The Sunday News
Charles Dube
The above expression reminds the learners that the holidays are over, they now need to shift attention to school matters.
They have relaxed for a period and there is need to focus on books. The mind should forget about the excitement of the holidays. In the days past, “Back to school”, excited learners because parents and guardians could afford to supply them with all the necessities required at school.
It is a different kettle of fish nowadays. Times are hard. The economic situation is hitting hard and the general populace is finding it hard to make ends meet.
Just two days before the term starts there are many learners who are unsure whether they will go back to school on Tuesday, especially those in boarding schools.
Nothing has been put in place as a sign that they are going back to school. Parents and guardians are making all efforts to ensure learners get back to school, but their hands are tied.
Times are bad and learners should understand that. All parents and guardians wish all the best for their children but at times the situation gets so tough for them such that they find it difficult to raise school fees on time.
It is no longer school fees only which is a burden to parents, but uniforms and stationery are being charged at unaffordable prices. Prices of all these items have been raised to astronomical levels hence beyond the reach of many.
All these issues should be addressed if our educational systems are to remain affordable. All these challenges facing the parents are even to the glare of learners. Learners at primary schools can see that all is not well with their educational needs. They empathise with their parents with the exception of infants. I hope all learners in upper grades and above understand the difficulties brought about by these unstable economic problems and will stop making unnecessary demands.
Some learners make these demands unaware. Form One learners, especially those starting boarding life, are very careless with their property and lose books and at times uniforms.
Parents and guardians emphasise on responsibility to learners going into Form One. They should look after their property to avoid replacing items in less than a term into school. Learners should understand that they cannot have more than maybe two pairs of uniforms at the start seeing the dire situation parents are in.
Carelessness of losing school items should stop. Learners attending day schools are not spared of this. Protect what belongs to you or to the school. Across the board learners should stop stealing books or any item belonging to the school. It is very expensive for schools to replace lost items.
This also applies to vandalism. There are many learners who are inclined to destroying school furniture, be it damaging desks, removing screws from chairs and breaking window panes to name but a few.
All things are tough. If it is tough for the parents and guardians, the same applies to the schools. But, these vandalism acts are perpetrated by those learners who have no sense of belonging to institutions they learn at.
Learners should be responsible and value what they use in their learning. The behaviour of just donating books and uniforms to other people or learners without consulting parents should stop forthwith as that property might be needed by somebody in the family chain later on.
I would like to believe that born fires have seen their last days whereby uniforms and books were burnt by Form Fours and Upper Sixes after writing their last examinations at schools. That was then and learners used to enjoy it and would look forward to it. Nowadays that would be considered barbaric. But, as I have said in earlier articles bad habits die hard. It would not be surprising that there are learners still doing it in some schools out there. However, with times getting so tough I hope certain habits will die as they are retrogressive.
Schools have been out for a month and learners have tried different styles of fashion and hairstyles. That was good for them and they enjoyed it. But, they should not forget that as the “Back to school” mantra beckons they should revert to being learners. They are going back to uniforms whether they like it or not. Their hairstyles should be compatible to the school regulations. Barbers and hairdressers have had a busy week putting learners’ hair back into shape. Otherwise, if there was no control classes would be messy with all types of styles.
While school opening days are already known when schools close there is a worrying trend where some parents and guardians do not adhere to the set dates, especially those who would have taken the learners across borders like South Africa. There seems to be a wrong practice whereby learners return after schools have already opened and learning will be in full swing. They do not care. Things change as the ministry of education used to be strict with such issues in the past.
Maybe this rule has been relaxed, only time will tell. But, orderliness is key for proper learning to take place.
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