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deduce that the level at which pupils are tutored or in this case were tutored was flawless. The dominance of Zimbabwe as an educational power house, however, has come under severe threat as seen by the recent pass rates of public examinations.
A question then arises on how our education is being ruined and what are the possible solutions to this heinous situation. Then, of course, to every question there is an answer and the issue of extra lessons, holidays and “mushrooming” colleges has popped up and will be the focal point of this article.
Since the attainment of independence 33 years ago the Government of Zimbabwe like any other progressive country has through the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture provided for three school terms a calendar year to allow for students to relax from the rigours of school life.
Lately, however, there has been a phenomenon that has hit our country’s education — that of extra lessons or vacation school that seems not to care about the leisure of a student.
Students themselves feel like this is the reason for their appalling results yet teachers argue that students are lazy to put in extra work hence it is imperative to have vacation school or extra lessons, among many other issues.
Form Four student Victoria Bernavee Hawadi said the recent poor results that the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council released is a result of students being overworked. “I can tell you that we are working too much, during schools days and during the holidays. What’s the point of a holiday if we are going to school, it is too much stress hence people are failing in their finals,” said Victoria.
Kudzai Muchenjekwa, a teacher at local college, said that students are spoiled and lazy these days and they are not putting a lot of effort to uphold the standards of education in our country.
“Students are too reluctant to put in extra work because their attention is all in social networks and entertainment they don’t value their school work, hence they are producing poor results it is important that students do not get this feel of relaxation but work hard,” said Muchenjekwa.
Other issues highlighted that have to do with these extra lessons are that students complain that teachers are not working hard during the normal school hours and channel their resources to their extra classes.
So whether or you like it or not you are forced to attend their extra lessons and pay insurmountable amounts of money.
“We are not getting proper service in class as the teacher always points out that we need to attend extra lessons, when we go there and pay huge sums of the greens we get proper tutorials and you wonder if he or she is the same teacher we have at school,” said a student who preferred anonymity.
Some people argued that teachers were being greedy or they are sabotaging the system because they want to make extra money.
A concerned parent highlighted that teachers unlike the old days are not well paid, therefore they need to make extra money and are using their skill to help themselves out.
“I would not say the teachers are being greedy or are being unethical, but bear in mind that they have bills to pay and kids to send to school. Their salaries are not adequate and that is a well-known fact, so they are just using their skill to get themselves going,” said one parent
The argument between teachers and students on the issue of extra lessons is a heated one but they tend to agree on some issues.
Some students and teachers that are inclined to the upholding of moral values agree that vacation school or extra lessons are a worthless and unnecessary evil that promotes mischievous activities.
An Upper Six student at a Harare school said people are finding excuses running away from their domestic responsibilities to get a chance to conduct their shady business in an environment that is not regulated.
The other issue that some students and teachers as well as parents agree on is the issue of the mushrooming colleges that according to public opinion have complete disregard for quality and Government regulations.
It is a well-known fact that whenever people go for school holidays, these colleges do not close and they offer compulsory extra lessons for students who will be paying their normal school fees, during these days. Is this not extortion when the extra lessons have not yielded anything inasfar as results are concerned?
To avert the decline of our education should we continue on this path or bring about other solutions that can substitute these practices of extra lessons or vacation school? All the same it is food for thought.
The future of our nation lies in the education of our children and decisions we make today.
Marshall Nyaungwa is a Cool Lifestyle writer who used to write the Cool Stuff column. He was in Namibia pursuing his studies. Cool people, marshall is back.
Online Reporter