Fail And Discontinue
Tumie Modise | Monday March 14, 2016 14:39
One doesn’t even need to wonder about how the rest of the pack fared, especially the one at the bottom. It just gets worse with each year though the powers-that-be would want us to believe that there has been a ‘minimal’ improvement this time around.
Last year I suggested that our generation may just be unknowingly giving birth to dull kids. In the absence of any other plausible explanation, I still stand by my words. When the results came out, I could not help but reminisced my own school years. I schooled in an era where teachers were third in the hierarchy of the most feared beings, only second to God and his angels. If it happened that you took a wrong route, then came face-to-face with your teacher outside school hours, you had to do a vanishing act fast, or else you would pay dearly for it the next day at school. They were that powerful.
I imagine that educators and other stake holders in the educational sector must be cracking their heads by now, wondering what to do to turn things around. Year in and year out, they think they have found the solution only for the results to keep proving them wrong. What is without a doubt though, is that something needs to be done, and done fast. As it is every citizen’s responsibility to help find a solution, here is my penny’s worth;
1. Instill strict discipline at home
Where there is no discipline chaos will prevail. The way students roam the streets and malls after school and during weekends is testament that as a nation, our discipline is at an all time low. Clearly, some parents have surrendered parenting to the malls; malls have been turned into babysitting facilities.
2. Failures should repeat grades
In the 80’s and 90’s, non-performing students were commonly known as ‘dunderheads’. Teachers used that word widely and freely. Later, the word was deemed politically incorrect. The word ‘failures’ was then adopted, only to be ditched for the word ‘non-performing’ students later. Something tells me that soon that word will be ditched too for another fancy word, (may be un-passing- ed.). But the meaning hasn’t changed. It still refers to students who only go to school for their own agenda, which is nothing most of the time.
The word ‘failure’ used to be an okay; nowadays we are told it’s politically incorrect. Now they use the word ‘non-performers’ to refer to such students. Things got messed up the moment the practice of making students repeat was scraped off, with students being accelerated to the next grades regardless of their performance. This has proven to be a nightmare, even madness. Until recent years, slow learners repeated Std 4 and Std 7 and only proceeded to high school with good acceptable grades.
The practice was not meant to humiliate them, but allow them to grow up some more, also give them a second and even third chance. Back then, the mere fact that you may be made to repeat sent shivers down your spine, which was a motivating factor on its own. Private schools still make students repeat and they are non-apologetic about that. It’s time we faced that accelerating low performing learners has lowered our standards and has also given the wrong impression that hard work does not pay. There are no medals for losers.
3. Crack the whip
Until a certain headmaster arrived at my alumni, Seepapitso Secondary School, I didn’t believe that a whip could straighten up a child. After terrorising a few school heads and teachers, even driving one Englishman insane (he threatened to return some day with bombs), my former school was at a point where closure was imminent. That was until someone decided to deploy one Mr. Monkge to the school. Within a month, that school head had whipped almost the whole school, a few workers too. By the time some of us learnt how to drive a few years later, we already knew which side of the road to drive on because at his school, it was a punishable offence to walk on the right side; there were imaginary lanes on the school corridors and you had to keep to your lane! Only parents’ involvement in their children’s school work can yield good results. Parent-teacher interactions cannot be over emphasised unless you are one of those brave parents who rely on miracle waters, oils and pens…which failed too, even this year.