adminTeachers Chriss Simbini of Buhera and Mr G. Tondhlana of Chipinge were spot on when they gave a thumbs-up to your new column Head-To-Head with MM. Thanks to The Manica Post and to you Mr MM. The paper is gaining ‘more fire’ all the time. Indeed you lead, the others follow. Tinofarira nzombe mbiri idzi mumibvunzo inopisa ne mhinduro muchirongwa.
Excellent idea! I want to join other teachers in congratulating you for your guts to take on the PED on issues we are too scared to ask. Please ask the PED for me, (musataure zita rangu vaMtisi) Don’t publish my name, if he is aware of the filthy corruption in his offices where some, if not all his DEOs receive, no, not receive! Ask for brown envelopes to staff teachers at schools they want or transfer them to preferred stations.
The same way a lot of his school heads suck parents’ pockets to have their children enrolled at preferred schools? Some heads demand as much as US 300-00 to have their children get a place, especially grade one places. Teachers pay to be posted at certain schools and parents pay to have their children in the preferred schools…then pay levies and school fees when the child is finally enrolled.
Ask the PED, “Munoregererei huori hwakadai huchiitika mumahofisi enyu nemuzvikoro zvenyu. Ingave nyika here inodai kuvanhu vagara vanotambura nehurombo?Why do you (PED) allow such rot in your offices and schools? Can this be a country with such exploitation of poor people reeling in dire poverty?
My answer
I am not the PED. I will pass on the question. But before I ask him for you, I can guess what his answer will be. It is impossible to reprimand officers whose crimes are not proven beyond reasonable doubt. While the PED may not want o defend his officers, common sense tells me he may ask for concrete evidence before entertaining rumour or allegations. And I also have the same question.
If people can prove their allegations against these officers, why do they not do so that the culprits may be brought to book following proper channels? Why do people give them money, bribe them and then complain? Those who were bribed must say and show the truth in this.
But they must be ready to pay the price too because giving a bribe is a crime committed by the wronged if I can put it that way. Both the giver and receiver of a bribe are liable to prosecution. So giving a bribe and then soon shut-up is wiser than mourning after taking part in committing a crime. I will ask the PED. Maybe he has a different answer.
Richard Mahuhushe Chauke writes: Your Education Page Mr Mtisi is a perfect education platform. On my subject matter today I will tread on within its perimeter fence without factoring in pollutants from outside forces beyond the control of ZIMSEC to use outdated maps for ‘O’ Level and ‘A’ Level Geography. National examinations are set standards of education.
Any compromises weaken the potency of the education system and the credibility of the school certificates. I am then taken aback to see outdated maps used in final examinations. Why Geography teachers see nothing wrong in this maybe is out of fear, if responses to this education page are anything to go by. A map is an area drawn to scale with its main or common features shown. Maps must be updated the same way we have new editions of books.
Whether natural or man-made, physical features, owing to time can either be destroyed or developed either by natural or human forces or both interchangeably or simultaneously in collusion. This means that Geography students are working on fictitious maps unrelated to the ground as the maps show. This is not good for Geography and equally bad for candidates. What do they learn from these outdated maps which are unrelated to today’s environment?
Old airstrips are now jungles. Old plantations are now occupied by A1 and A2 farmers. Old wholesalers are now occupied by vendors. Old ranching farms are now owned by land barons for God-knows what business. These maps must be updated for the students to learn as they respond to map reading questions. This will help the students to understand the relevance of the subject and learners or candidates will appreciate the meaning of land planning for present use and future sense. By using old maps ZIMSEC is cutting costs but at the same time killing the end product and objectives of the subject. Old pictures are good for History.
My answer
You will appreciate I am not a Geographer. Maps don’t speak to me intelligibly, the same way figures don’t. I am a linguist. Only words speak to me and speak they do, loudly and intelligibly. Only words translate meaning of life and the whole essence of living to me.
Each word carries a character that is never mistakable to me for words and how one chooses their use measure the speaker’s attitude, feelings and personality. I am a Literature pundit, a literary activist chronically drugged with an obsession for critical analysis and thinking, critical observation and reflection of the words people use in speech or writing to communicate life. Geography speaks not to me: though I know we all live in it and the quality of our lives to a large extent depends on it.
I hope those to whom Geography speaks sense have heard you Richard. I invite them as I hereby do to respond to your sentiments and criticism of ZIMSEC. Mr Robert Makaya and Macdonald Major tried their best to make Geography make sense to me back in the seventies at Chikore Secondary School.
They failed. Mr N’oko too and some white environmentalist, Mr Taylor I think he was, at a later stage at Gweru Teachers College tried aggressively to lure me to study Environmental Studies. I told everybody at GTC, including Mr Brett, the College principal, “If you don’t want me to specialize in the teaching and learning of English language, I will pack my bags and go back home in Chipinge, then cross the Mozambican border to join the war of liberation (of course the last part of the protest was silent).
Richard listen! What you are saying makes some sense to me, but please kindly let me invite specialists in the area, to respond. I will ask Kenneth Matongera….yaah good idea! We were together at Gweru. He understood Mr Noko very well. In fact they were friends and together in it (Geography). Matongera loved Environmental Studies.
We, Fortune Sithole, Misias Moyo , Jonas Chirombe, Rudo Moyo, Sister Rubaya, John Danga, many more, studied Shakespeare, Chaucer, Ezra Pound, John Steinbeck, George Orwell and all of them with an insatiable appetite, Syntax and Semantics and various branches of Linguistics. Yes, I will ask Kenny Matongera to respond to your sentiments. He is currently a Geography inspector and experienced former Geo classroom practitioner. Taking about gurus in Geography! Kenny is one. He is the best to respond to you Rich. Watch the space!
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