Hellen talks to the world through science

POLOKWANE – Hellen Ramohlale, a new teacher at Flora Park Comprehensive High School is changing learners’ perception of science.

The technical sciences and natural sciences teacher joined the school at the beginning of the year.

She has been teaching for 15 years, a passion she discovered after she completed a BSc degree in chemistry and biochemistry at the then Medunsa.

While she was doing her honours degree, she got an internship at the University of Venda where she was a laboratory assistant. It was during this period that she started assisting her mentor, a lecturer, when he was on leave, by tutoring his chemistry students.

Ramohlale was soon faced with the decision to continue doing lab work or pursue teaching.

She registered for postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) and with that, her teaching journey began. She has been teaching since 2015 and has not looked back since.

“Going to university, you get to see the gap between high school and first year students. If I had the opportunity to get maximum knowledge from Gr 12, my academics in my first year would have been much better. I experienced this first-hand and strive to bridge the gap for the learners that I teach,” she said.

Speaking on whether she would go back to working in a lab, she said she doesn’t see it happening because as a teacher, she gets the best of both world by being able to teach and still do lab work.

“I have always been an inquisitive person, even the people I went to school with ask how I became a teacher because my inquisitiveness was troublesome at times”, she joked.

Ramohlahe added that she wants to change learners’ mindset that science begins and ends in the classroom. “We apply different external scientific programmes which we incorporate into the classroom in order to understand that science is everywhere. When they understand that, they are able to apply it even their academics,” she said.