Meet University of Pretoria (UP) graduate Ndamulelo Madima, who is already making a mark in the education sector soon after qualifying as a teacher. 

Madima, an English teacher at Ulando Combined School in Bela-Bela, Limpopo, obtained a Bachelor of Education in 2021 and an honours degree in the same field in 2023. During his first year of teaching, he produced a 100% pass rate in the subject English First Additional Language in his 2022 Grade 12 class.

This resulted in him being recognised as the best educator in the province’s Warmbaths circuit in the subject, for which he was awarded certificates and a trophy by the municipal mayor.

“Education is the process whereby individuals acquire general knowledge and develop their powers of reasoning to prepare for life,” says Madima, who hails from Tshifudi, a village just outside Thohoyandou. “As someone who comes from a disadvantaged background, I knew that education was the only tool that was going to change my situation. I am successful today, and I’ve managed to take my family out of poverty.”

The award-winning teacher is also a co-founding member of non-profit organisation Khanyisa Foundation, which provides literacy enrichment programmes to learners from disadvantages communities in Limpopo.

“We provide extra classes on Saturdays,” he says. “Learners participate in literacy activities, sport, awareness campaigns, and arts and culture activities; they also receive career guidance and life coaching.”

Madima admits that instilling discipline in the classroom has become challenging.

“Ill-disciplined learners make this profession difficult because implementing discipline strategies and techniques disturbs the learning process and wastes curriculum time.”

However, he notes that one of the things he loves about his career is the love, connection and bonds that he creates with his learners.

“Seeing learners adore and respect me as their teacher propels me and other teachers to want to do more,” he says.

Choosing UP was a no-brainer, he says, as the institution is highly ranked, both nationally and across the globe.

“UP has a good reputation because it produces top-class graduates. I can confidently say that being a UP graduate made it easy for me to find employment – I really stood out during interviews.”

However, he admits that the COVID-19 pandemic almost scuppered his dream of becoming a teacher.

“Adjusting to lockdown and virtual learning was demanding and straining for everyone because it was a new set-up that we were not familiar with,” he says. “But with time and patience, we manoeuvred around the new development and succeeded.”

He says that throughout his studies at UP, he lived by a quote by American writer Napoleon Hill: “Whatever the mind of a man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

Madima is a master’s candidate at Wits University and plans on obtaining a PhD in the next five years, and eventually become a university professor.