The Sunday News
Charles Dube
THANKS to the new curriculum, we are witnessing a lot of positive developments in schools despite some teething problems associated with its full implementation. Many schools have undergone some facelift in the mid of many challenges like lack of adequate resources. School gardens which have been lying fallow have come to live because the Government through the new curriculum demands that schools should be productive in one way or the other.
Schools with limited water resources have some green vegetables showing that they are trying their best to follow the directive to at least produce something. Schools are feeding learners so the production of vegetables comes in handy. They cannot afford to buy vegetables elsewhere when they can produce on their own. The schools are not only doing gardening as some are into poultry, piggery and rabbit rearing. Some have thriving tuck shops. In all these, make sure there is active learner participation. Learners should run these projects to get the grip of the skills imparted to them for use after school.
The whole class has become active in these outdoor activities. Cases of high fliers dominating lessons and slow learners taking a back seat have been eliminated. It is obvious skills acquired through active involvement of the learners will be applied in real life. Kudos to the new curriculum because it aims at producing job creators not job seekers. Schools are in the right track in trying to achieve these objectives. Schools who have taken up the initiative have become productive in a way.
The projects they have adopted have become fundraising tools. Schools will gradually move away from crying about Government delays in paying grants to them and burdening parents with extra levies for things they can fund themselves through these noble initiatives. The new curriculum has given prominence to subjects like physical education and Sport.
These were perceived negatively from long back. Some tertiary institutions, teachers’ colleges in particular, churned out a lot of trained teachers to go and introduce these subjects at schools.
However, the situation on the ground appeared negative to these subjects. It appeared ridiculous to hear somebody talking about teaching physical education or any form of sport at schools. Learners, parents and even other teachers made fun of such teachers such that they ended up teaching other subjects and hid the fact that their other major subject was one of these. Most of these teachers were unmasked recently when the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education sent forms and made it mandatory for teachers to declare the major subjects they specialised in at college.
At times it was difficult to make timetables at some schools as if there was a critical teacher scarcity yet, some claimed to have majored in one subject and could not teach other subjects. It is quite true that the new curriculum has ushered in more new subjects and is stretching the loads teachers normally had. Authorities should make sure there is fairness in the distribution of workloads. It is a fact that there are cunning foxes who might want to ride on others and have less loads while the quiet ones will be groaning under heavy iron burdens.
Physical education sport in general has been given prominence in schools. Gone are the days where you would find a school at an athletics meeting having no sport kit. It is embarrassing to find athletes clad in all colours when all other schools have sports gear in the beautiful colours of their respective schools. There has been a general improvement on this area in all the schools inclusive of primary schools located in remote areas. Most schools have been playing second fiddle to their more affluent counterparts because of lack of proper equipment and facilities.
It now appears there is a change of attitude in most schools. There is a change of attitude in how schools go about their usual business. Schools in remote areas have acquired minibuses or conventional buses to ferry learners for out of school activities, be it sport or other educational trips. Schools are making it to far away destinations for educational purposes. They could not afford this before. Learners are gaining more knowledge from those trips.
While attitudes have changed toward sport, funds permitting schools should go further and have qualified personnel training their learners in different sporting disciplines. Proper training will help learners like the sport and aim at achieving the best results in disciplines they partake in. They can go on and win medals or represent the country internationally therefore making a living out of it. Days of having teachers having little knowledge in different sporting disciplines should be coming to an end.
Learners need to be given proper training on sport at a tender age before their muscles stiffen and it becomes difficult to loosen them up to perform certain activities. Muscles will no longer be as flexible as before. Teachers need to be encouraged or incentivised to go for specialist courses like soccer coaching and athletics coaching to get the necessary knowledge and skills to impart to learners. Such teachers will become assets to schools and produce sportspersons of repute.
We should view the training teachers used to give to learners before with disdain. There was no professional training to the athletes as a teacher was just responsible for saying, “On your marks! Get set! Go!” at the start of a race at training. There was total ignorance of how proper training was to be done. There was no scientific knowledge attached to it. There was nothing like warm up done before the start of any sport before commencement of any sport, putting learners at risk of injury.
Above all, there is need for a professional approach to sporting activities. Schools through the new curriculum have been forced to spruce up the sporting facilities and have adopted new methods in doing sports. Professionalism is coming into sports and elimination of age cheating is in full throttle. Age cheats have disadvantaged many potential excellent sporting persons. It is no longer business as usual at various schools as hard work is emphasised.
It will not be surprising to find schools who used to under-perform at sports or academically overtaking those who used to perform better than them.
For views link with [email protected]/or sms to 0772113207.
