Mission schools: What’s wrong?

Morris Mtisi
NOT long ago in this newspaper, I wrote a sad story about school heads who had become sacrificial lambs at the hands of power-hungry detractors and fund-raising responsible authorities.

The story was ran under the headline “School heads now endangered species?”

In the story, I observed the notorious habit of insubordinate teachers who gang up to make schools ungovernable as they, in cahoots with other big-headed attention- seeking hoodlums plot regime changes against hard-working headmasters and mistresses.

I also alluded to responsible authorities who become obsessed with the idea of their private schools being the geese that lay the golden eggs forgetting they are institutions of learning with the sole duty of imparting knowledge and skills badly needed for personal and national development.

Schools must never be perceived as fund-raising projects by their owners or responsible authorities but oases of cultivating human capital at an affordable cost that ensures sustainability, not filling the coffers of money-mongers who constitute the responsible authority.

What we see in some, if not most of these schools, is sheer greed and exploitation of institutions by responsible authorities who will stop at nothing to make sure their schools become the cows that supply the milk. They are not worried about the pass rate or welfare of the children in their schools.

These responsible authorities will dismiss or transfer any school head if he or she stubbornly prioritizes school development and ignores paying hefty levies into the responsible authority’s coffers.

Mt. Selinda High School in Chipinge is back on the spotlight for the wrong reason.

Let us rewind to the late Simeon Mambanda Sithole’s days. (Rest in peace mate!) He was booted out. Then the good boy became Aaron Mundeta before he too was booted out. Then Chigogwana became the good boy before he became enemy number one and subsequently also booted out. Now it is Bundwa. He was the blue- eyed boy for a long time and the best head the school had ever found. Now nursing a mild stroke, rumour is saying, he also faces the firing squad accused of insubordination and executive arrogance. Those who are pushing a vote-of-no confidence have forgotten how under his leadership the school’s pass rate improved, how discipline improved, how the school was recently the proud winner of the Secretary’s Bell, the highest award of merit given to the best school overall in a province.

What the hell is wrong with these mission schools? Where are the wheels coming off, we ask?

When the founders of these institutions were on the helm, the mission schools churned out outstanding academics and iconic nation builders for the country.

Mt Selinda for the record was last a five-star school during Zikai Sithole’s era. After him came trouble after trouble, conflict after conflict. Standards collapsed and today it is a painful shadow of its own past. Its sister mission school, Chikore,( both former American Board Missions,) now United Church of Christ in Zimbabwe (UCCZ), went the same way. Both are ghost missions and their schools centres of administrative conflict and serial booting out of school heads.

Where are the wheels coming off? That is the question.

What’s worst is it is not a typically-UCCZ- alone problem. The virus is at Biriiri Mission big time, perhaps the mother of all school-head versus responsible authority conflict. St. Augustine’s was infected for many years. It was left in a state of ruin. Hartzell High, too, hit the headlines countless times and continues to groan under administrative Ebola to date.

What the hell is wrong with us Africans? Money? Power? Primitivity?

We took over beautiful missions for free; we didn’t buy, and made them ruins. We took over perfect centres of academic equilibrium, and made them sorry imitations of success laughably settling for mediocrity and below in broad daylight! We inherited pearls and primitively cast them at pigs.

What’s wrong with us?

What used to be flourishing and successful havens of Christian teachings and values have been converted into personal business enterprises making money for responsible authorities, not offering Zimbabweans quality education and showing them the way to Heaven.

Cry beloved Mt. Selinda! Cry beloved mission schools! Cry beloved Mission Centres! Bonda, Biriiri, Great Tsambe of old, Hatsoo- the beautiful Old Mutare, Chikore, Ziwezano at Old Honde Mission (former United Methodist Church).

This is a serious problem which demands nothing less than government involvement to solve. If Government does not intervene, these missions will continue to rot and their stench offending not only those on the stations, but the whole country. If nobody does not deal with this crisis of leadership and bankruptcy of developmental acumen rampart on these missions they are going to continue to be white elephants, wasted facilities, ruins, eye-sores and of course sources of primitive in-fights and in-house conspiracies.

“Can’t someone push effective votes-of-no- confidence and boot these notorious responsible authorities and iron-age leaders out now, before it is too late?” an angry educationist and social commentator said and requested to remain anonymous.

Of course, where jumbo-size elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. Lest we all forget!

Finally, may be school heads too need to be reminded to do their work knowing they are vulnerable to responsible authority shenanigans and are not at any school forever. And not to be too big for their shoes, arrogant and untouchable during their terms of office, forgetting they do not own the schools they head. It is very easy to forget and some, not all, do forget. May be this knowledge would reduce the knock-on toll when the booting out comes.