AFTER spending the bulk of her life in education, Lynette Jacob (60) retires at the end of March. She spent 34 years at Primrose Primary School, 10 of which were spent as departmental head for Foundation Phase, where she dedicated her time towards equipping future leaders with the knowledge they need to succeed.

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She began her journey under the House of Delegates, and she was offered a bursary to study at the now defunct Springfield College of Education. The former Chatsworth resident said that finance was a problem for most of her community and this was her chance at higher education. She now has a Masters degree in education.

Jacob, a mother of three, said, “It clicked with me and I cannot see myself doing anything else. I was 21 when I started as a teacher. My first appointment was at Richmond Primary School. I had no experience with children prior but teaching became second nature to me. Children are little people who should be treated with the same respect. I think my job as a teacher helped me to be a better parent, and being a parent enhanced my understanding of children.”

She explained that a symptom of apartheid and the Group Areas Act was that she started off teaching predominantly one race group, however, not long after, she had the opportunity to learn new cultures, habits, tolerances and respect for people in a multicultural society.

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One more challenge over the years were curriculum changes, where she began teaching the “3Rs”, reading, writing and arithmetic, but as society evolved, so too did education and the curriculum.

“One of the challenges as a school in a less affluent area is finance as we are not able to employ as many teachers and thus have larger classes. We do have strong support from parents as they want whatever is best for their kids,” said Jacob.

She is an avid sportswoman and played for Durban Africa Sports Club and while she no longer plays due to injuries, she coached tennis in the Isipingo area. Now, she enjoys table tennis and has intense 30 seconds games with her family. In her retirement, Jacob plans to catch up on reading, and plans to visit India and Japan.

Jacob advises new teachers, “It is important to show respect, empower yourself to learn about your learners’ languages, beliefs and cultures. You’ll be richer for it. It is important to expand your own knowledge as children have access to a wealth of information due to technology. Your level of knowledge of the subjects you teach must be higher than what your children know.”

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