Teachers day: celebrating hypocrisy and political rascality
Correspondent | Friday June 12, 2015 13:28
This year’s celebrations were marked under the theme: Teacher; A Change Agent for Global Competitive Human Resource and Economic Diversification. Amid all the pomp and fanfare that has characterised these celebrations for many years I have frustratingly observed that the manner in which the celebrations are carried out haven’t changed an inch since its inception in 1998.
The only notable changes are yearly themes that disguise the deeply entrenched hypocrisy that characterises the celebrations. Even though the day is annually marked as a way of celebrating the integrity, dignity and years of immense contribution teachers have made in their selfless imparting of knowledge and skills to many generations of students, some of whom have gone on to become successful academics, entrepreneurs, policy makers, engineers and other drivers, movers and shakers of Botswana’s socio- economic landscape and even beyond, teachers are often relegated to the back bench and at the centre stage elites from the Ministry of Education and Skills Development and other corporate oligarchs are often taking a centre stage and fully commanding all the proceedings. One would rightly expect Teachers Day to be more teacher- centred where the teaching cadres turn the day into a carnival atmosphere characterised by celebratory marches, revolutionary songs and poetry, music, drama, etc. that are really reflective to teacher’s needs, concerns and aspirations. One would also expect thematic teacher welfare centered speeches and solidarity messages from revolutionary activists, teacher trade unions and other stakeholders who have all along shared the pain, sorrow, challenges that teachers face in their everyday working and living environment.
However I must point out that this has never been the case since Teachers Day was first celebrated 17 years ago.
It is frustratingly disturbing that since its inception ministry elites and a bunch of corporate oligarchs who in many instances are totally anti- teacher welfare and have a dark history of even exacerbating the sweat shop deplorable working conditions that the teaching cadres find themselves in are often at the helm when this noble day is celebrated. Beside occupying poshest and beautifully decorated top tables as so called VIPs, these hypocritical elites are then given many hours to air their highly deceptive and hypocritical speeches often faking a pro- teacher welfare posture and deceptively posing as some sort of messianic envoys who have come to deliver free mana from heaven to the long suffering teachers who in many cases have gone for years without any salary increment, face acute accommodation problems, are owed millions in overtime allowance, course work, invigilation and exam marking fees.
These elites, normally and carefully chosen according to their abilities as great masters of oratory and eloquence, usually deliver deceptive speeches that are heavily pregnant with empty promises on how the challenges that have bedeviled teachers for decades will be solved within a twinkle of an eye. I have for many years observed that these hypocritical elites on this particular day are usually in their element.
Like illustrious classic socialist and Marxist leaders who were great masters of oratory and eloquence, these elites’ speeches are always invariably not embellished with elegantly constructed rhetorical flourish and ornamentation, but are highly and richly imbued with deceptively very deep thought, deceptively very solid logic and a fake profound wisdom. If you happen to be someone who is not well versed with the dangerous school of hypocrisy and has never suffered the humiliating and deplorable working conditions experienced by teachers, you will undoubtedly think these elites belong to the pantheons of the finest and greatest men and women this country has ever produced. Furthermore, using their deceptive razor sharp intellect, these anti- teacher welfare elites masquerading as messianic envoys aptly apply their propagandistic rhetoric and bagful of fake pro-teacher welfare speeches with artistic eloquence thus more often they are wrongly placed head and shoulders above even their political leaders. In other words it can be said that this is usually a deft piece of trickery played by the ministerial elites and their hirelings on Teachers Day. As this trickery, hypocrisy and political rascality is dramatically played by these elites for all to see, teachers who are supposed to be the movers and drivers of these celebrations are turned into mere passive and sheepish spectators, often pushed to the peripheral margins of the so called “celebrations”. Those few teachers who are lucky to be included in the day’s programme are often given less important roles of reciting opening prayers, giving meaningless vote of thanks, ululating, praise poetry and clueless cheerleading( to the hypocritical elites of course!). To cap their deceptive hypocritical demagoguery, these elites then further indoctrinate the somehow sheepish and utterly hypnotised teachers (hypnotised by rhetorical propagandistic empty promises) by awarding them with a plethora of service medals.
By being bestowed with these neo colonial relics or worthless pieces of silver (medals) these groups of teaching cadres become trapped and enmeshed in the thrall of these unforeseen compulsions not realising that they are being busy stripped of all the dignity and integrity. In awarding these medals the hypocritical elites due to their fake political perspicacity and deceptive theoretical analysis, often stoke the feelings of excitement and euphoria to the recipients by giving hare brained oratorical speeches that medals are historically symbols of pride and dedication of one’s contribution to hisher country, and sadly the recipients (often long service teachers) who have been underpaid, overworked, overexploited for decades gleefully buy into this neo colonial attitudinal mindset that a worthless piece of silver with no monetary value is an extrinsic motivational reward to hopelessly accept exploitation and a life of Stakonovite servitude.
Their acceptances of these medals, these teaching cadres thus become what scholars call ‘willing hostages who are ready to sing and dance in their slavery chains”. At the end of the day’s proceedings while these hypocritical elites and their cohorts are chauffeured to some sumptuous meal at a chosen place that oozes luxury and opulence, teachers are then left to their own vices, crammed in a jam packed sweat armpit of a hall somewhere, teachers are then left to fight over left over food as a way of summing up the day that has annually been reserved for the celebration of their stripped dignity and integrity.
As I am speaking right now the post- teacher’s day reality will soon extirpate all the fallacies, myths and rhetorical nonsense dished out by these elites horrendously packaged as “teacher’s day messages” during the celebrations. By the time teachers wake up from their passivity these elites would have long sword-danced their way back to their cozy air conditioned ministerial offices in classic Nazi military style, fully satisfied that their deceptive warfare has been won and another brutal onslaught on the rights of teachers will continue unabated with unparalleled hypocrisy and rascality.
I therefore call upon all teachers, trade unions to rise up and vociferously adopt a # BRING BACK OUR TEACHERS DAY# meme where the celebrations will be radically reformed from the current deceptive, hypocritical conservatism and align itself with post modernity by injecting more vibrancy in the celebrations where teachers play a pivotal role in the celebrations, welfare issues articulated with a strong spirit of altruism, drama, songs and poems thematically aligned with dignity and integrity of the teaching cadres, not the hypocrisy and political rascality that teachers have been made to celebrate for the past 17years. Solly Rakgomo ( University of Botswana).