sitting in front of you listening to you as a form of development, but at the same time you are overwhelmed by emotions because this person was your teacher.”

“Most of what I teach in my grade 4 class is exactly what I got from her besides the fact that I went to university to acquire a teaching profession. It is the same classroom, the same chalk board — it was a very weird moment but in a beautiful sense — it was a moment out of this world,” he said.

Nqanqase further described the experience as a moment of wonder, “because I am a grade 4 maths teacher as well as being the principal”.

“It was a very strange moment because I remember exactly where I used to sit and where she used to stand. She had a way of tilting her body when she was teaching, so I was doing exactly the same thing,” he said.

While he knew from a young age that he wanted to be a teacher, he never envisioned being a principal or being in the same school he attended.

“Teaching is something that I've always wanted to do. I feel embarrassed sometimes when I get paid because I don't consider myself as someone who is working — I consider myself to be doing a hobby.”

Nqanqase said he was inspired by Fadana.

“She was very inspirational, she was a mother, a sister and she was a disciplinarian of note. There was an aura about her that kind of drew me to want to be her when I grew up. Her aura brought me closer to the idea of wanting to become a teacher. I qualified in 2001 as a teacher.”

He said teachers who have always given him motherly love also contributed to his love for teaching. This after he lost his own mother when he was nine years old.

“Going to school for me was kind of a doorway to finding a parent because I would have teachers, and those teachers would have the disposition as if they were my parents. I was yearning, looking for a parent because I didn't have a mother. I would go there looking for a parent.

“For me wanting to be a teacher, it was me wanting to find a way where I would become a better person in terms of how I feel about having lost my mother as well as being a parent to learners who are going through what I went through.”

He said several pupils he has taught and mentored are now following in his footsteps.

“There are maybe about 10 who became teachers because I taught them. It's like I am fulfilling what I was meant to do. It's about mentoring and inspiring those learners to become best versions of themselves,” he said.