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Volunteer Teaching South Africa!
Are you interested in volunteering your time to teach English in South Africa? Are you looking to travel and explore beautiful and fascinating South Africa while experiencing the diverse culture?
Then, this volunteering in teaching program in South Africa has your name written all over it.
South Africa is home to great African scenery ranging from beautiful deserts, to great gorges and the famous golden Savannah.
In a South Africa you will get a chance to experience Cape Town one of the most beautiful and vibrant cities in the world travel to the coast of Durban best known as the melting pot of culture and different cuisines.
Unfortunately, like many countries across Africa many schools are understaffed and over crowded with students, making it difficult for teachers to provide quality teaching, hence high illiteracy especially in impoverished communities. These schools need you to bridge the gap and allow the teachers to provide better education to the children.
By joining this Volunteer English teaching program in South Africa, you will be benefitting children for their future success. You’ll provide needy children easy access to learn English and help elevate the overall level of education in the rural South African communities.
Become a volunteer teacher for incredibly rewarding and life-changing experience. If you would like to impact children’s lives positively and make the world a better place contact us for an opportunity to follow your dream today
Volunteer Responsibilities & Impacts
While volunteering in teaching English in South Africa, you will be working in kindergarten, primary, or secondary schools. Your duties will vary depending on the project and ages of the students.
KINDERGARTEN/PRE-K/CRÈCHES
Your duties will be teaching English to the children. You will make learning aids and educational toys to be used in the classroom. You will also organize extracurricular activities and play with them.
Primary school
Primary school teachers are understaffed. Many classrooms have forty or more students for one teacher. Teachers often lack the motivation to teach the students because there are so many students and it is hard to provide quality teaching.
Kids often do not have any recreational activities such as sports, art projects, or music, making learning boring and less fun. Because of all of these reasons, there is a dire need for volunteers to help make the class sizes smaller and to provide much-needed resources and recreational activities to the children.
English teacher volunteers in South Africa will assist teachers in the classroom, but also occasionally teach a class of their own. If you have skills in music, art, and sports you can contribute greatly to the schools to implement recreational programs for the students.
Secondary school
Secondary schools are also very overcrowded with 40+ kids per one teacher. They also lack proper facilities to house these students and therefore cannot provide the students with quality educations. There are not many recreational activities for these students to involve themselves in, making proper education lacking in many South African schools. South Africa English teacher volunteers will help provide these students with the resources to a good education, making them more successful for the future.
Volunteers will assist the teachers in the classroom, occasionally teaching a class without supervision. If you have skills in music, art, and sports you can greatly contribute to the schools as they can help with recreational programs making learning more fun for the students.
Volunteering teaching in South Africa is a very meaningful project. You will help children learn and improve their English writing and comprehension skills. This will help prepare the children for a successful career in the future.
Skills and Qualifications
For those volunteering to teach English in South Africa in the kindergarten and pre-K classrooms, you must exhibit patience with this age group and the ability to use your own initiative to resolve a problem.Additionally, you must always be willing to help out the other teachers whenever needed.
If you will be working in the primary or secondary school, then you must have a basic understanding of the educational system in South Africa. In addition to being able to resolve problems on your own, you must also exhibit patience when working with the children. For secondary schools, you must at least have the ability to handle basic administration tasks.
Minimum volunteer age is 18 years.
While volunteering in English teaching program in South Africa, your days will be fun and exciting full of new experiences. You’ll have great opportunities everyday to share your love, skills and passion with children to impact positive change in the society.
In South Africa we work with different schools and each one has its own needs, tasks and program, there is no fixed schedule for each day, but be prepared to help at all time in a wide range of exciting tasks and activities.
Here is a sample daily schedule:
First Day: On your first day of South Africa volunteering teaching English program, you will be taken to school by a local coordinator and introduced to the teaching staff you will be working with. You will have the rest of the day to familiarize yourself with the country, facilities, safety and rules and regulations of the project.
- Weekdays: A typical weekday for you will look something like this:
- 7.00 to 7.30 AM: Your day will start with positive energy and a delicious South African breakfast shared with your host family
- 7.45 AM: After breakfast its time to leave for a new day full of experiences in school ranging from teaching to administrative duties and extra curriculum activities.
- 12.00 PM: Your lunch will be served. You can enjoy the meal with the children or staff at the school.
- 3.00 PM: Work usually ends at this time. You can now spend your free time exploring the gorgeous city of Cape Town. There is so much to do.
- 6.45 PM: After a long day its dinner time It will also be your opportunity to learn more about South Africa and its diverse traditions and culture
Volunteer Teaching South Africa: Dates and Fees
Dates: Volunteer in South Africa
All volunteer programs in South Africa start every Monday of each month. However, if there is travel constrains, you can start any project on any day.
In 2020, Schools in South Africa will open only in the following dates.
First Term - (13)15 Jan - 20 Mar
Second Term - 31 Mar - 12 Jun
Third Term - 7 Jul - 18 Sep
Fourth Term - 29 Sep - 2(4) Dec
School accepts volunteers every Monday for teaching English except holidays
Fees: Volunteer in South Africa
Global Crossroad is committed to offering the most affordable and highest quality volunteering work in South Africa . We strive to keep our costs low. The humanitarian side of the business is our passion.
Global Crossroad's volunteer program in South Africa application and registration fee cost US $299. The application fee covers the cost of advertising, program promotion, and office expenses (rent, utilities, and staff salaries in USA office).
In addition to the application fee, you are required to pay a weekly program fee . You will pay your weekly fee directly to the country coordinator, who in turn will allocate it to your host family, project and other in-country support we offer to our volunteers. This way, the fees that you pay will benefit those who rightfully deserve them, and not for company profit.
| Duration | Teaching |
|---|---|
| 1 Week | $300 |
| 2 Weeks | $450 |
| 3 Weeks | $600 |
| 4 Weeks | $750 |
| 5 Weeks | $900 |
| 6 Weeks | $1.050 |
| 7 Weeks | $1,200 |
| 8 Weeks | $1,400 |
| 9 Weeks | $1,550 |
| 10 Weeks | $1,750 |
| 11 Weeks | $1,900 |
| 12 Weeks | $2,050 |
Comprehensive Travel Insurance $3.49/day ( below 28 years) and $4.49/day ( above 28 years) »
How your fee is allocated?
Program fees cover:
- Accommodation (volunteer house or host family)
- Food (local food 2 times a day)
- Airport pick up
- Program Orientation
- In-country support
- Personalized project
- Pre-departure information
- Certificate of completion
- Fundraising ideas and letters
- Discount for returning volunteers
Program fees exclude:
- Visas
- Airfare
- Personal expenses on soft drinks and foods
- Daily transportation
- Airport return transfer
The volunteering trips in South Africa program fees will cover expenses that will begin on the first day of the program (usually the first or third Monday of the month) to the last day of the program. If you arrive before the first day of the program or you decide you stay beyond your program’s last day, you will be responsible for the additional expenses, which would typically be around $30 a day for room and meals at a hostel.
Accommodation and Meal
In South Africa, you are accommodated in a comfortable and safe volunteer house. You will also be provided with two delicious local South African meals (breakfast and dinner) a day. Be ready to experience great comfort as the home offers facilities including cozy bedrooms, running water and western-style toilets.
Learn more about your meals and accommodation in South Africa.
Free Time and Weekend Exploration
While volunteering in teaching English program in South Africa, you will have enough time to explore and tour around the country. Generally, you will work for 4-5 hours, from Monday to Friday, leaving plenty of time during the week to check local places around you and experience diverse culture and understand their history. Over the weekend you will be able to travel far across the country exploring the national packs or visiting Robben Island.
Read more about your free time and weekend exploration options in South Africa.
Safety and In Country Support
Your safety is our priority. GCB ensures that you always feel safe and secure during your entire volunteer project. We will support you to take necessary vaccinations before travelling to South Africa and while in the project you will have an in-country coordinator assigned to assist you any time should need any help. We also offer a comprehensive insurance and evacuation plan to ensure your safety.
Learn more about our commitment to your safety in South Africa
Volunteer Teaching South Africa: FAQs
Arrival and departure
You will be flying to the Cape Town International Airport to participate in our English teaching volunteer program in South Africa. We recommend you to reach South Africa one day prior to your assignments begin.
Global Crossroads arranges airport pick up services for our volunteers. Kindly provide us your final flight information after your ticketing process is completed. Our airport representative will pick you up at the airport and transfer to your placement. Global Crossroads does not provide any kind of airport drop off services but your in-country coordinator or your host family will be more than happy to assist you get transportation
Visa
You need to obtain a tourist visa to take part in South Africa teaching volunteer program. You can get on arrival visa depending on your nationality. Visa can be extended by visiting the South African immigration office. Please visit the following site for more information in details.
Vaccination
You’ll need certain types of immunizations before joining South Africa volunteering program. We recommend that you visit the Center for Disease Control's website for traveler's health recommendations. The following vaccines may be recommended for volunteers travel to Southern Africa which is Hepatitis A &B, Malaria, Rabies, Typhoid vaccines and other boosters as well.
Why Volunteer Teaching South Africa?
Taking part in South Africa Teaching English Program will be an eye-opening and life-changing experience. You will positively influence the needy children’s life.
You will get the opportunity to educate children
While volunteering in this project you will get the opportunity to teach young children in rural schools of South Africa. You can take English classes and train students on both spoken as well as written English. This proves to be a great platform for you to provide that much needed education to these children.
You will understand the education system of South Africa
Taking part in volunteering in South Africa in teaching program, will be another key benefit for you to learn about a new and different education system which in itself will be an enriching experience. This will help you become familiar with the education system of South Africa and make it easier to practice learning foreign teaching methods.
You will gain valuable work experience of teaching international
This project not only benefits the children but also the volunteers as well. It helps you gain valuable work experience of teaching in a foreign country which can come handy in your future career as well as academic prospects.
You get to elevate the level of education of deprived South African children
Majority of population in South Africa face a lot of hardships educating themselves and learning English language. So, by participating in Teaching English volunteer opportunity in South Africa, you’ll be able to provide easy access to learn English and elevate the overall level of education in the rural South African communities.
Other Volunteer Opportunities Available In South Africa
No matter your passion or interests, we offer a variety of life-changing, volunteer programs in South Africa such as
work in child care,
sport coaching,
health care, and much more.
For more information on our exciting programs in South Africa, contact us today.
Teaching English Opportunities in Other Countries
Other than this teaching English in South Africa, we also offer great volunteer opportunities in many countries cross the world.
Check out some of our most popular teaching English programs