Online Reporter
Ronald Takudzwa Sambona-Youth advocate and educator
I was reading a certain book and the author outlined a fundamental point about the journey being the individual’s. In that same sense I reiterate to all learners that the academic journey is theirs!
Our young people must be proud of their choices and have self-autonomy to make liberated academic decisions. Section 61c of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Act, 2013 recognises academic freedom as a fundamental human right to be cherished and enjoyed by all people regardless of age, gender, or background.
Too many times those responsible for our young people exert too much force when it comes to the broad, but important area of making academic choices such as number of subjects to register, combinations to do, career paths to choose, or even academic institutions to study at.
Whilst this might be okay for some learners, excessive impinging by guardians or educators in learners’ academic journeys may start to be a burden and infringement on their constitutionally guaranteed right to academic freedom.
Parents, guardians, or whoever, must come to terms and acceptance with the truth that the academic journey isn’t theirs, but the academic journey is the learner’s.
Yes, I undeniably understand that parents, guardians, and educators ultimately stand to benefit or lose from the eventual outcomes of learners’ academic journeys.
Besides that I am strenuously convinced that it is equally of prime importance that learners feel that they can succeed and achieve fulfilment in the academic pathways they have chosen for themselves. Parents and educators must always strive to offer quality educational guidance, but never ever make a presupposition that the learner’s journey is theirs!
Yes, learners you should consider great advice when making choices, but at the end of the day the academic journey is yours! Embrace it!
My biggest concern is that our learners end up traveling along academic pathways that simply don’t drive their inner passions or yet align with their visions for the future.
Education must empower learners to reach their destinations, and these destinations are different for everyone. Therefore,the academic choices should be solely theirs. The next great musician, actress, lawyer, or politician will emerge from nowhere else, but from our young people.
Hence the need for the academic journey to be theirs. Parents and educators must be cognizant of this sacred truth, and therefore only seek to nurture each passion and freely welcome every academic choice learners make without discrimination and contravention of rights.
I know there are some parents and educators who have been bamboozled into believing that the learner’s academic path doesn’t matter much as they will always be able to pursue their passions later on in life.
It might happen that way, but it is definitely a long way to one’s destination when a shortcut exists. Why take a longer route when a shorter one exists? Doesn’t make much sense! Isn’t it a better philosophy and winning strategy for learners to make their passions their life’s study and ultimate focus from the get go?
Let us consider this. It would be unfair and abusive towards our learners to put them up to areas of study they have little to no interest in at all.
In this case it doesn’t take very much for our learners to capitulate or drop out when the going gets tough. Sometimes parents and educators are to blame for learners dropping out of school or courses because those learners never wanted to be treading along those academic paths in the first instance.
Even Vygotsky’s Social Constructivism Theory states that learning is most effective when it’s connected across subjects and social contexts. Therefore, for learners to perform well academically it is imperative that what they specialize in or study at educational institutions be connected to their areas of passions.
Epstein’s Parental Involvement Framework asserts that strong home-school partnerships improve learner outcomes. Now, can you imagine what weak home-school partnerships will do to a learner’s educational journey?
Parents’ involvement in their children’s education is crucial, but most learners have experienced that excessive involvement lowers quality of performance and motivation to learn. Too much of anything has never been really good, has it?
Parents and guardians must serve to offer learners guidance only when necessary in a manner that truncates learner conflicts to prevent impeding learners’ growth.
According to Vygotsky and Bruner, educators as learning facilitators must guide rather than dictate the learning process. The academic journey must still remain the individual’s. This is the spirit that our education system should seek to nurture and grow. Learning is often best achieved through mentorship, not dictatorship!
