OBITUARY: TV teacher William Smith touched the hearts of millions of learners

Before the internet was easily accessible and before YouTube mathematics tutorials were available, SA learners depended on William Smith to help them understand the complexities of maths and science via the SABC2 The Learning Channel in the 1990s.

Using deceptively simple methods that were not being taught in the classroom, Smith was a maths and science guru who excelled at teaching, unlike many experts, and managed to make sense of algebra, trigonometry, geometry, chemistry and physics for school pupils.

Smith, who died on Wednesday, reached many young people in SA and beyond for more than 16 years as a television tutor. For many, his televised lessons were the only quality instruction they received in maths and science.

The Learning Channel reached as many as 100-million learners across Africa

In 1990, with the financial assistance of Liberty Life Foundation executive director Hylton Appelbaum, Smith began producing educational TV programmes for The Learning Channel.

The channel was initially thought to be a hare-brained idea and critics said it wouldn’t work. The SABC was initially reluctant to give Smith and his team a platform to offer lessons live on television, because it had never been done before.

But the broadcaster soon realised the demand for such services was huge and stretched beyond SA’s borders. Collaboration with other African countries, via satellite, resulted in an enormous increase in viewership.

The Learning Channel continued to be a success for more than 16 years, reaching as many as 100-million viewers a day across Africa.

Using just a felt-tip pen, a whiteboard and sometimes a few Smarties, he helped millions of pupils pass their maths and science exams when just about all else had failed.

The teaching legend said in 2019 he was not that good at numbers, but perhaps that was the secret to his success.

“Had I been a numbers person from the start, I would not have been a good teacher because everything would have been so obvious to me. Pupils’ concerns and challenges would have frustrated me. I would not have understood why they struggled with simple concepts,” he commented.

Smith also appeared on TV along with Jeremy Mansfield in the popular South African quiz show, A Word or 2. 

Rhodes University alumnus

Born in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown), Smith completed his BSc and his BSc (Hons), both with distinction, at Rhodes University. 

His famous parents had deep-rooted ties with Rhodes University. His father, JLB Smith, identified the coelacanth, thought to have been extinct for millions of years, after receiving the remains of the fish from museum curator Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer. His mother, Margaret Smith, was also an ichthyologist and an accomplished and prolific illustrator of fish.

In 1962, Smith completed his MSc in just seven months at the University of Natal.

He started working at African Explosives and Chemical Industries (AECI) before moving to Afrox. Then, deciding that he would rather pursue a teaching career, Smith left the industry and moved to the education sector, where he started Star Schools, which aimed to provide value-for-money education with top-class teachers. 

During the next 25 years his schools taught almost a million pupils of all races. 

Accolades for his teaching skills

Smith received many accolades for his innovations in teaching, including the highly prestigious “Teacher of the Year” award. 

As a result of his work on The Learning Channel, he was voted one of the top three presenters on SA television in 1998.

In 2004, Smith was voted 86th in the Top 100 Great South Africans, and in 2005 was awarded the Impumelelo Gold Award for innovation.

In 2019, shortly before his 80th birthday, he was awarded the Order of the Baobab (silver) by President Cyril Ramaphosa in recognition of his services to teaching and the “demystification of mathematics and science”. The orders are the highest awards that South Africans can receive. 

In 2021, Rhodes University conferred Smith with a honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, with Rhodes University vice-chancellor Dr Sizwe Mabizela noting at the time: “Thanks to his exceptional teaching skills and compassion, for almost two decades, The Learning Channel became an indispensable platform for young people of our country to receive interactive TV education in mathematics and science. In this way, he became the teacher for the entire South African nation.”

A conservationist

Smith was also a conservationist and owned the Featherbed Nature Reserve on Knysna’s western head, his home until 2008 when the land and his company were sold, which included his boat business, Rivercat Ferries, with several craft cruising in the Knysna lagoon and out to sea.

Smith and his wife emigrated to Australia some years later to be closer to their three daughters and grandchildren.