Open letter to Dr Dokora

I am aware that open letters are commonly used as vehicles to lambast other people, may be to expose the downside of the actions of some person. I am not sure if that use of open letters is in the definition or it has simply become practice from repetition and ‘custom’. In any case, I have no intention of making this ‘Open letter’ typical of what I and indeed many other people have grown to expect of open letters.

Recently I had the opportunity to listen to the exchanges between Dr Dokora and junior parliamentarians on the TV Programme MyFuture. I believe listening to the exchanges was well-worthwhile. As a career educationist myself I felt a breadth of fresh air that someone who sounds extremely knowledgeable was there talking to youngsters who asked very candid questions and received the sort of answers that I would expect from an educationist. I have no intention to reproduce everything which the Minister said, but I present only a few ideas of his that I found more than interesting.

I am grateful to Dr Dokora for being sensitive to the needs of the youngsters in primary school and for introducing Guidance and Counselling at that level. That teachers at that level are not completely well prepared for the service is a small price we pay for moving forward. The need for Guidance and Counselling in primary school is very clear. The age of sexual debut, for instance, is going down steeply and we cannot close our eyes to that human crisis and wait for when the children are in high school.

I liked too the distinction which the Minister made between Sex Education and teaching about Sexuality. Everyone needs education on Sexuality to be able to appreciate the importance of this concept in our scheme of values. Through Sexuality education, children understand the process of growing up and distinguishing little things like good touch and bad touch. This is not Sex Education as even the public media seem to suggest.

I liked the Minister’s insistence that children are not all about learning and need time with their parents. True, many parents have no time with their children anymore. Even some so-called very successful parents do not bring up their own children as they are too busy making money to have the time. Any time that can be found within the school holidays needs to be put aside for parents to have time with their children. I am sure many readers are aware of the concept of ‘latch key’ children in America, who do not have time with their parents and when they come back from school, they find keys on the latches and there is no one at home to welcome the children back from school.

I liked too the Minister’s reference to the need for students to be encouraged to be supportive of their disadvantaged peers such as those stigmatized for falling pregnant and attempting to return to schools. I recall the anchor on that programme believed that the Minister in this case and in the case of condoms for school children, was asking too much of the students to give them such responsibilities. But I think this is exactly the resource that is being under-utilized by leaders of schools. They are quick to point to the animal called peer pressure as if by definition peer pressure cannot be positive. Again I do not know if peer pressure has to be negative. Students, I suspect understand other students much more than they understand their teachers and we need students to be able to lean on the empathic shoulders of other students.

Students confide in other students and we need to start in our schools to build a spirit that tells our students to ask themselves ‘ What can I do for my neighbour who is another student and is at dis-ease?’ We would expect this basic warmth towards other students to be the beginning of a public-spiritedness which is missing among many adults today. A situation where students are being helpful to other students can be the beginning of ‘teaching volunteerism’ in schools. Unless, students are trained to volunteer their efforts and time in the service of others, we can expect a pretty bleak future for the next generations.

Yours in education matters.

MM.

I have had to cut Mr Mapfumo’s open–letter into 2 parts. It is fairly long and interesting. The writer himself is hugely interesting and as often extremely open minded and stubbornly frank. I cannot have the learned Minister of Primary and Secondary Education miss a word of the young old man’s intelligent and wise suggestions. Let alone my erstwhile readers! Don’t miss the fundi’s Part 2 of the open letter to Minister Lazarus Dokora next Friday.