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Cambridge and Zimsec examinations in three months has stirred debate amongst parents and stakeholders in the education sector.
The student studied using the M (X) KOPS system, a stimulation programme designed by Royson Chinyanga, a Zimbabwean dietician and researcher living and working in the United Kingdom, resulted in the young boy – who had a stream of poor results – passing O-Level examinations in a short space of time.
Another student, Nyasha Guzha – who had hopelessly failed O-Level examinations – sat for A-Level Mathematics, Biology and Chemistry 2007 under this programme and is now in her final pharmacy degree at a university in South Africa.
With these results at hand many questions have been raised. Does this programme adequately prepare students? At what level should it be introduced into the education sector?
Are the children’s IQs tested before commencing on the programme to measure their capabilities?
Is this a remedial programme? How many subjects do students study each time if on the programme? Since this is an experimental design can one make an intelligible criticism of Mr Chinyanga’s claims?
Educational experts and parents from all walks of life have aired their views and concerns over the period of time taken for the programme versus the maturity of students.
Most said such an educational system ignores the importance of maturity in education and training.
They said there were certain concepts that needed a particular age to be fully grasped.
Deputy Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Lazarus Dokora, who is also a teacher by profession, said there is an appreciation of concepts that comes with maturity.
“This research is likely to push children through the system when they cannot apply the concepts learnt to the natural world. It is no use parroting geophysical concepts when you cannot apply them to the world. “There is a correlation between psychological development and understanding of complexities,” he said
He revealed that in primary education there is the concept of cyclical approach where concepts are introduced early but are broken into smaller units to allow the process of maturation.
“Take, for instance, the concept of fire can be introduced in Grade 1, a pupil will find it again in Grade 3 and later Grade 5 and so on. This promotes understanding and appreciation of the concept of fire.
“The question to ask Mr Chinyanga’s system or research results is: Are the necessary safeguards in place to ensure that the pupils master concepts for use in later life? Rushing the children through the education system is likely to turn our children into zombies,” he said.
Another educationist said the programme was being pushed by the “conveyor belt type of educational production” where the focus on mere passing of academic subjects and not the total development of the individual.
“Why rush the child through school? The education system is designed to allow education to correlate with physical development of the child?
“Our environment plays a crucial part in our understanding and any design that ignores that is detrimental to child development,” she said.
A lecturer from Bindura University of Science Education, Mr Sarathiel Chaipa, says the nation should just not dismiss Mr Chinyanga’s findings, adding that BUSCE’s Faculty of Science Education would soon launch a research programme to evaluate the M(X) KOP’s system.
“We will be selecting the worst performing school in our neighbourhood, and selecting the worst 2012, Form 4 class to test this methodology. We want to prove or disprove this methodology.
“Its success will be a positive contribution while its failure will not be a waste of time but a move in the right direction of wanting to improve our educational system,” he says.
He added that Mr Chinyanga’s methodology is a revolutionary one arguing that it gives a critique of the current educational system.
“If you recall there was the Nziramasanga Commission some years back which had sought to make some changes to our educational system, but that was never implemented.
“Even so, the M(X) KOPS System is a more universal knowledge transfer mechanism that does not focus on the natural intelligence of children but focuses on making sure every child understands whatever subject matter is subjected to him,” he observes.
He advocated its adoption arguing: “Our failure rates are huge especially in the science subjects (mathematics, physics, chemistry, integrated science, geography, etc) and no one has ever bothered to come up with a corrective mechanism to arrest this trend.
“Mr Chinyanga has been bold enough to come up with a methodology that is more universal and worth pursuing. We need to be innovative and entrepreneurial in our thinking; this is what Mr Chinyanga has done.
“Parents are paying school fees, exorbitant in some cases. Almost every child is going for extra lessons, but are these extra lessons really giving the expected results?”
He said when the results are published failures become statistics with no one going back to say sorry to parents who part with their hard cash in the name of extra lessons for no gain.
“In the six years that pupils study up to Advanced Level, parents would have paid 18 sets of fees each term. With Mr Chinyanga’s methodology, we cut the total fees paid ensuring poor parents afford to send their children up to Advanced Level.
“I hereby question the effective time teachers spend delivering lessons to children in our schools especially these current years?”
He notes that Zimsec is a deduction of the old Cambridge syllabi but tougher.
“Cambridge, on the other hand, has been softening their material. In this respect, Zimsec is more challenging than Cambridge. I feel that Zimsec is pitched high, but the only problem that has led to discredit them is poor management of the examinations.
“Exams have leaked in a number of cases, markers has been underpaid for many years leading to their refusal to mark in some cases adding to the mountain of problems in the management of our local exams.”
He adds that money is never a motivator when it comes to the ways teachers impart their knowledge to students. “Take a look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and see at what level money is placed. There is need to question our subject delivery methods. Are we applying methods that will ensure success in 90 percent of the children and not 10 percent? There is need to continuously research our teaching philosophies.
“Let’s not just accept what we learn. There is need to critique these traditional methods and invention of new ones, like what Mr Chinyanga is doing.
“President Mugabe years back questioned the bookish knowledge that we always accepted. There is need to always question the status quo and seek ways to improve it, that is development,” he says.
Given good administration, he said, Zimsec was more difficult and rigorous than Cambridge.
“Stimulation does work. Look at Rodgers, he came with 7/9 units in Grade 7 Maths but went on to pass both Cambridge and Zimsec. “With the traditional delivery method, these pupils did not do well. It is only after being subjected to Mr Chinyanga’s M(X) KOPS System that we see these pupils passing, meaning that his methodology has aspects which are totally different from our traditional one,” he says.
He feels more needs to be done for slow learners.
“Instead of the teachers questioning the failure of traditional methods on their class, they are preoccupied with negative perceptions about this whole class.
“Mr Chinyanga refuses to accept this. The major shortfall incorporates the lack to motivate the children. Our teachers fail to instill self confidence in the children. The children in turn lack faith and confidence in themselves which are the two ingredients for a success,” he said.
Belvedere Technical Teachers College vice principal Mr Mtafu Norwin Maseleka said some people could be missing a point in Chinyanga’s approach to education.
“It is not about going through the examination papers. It is about liberal teaching. Think back to your school days just for a moment. A teacher introduces a concept partially (because you are not mature enough for the complete combat).
“This confuses you because usually half concepts don’t quite fit anyway in your brain. So you ask, innocently, ‘Sir, what happens if we do this?’ ‘Don’t worry about that, you will understand it when you are in form so and so’, comes the typical answer.
“Chinyanga’s method says ‘Don’t put brakes on the natural learning process. When a learner asks, she is ready for the real thing’. Any barriers should emanate from the learner, not the teacher. Your job as a teacher is to facilitate intellectual development whose pace and scope squarely rest on the learner and her environment,” he said.Mr Masekela added that ironically, Mr Chinyanga is a product of this approach himself.
“He is my former Goromonzi High School student and I am very proud of him. I used this method on them as from the second form and their seniors in the sixth form noticed that the juniors were better at explaining the concepts they were struggling with,” he says.He explained that the method is liberal and inclusive adding that he would call it Human Responsive Pedagogy, although borrowed from humans’ better cousins, the monkeys!
A reader who only identified himself as Dr Dube said school is not only about sitting for examinations.
“The end product of the school system must be a person with relevant life skills and can integrate well in society. “Teaching kids exam papers should never be advocated like what this Mr Chinyanga is doing with his guinea pigs,” he argues.
Yet another reader only identified as professor said: “A dietician is expected to come up with new recipes etc issues dealing with eating not education systems. Basing success on a single study is statistically wrong. Chinyanga should also appreciate that kids do not spend most of their time at school studying biology and english etc, but they also mature, learn to live and relate with their peers etc. And using his relation as a guinea pig for his experiment is immoral. Who says that Rogers was a dull boy, what were the circumstances that led to him failing his grade seven?” the professor asks.
With the pilot study showing positive results and mixed reactions, the question remains: “Is Zimbabwe ready to accept this programme? How best should it be implemented? “
Online Reporter