POLOKWANE – Annatjie Engelbrecht is a teacher at Pepps Polokwane Preparatory School and teaches the Gr 5s and Gr 6s maths.
However, she is much more than just a teacher, she is also a keen chess player and is the school’s chess coach. Annatjie says she is a great supporter of educational upliftment for the youth of South Africa. “I would certainly not motivate people to become a teacher. You must have a passion for it and also a vision to uplift the youth of this country. I love education; education that is logical,” she explains.
She says apart from maths, social science is also one of her favourite subjects. “Both subjects help children to develop logical thinking and enables them to think, talk and argue logically,” she says. Annatjie matriculated at Lugbron Akademie in Tegnologie in Ermelo. She studied education at the University of North West (NWU) at the Vaal Triangle campus. She grew up on a farm near Ermelo with her dad, Gerhard. Her mom, Colette, manages her own guesthouse.
It was her parents who introduced her to chess as a child, even if it was only the basic moves. When she was in Gr 7, they had a chess class each week and there she honed her technique. In high school she played for the A-team in Gr 8 and Gr 9 and kept on playing for fun thereafter. In university she joined the NWU Vaal Triangle chess club and represented the university at the University Sports South Africa Tournament where some 24 university teams competed. Since joining Pepps, Annatjie has coached chess and is also the school’s chess organiser.
“I moved to Polokwane in 2014 and first taught at Piet Hugo Laerskool for a year. Harry Viljoen, the then-principal of the school actually made it possible for me to start off my career here in Polokwane by giving me the opportunity, which I am very grateful for. Thereafter I joined Pepps where I can continue what I love doing; namely educate children,” she explains.
“Engineering and electrics would probably have been another career I would have pursued if I had not decided on education. I am crazy about electrics, it has fascinate me since childhood and above all I think it encourages brain power,” Annatjie says.
She says this could be because she grew up without electricity. “Really, we grew up without electricity, and depended on paraffin lamps, candles and the donkie (fire-heated geyser).” She loves Polokwane and describes the people as friendly. “It is the place I celebrate being independent for the first time, the place I start my grown-up life for real, she jokes.
“Another part of South Africa I would like to live in one day is somewhere in KwaZulu Natal. I love the sea, and also the Zulu language. I learnt to speak Zulu while I was growing up on the farm, so I should settle in nicely there. It was really wonderful to be able to have a conversation with a Zulu-speaking learner in class the other day, it was pretty cool,” she says. Besides teaching and chess, Annatjie is a connoisseur of good coffee, and was recently bitten by the photography bug.
