Online Reporter
Ronald Takudzwa Sambona
Youth advocate and educator
ONE great writer warns us that the virtue of true learning is for the learner to always do first things first, and second things never! For to do second things first is to lose sight of the goal and is the very essence of what it means to be misled.
He also argues that not to think from effect to cause is not to think effectively.
Learners, l once wrote in a different article stating that the academic journey is entirely yours to experience, but first things first!Whilst the power to choose your academic path as an individual is legally yours, the onus therefore inherently falls upon you to make each and every academic choice count for something.
Too many times, learners get it all wrong as high priority is placed on secondary, trivial things which are irrelevant to the ultimate accomplishment of their academic goals.
Our learners who are also our youths must be fully cognizant of the truth that our future is either built or destroyed by them. Whether it will be progress or stagnation, modernisation or conservatism, knowledge or ignorance, unity or division, peace or war, prosperity or poverty, hate politics or national solidarity, is entirely in our hands, fellow citizens.
The graves of countless young men and women who died answering the call to national service should serve as an enduring, long-lasting symbol of the collective power of our youths at any one point in our nation’s admirable history.
Our youthfulness is an asset that is quite short-lived, and subsequently we must spend our most valuable years building our nation’s future, rather than destroying it.
This is in line with Aspiration 6 of Africa Agenda 2063 which aims to unleash Africa’s full potential through its youth and women. African youths, it’s our time to rise and contribute towards social progress, national development, and modernization! Mayibuye Africa!
Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities wrote something quite profound. He wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us”. As a people we find ourselves conflicted by this irony where our struggles are juxtaposed with vast opportunities for personal growth and national progress.
Nonetheless, as youths we must continue sailing in the direction of education for a ship at harbour is not safe, except when it’s in the seas. As we navigate the whirlwinds and mysteries that will emerge as the academic journey unfolds, let us never stop doing those things which truly matter to us, first! If we let this principle be our guiding compass, there’s simply no telling what we can accomplish as youths in the battle for education.
It is in the most painful and extraneous of circumstances that we have to push like our lives depend upon it, – because they do! As a nation we cannot be anything more than the quality of our people who are our human capital. Therefore, an investment in youths, investment in new technologies and techniques, and investment in new economic activities should be a high priority for us as government.
It’s no secret that investments in social sectors of the economy such as education take considerable time before any positive effect is felt at all. “Haba na haba hujaza kibaba,” is a traditional Swahili proverb that means “bit by bit, you fill up the jug”. In that light, our efforts for quality education, transformation, and modernization, however small and insignificant they might appear, will be greatly multiplied in the unfolding of events. It’s one thing to constantly criticize our leaders, but it’s also another to wait patiently for the policies and projects they have implemented to take their desired positive effect. This ultimate lack of patience is somehow evident across various areas of life.
As the youths, let us welcome the cliche that patience does pay and that our education will birth astounding achievements in the future if we continue to put first things first, and second things never!
Thank you! I rest my case.
