Real dedication and hard work sees cleaner become a qualified teacher

A cleaner from Maryvale College in Orchards has made history with her amazing journey from ensuring the tidiness of classrooms and offices to a graduate teacher.

Philisiwe Hlongwane (44), from Alexandra, started as a sweeper, will graduate as a fully-fledged teacher on 15 May.

“It all started when I was invited by my sister to come and look after her children while she was at work. It was December holidays of 1999 when I just finished my matric exams and I had no plans for the following year.”

Hlongwane said her sister worked at the school cleaning classrooms at the time. “One day she came home with the news that the school was opening new classrooms and that meant she will need extra hands and her boss suggested she find someone to be employed to help her.”

The soon-to-be teacher explained that she was worried that she was too young to work as a cleaner. “I was 22-years-old and I worried if my peers were going to laugh at me, but later I had to make the decision, so the following week school opened and went along with my sister she introduced me to her employer.”

“I landed a job to clean the pre-school but my duty was not just to clean only, as upon the kids’ arrival I had to help keep crying children calm, see to toilet routines, prepare meals and also help during naptime.”

As she worked at the school, she saw children developing and became curious about their development. “I once dreamt of becoming a teacher when I was growing up but I never thought I would, since I had no money to go to college or varsity. But I wanted to do something about my future, I wanted to have some certificate in something.”

At 36, she started her next journey. “It has always been a dream mine to develop myself. One day I went to the office in Adult Centre [at the school] to enrol to upgrade my subjects. To my surprise, the teacher who was helping with registration said, ‘Why do you want to be here? Your results are good. You can enrol to study at university’.”

The teacher told her that she had enough points to study further. “I didn’t know what points she was talking about as in the village where I was learning all my school years we never even had a career expo or taken on educational trips. I didn’t know what APS points wereng.”

Hlongwane explained that the woman advised her to go to Unisa and talk to a career counsellor. “I applied, got my student number and started with my Saturday classes. I passed my first semester. The following semester I needed five weeks of practical which meant I had to be at work at the same time as school observing.

“Luckily I was in a school environment. My mentor was helping a lot. Second year in, I had to be in class presenting lessons. It was not easy because I had been promoted [at that time] to work at the high school to manage the tuck shop and to be a caretaker.”

In order to work and still graduate, she had to come up with a plan. “I asked someone to come and prepare meals for the kids while I was doing my teaching practice. When the junior school was out in would come and clean classrooms and toilets.” She added that all of that had to be done by 4pm so that she could take care of the children in aftercare until 6pm the latest.

Along with juggling working and studying, Hlongwane was also a full-time mother. “It’s really takes discipline and dedication, it is not easy at all. Sometimes you sleep at 12am and wake up again at 4am.”

She gave the following advise to others who want to further their studies “Go out there and look. Do not be scared or shy to ask if you don’t know how to go about improving yourself. I am now a qualified teacher. It was because of hard work and lots of sacrifices.”

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