The Sunday News
Charles Dube
AFTER presenting opinions on how best learners can utilise the holiday, I decided to go to the ground and ask a cross-section of them to write down what they consider a dream holiday. The responses I got were quite hilarious. Here are some of the live responses from learners themselves: How we would like to spend our holidays. Learners view all holidays differently. April holidays is the time for relaxing with friends. August holidays — read and study more (school work) and in December learners consider it as time for having fun with friends and family and above all, it is time for rest.
The views from learners are not only hilarious as stated above, but, at times very outrageous and excessive. For example, some learners say, parents could assist their children by giving them holiday allowances to the tune of $25. Though reasonable some views fall short on reality. We have learners of the opinion that if parents cannot afford to give their children (learners) holiday allowances, there should be part time jobs available during the holidays so that they can earn their own money.
This could have been a plausible suggestion in the past but we are all aware that our economy is stressed such that options of this nature are only a few if ever they are there. The list of preferences goes on: “Children (learners) prefer going out with friends and family as compared to staying home all day watching television.” The suggested places of interest are game reserves and others which offer recreational activities. I am sorry to say the list presented here also included night clubs which I did not name as I wondered whether our learners frequent those places.
It is a dream holiday indeed for learners as one learner wishes his or her parents could take her or him out at least three times every school holidays to have what they call a fancy meal at one of the upmarket restaurants in town. They wish to go shopping for clothes of her choice which include what is called expensive shoes and latest clothes from reputable labels. Learners, being children, one of them says,’’ obviously, family vacations are a must during the December holidays, with places like Victoria Falls, and neighbouring countries like South Africa considered a must to visit. Really, why not make such suggestions optional?
Now that almost all families have relatives in the diaspora, we have learners wishing to fly to those countries to meet their relatives and friends who have been gone for a long time. These are dreams indeed because all this requires large sums of money to fulfil. The following is a common dream, where learners instruct their parents to make sure Wi-Fi and DStv do not expire while they are at home during the holidays.
They want to wake up to the best breakfast in the country every morning. This is quite unrealistic for me, but, we have learners who stretch their imagination this far. Of course, among learners we have those who love extremes. For example, one suggests that at least they should have five nights where they do not prepare dinner at home but buy (expensive) delicious foods from expensive food houses in town.
There are positives though, for example one wishes parents could take him to a driving school such that when she or he is licensed can be an assert at home, driving parents around or being sent on errands. During the August holidays parents can sign up their children for extra lessons and let them sign up for the local public library so that they can study during the holidays. Give learners the platform to express their feelings over a certain issue and you will get a lot of exciting ideas and opinions. That is what happened when I asked for these opinions.
Agreed, most of the points raised here are elitist, one needs to go out and find out more from those who spend most of their time in a challenged environment to get balanced views. Still on the positive side some learners wish their parents could get them the best holidays lessons teacher who would be easy to understand such that they would enjoy learning during the holidays.
Quite interesting indeed, to hear students expressing their views and what they want while still at school and after writing their final examinations. The latter wish to get jobs to keep them occupied while waiting for their results. Everyone wishes to be employed rather than talk of self-employment. This explains the weaknesses which have been prevalent in our education system where there is hope for a changed outlook with the coming in of the new curriculum.
Talk of the new curriculum; it has brought a lot of movement for the learners. Those who like outdoor activities are having a time of their lives. The normally conservative schools have also been forced to join the fray. I do not doubt that all this is meant for the good of the learners and believe that this would help to bring about better equipped learners. Only time will tell. The only damage one can do to herself or himself is to resist modernity.
Learners you have diverse dreams, let us hear and share them. Link with [email protected] or sms only to 0772113207.
