Challenges Of Community Service Essay

1. Introduction

Community service, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is “Voluntary work intended to help people in a particular area”3. This task can be completed in many different way, as there is always a need for a helping hand. Doing community service assists us in gaining life experiences and learning lessons that will never be forgotten. It helps us grow and discover what we are interested or disinterested in. Community service is something that a person should do at least once in their lifetime because essentially, we help improve the circumstances of those around us and help them as well as ourselves to become better people.

2. The Social Issue

The social issue I have chosen to investigate is the need for additional tuition in various learning areas. This however goes hand in hand with the lack of education itself, or satisfactory education. With that said, the lack of education is something South Africa has been struggling with for decades now2 and as Dr Taylor said in 2012, “approximately 75% of South African children (mainly black children) are caught in a poverty trap where their lack of financial and social capital causes them to attend poorly functioning schools”4. This statement allows you to realise that it is more than one social issue we are dealing with.

2.1

These two topics are incorporated into the group of the challenges that the South African students and schools face. Other issues include: Unqualified teachers, no classroom space, unreliable teachers and disorganisation1. Children are also coming from different backgrounds, generally making it difficult for them to adapt and deal with others around them constructively. They bring their emotions into the scheme of things, ultimately making it difficult for the teacher to gain control of the situation, thus hindering