End of school term nightmares

P-M5
AT primary school we had some really crafty fellow students. When the school term ended, we would sit quietly in class and wait for the headmaster to come and announce those who would have taken class positions 1 to 10. The end of term, class position was a very important thing, and I think it still is now, and so the closing day of the term was one full of nervousness and anxiety, as what we had been doing at school would finally become known to our parents.

And just as the school rewarded the students with a class position, some parents also had awards waiting for their children too at home upon receipt of the school report, and some of these awards would see students racing out of their homes with their infuriated mothers chasing hard behind them, often carrying a stick.

So, on that last day of the term, in the morning we would be busy cleaning up the classroom, the floors, the windows, the chalkboards, and generally having some fun, happy that finally we would say goodbye to the pinches and punishments of our teachers, and that a whole four weeks of not having to bath the whole body everyday was waiting ahead.

Yes, we loved to not bath the whole body everyday as going to school required us to do, as during the holidays we could just wash the face, feet and hands, and our loving mothers would be lenient with us.

And of course when our mothers finally forced us to wash the whole body during the holidays, we could play tricks and stand aside under the shower and sing and beat water and pretend we were bathing. Those were the days.

Then, at around mid-morning on that last day of the school term, the bell would ring and we would all dutifully troop back into our classrooms, with our anxiety starting to peak again, as this was the dreaded time when we would get to know the class position we took.

During our time the heads of schools were called Headmasters. Now I hear it has changed to Headteacher, and I don’t even know the difference between the two eish, maybe someone can explain that to me one day — but on that last morning the Headmaster would visit all classrooms and announce the class positions 1 to10.

I was lucky that in my primary school heyday I was always in the 1 to10 range, so no class teacher ever announced my class position, it was always the Headmaster kuphela, oops sorry the Headteacher.

And when the Headteacher announced these hallowed class positions, we were all taught to clap politely, celebrating the lucky pupils, and I can still hear the applause from those early days ringing in my ears when it was my turn to be called in front.

Then after the positions 1 to 10 had been called, the Headteacher would finally smile and congratulate us, and he or she would be off to the next class, and then the class teacher would give out the remaining student reports, with the tension rising as the numbers steadily rose to 20, 30, 40, and on and on.

We had what we called “isivala class,” the one who closes the class. But come to think of it, this was funny when I was a child, but now I don’t think it’s all that funny at all for the concerned students, because it would be branding them for the rest of their lives as what teachers then called “bad” students, when they really were not bad, but were just not performing well in their studies.

So next time your child comes from school carrying a school report with number 45 or something like that, please buy them a cake or something, as they would have tried their best, and these are the kids to be celebrated.

And now to the crafty students. These were the ones who would try by all means to lower their class positions to nice digits, and how did you do that?
Simple, if you were in class position number 32, you would erase the 3 and slot in a 1 and make it 12. Kikikiki. And did these students aka forgers succeed to fool their parents? Absolutely not, as these were the ones you commonly met on the streets of the township being chased by infuriated mothers and screaming like nobody’s business!

And a hearty congrats to all passing students in the just announced O- and A-level results, and to those on the losing end, ukuripita bobhudi lamantombazana, azibotshwe futhi.