admin“We have markers in the school. What need is there for special consultants? And what is special about them anyway?” Really?
I want to thank all schools and teachers that have invited me to give special examination orientations to teachers and students, the reception at Biriiri was excellent.
Thanks Baba na Mai Masocha for the warm reception and extraordinary hospitality. I miss the delectable meals you cooked for me Mai Masocha. Thank you too to Mr Chikavhanga who organized the learning programmes. The headmaster, Mr Siwela and his deputy Mr Maguya, thanks for the professional conduct and exceptional understanding of the need to source intellectual power from without the boundaries of your school.
At Knowstics College, the story was not different. Mr Nyamurundira you were a pleasure to work with. I have never seen a teacher with a heart for students’ achievement like yours. Mr Chibangwa, you were also with the students all the time you could. Thank you too. The school administrator-Mrs Mukuwapasi, the Principal director and Head, you run your school in a special way and may nothing and nobody spoil your vision and professional conduct particularly the warm and motherly care of all students entrusted unto your hands by their parents who expect equal treatment and loving care from you and all your teachers. May that vision guide you and put Knowstics where it belongs; at the top.
St Columbus High…Oh my God I have never seen such cooperation and enthusiasm, hunger to tap extra knowledge and wisdom from outside sources. The head of Department, Mr Bvukutwa-what a magnet of energy, leadership and oomph to give students the best! Madam Machiwenyika, you have an extraordinary receptivity to new ideas and methods of presentation. Mr Njopera; ever attentive and enjoying every bit of my facilitation and contributing wisely and receptively! Mrs N. Mandeya and Mrs Nyabereka; Ms Mandikiana-warm, pleasant to work with-full of charm and oozing hunger to excel as a young teacher-all of you more power to your elbows!
Thank you Ms Makoni, the deputy head for professional hospitality and representing the school in the best possible light in the absence of the headmaster. What a mirror of the school, reflecting only good and special attributes. Many schools miss such mirrors.
Which reminds me:
My next port of call was supposed to be Chibuwe High School in Chipinge. The school head Mr N. Maposa in his wisdom decided to invite me to his school and referred me to the Head of Department ( English), one Mr Jani. And Mr Maposa is a gentleman and professional.
I call Jani and together we agree on dates and programme. I diarise the appointment and call everything done and dusted. Come Monday morning 29 September 2015. My bags are packed and I am ready to go. I decide I must alert the headmaster that in one minute I was going to be on my way to Chibuwe.
What do I hear? “Oh my God, did Mr Jani not communicate?” The rest is history.
Mr Jani is the head of Department (English) at Chibuwe High in Chipinge.
In this day and age no one expects such conduct from a teacher, especially a head of department. Diaries are an important aspect of modern business administration. People plan ahead and when they diarize an appointment that means commitment. That also means time and money committed. You cannot plan a week out at the expense of many other serious clients, only to be told in the eleventh hour that the head of department sat on the information to cancel the agreement of duty.
Well, the point I’m making here is simple. In this century, there is nothing as primitive as bottling up students in intellectual confinement. Even if you imprison them in the walls of your classrooms and fences of your school, wise students will research beyond them and google extra knowledge from the internet and seek extra wisdom from other individuals anyway. We see them during holidays ‘scavenging’ for knowledge. They call us every day seeking explanations of facts and issues of learning.
It is amazing that in this century, a teacher or teachers harbour an iron-age notion that they are the best and no one must contribute to ‘their’ students’ learning; that anyone who comes to help out will expose their weaknesses or shortcomings. Who is interested in you anyway if you are arrogant, selfish and apprehensive about intellectual assistance? People are far beyond that personal pride and debilitating ego of insecure teachers. No one is interested in your job. All the interest is upon our children who are suffering poor performance in the schools and wasting their parents’ hard-earned money. We are helping schools to do better by becoming partners with them in our special and different ways.
“We have markers in the school. What need is there for special consultants? And what is special about them anyway?” Really?
For starters markers are not necessarily good teachers, pretty as much as bad teachers are not necessarily bad markers. Of course many are excellent teachers, but many more markers are worse than non-markers. Some of them may be the best markers, but that has nothing to do with the ability to impart knowledge and skills to learners. One would have thought every qualified teacher knew the difference by now. And to dream that there are teachers who believe being a marker suggests possessing best pedagogy skills is ridiculous to the extreme.
All teachers who keep their students locked up in proverbial closets have skeletons to hide. They lie to the school heads that they don’t need outside help. That is nonsense! Everyone needs everyone. We don’t know everything and are foolish to think we do. There is always somebody who can do better than you and I in whatever we are good at.
The Chibuwe-Jani resistance locks up students in intellectual confinement. It’s unfair, it’s primitive and counter-productive. Let us watch their ‘A’ level Literature 2015 results when they come. Only then can we tell they really needed no outside assistance because they are markers.
I hope the Jani-apprehension has nothing to do with a Ndau syndrome of instinctive jealousy of each other which has hampered progress in many areas of collective development and self improvement especially amongst those of us who come from Chipinge and yet burn with the desire to do a little something to raise standards of the Ndau community in whatever small way.
Online Reporter