Class dismissed

Wateule · 2013-09-18T04:56:11+00:00

It is amazing what stress can do to you. Yes stress, it has both negative and positive impact on the human body and mind. Stress forces you to be creative and see things in a whole new perspective because what you thought and believed to be normal at one point, is not working for you anymore. I guess they didnt teach you that in school. I did everything as I was told by my teachers and lecturers over the years, well at least I think I did. I attended class, did my research, assignments, presented my papers, took my exams, attained good grades and finally acquired my degree. Little did I know that was only the beginning of my life long journey of acquiring knowledge. What is education? There are several definitions of the term education but they all have one thing in common acquiring of knowledge and skills. Character, ambition, creativity, wisdom, vision, integrity, morals, instinct, passion, self-esteem, willingness, confidence, courage, responsibility, leadership, accountability are all part of education. Reading, writing and counting are simply the basis. It is so much more than cramming formulas, dates in history, names of inventors and philosophers and being forced to reproduce the same during examinations. Our Government has a very narrow outlook of education, being only the knowledge we acquire in schools. This has led to a huge concentration on the increase in number of structures being put up as schools, rather than on creating an environment whereby teachers are valued for what they offer and students value what is being provided to them. Quality education not simply education. Our great grandparents, through practice and imitation, acquired knowledge and skills essential for their survival in the environment within which they were in. They neither had curriculums, end of term exams nor were they confined in four walls we famously known as classrooms. There was a time in our country where only standard 4 level education was sufficient to acquire a job and make a living. Unfortunately we were unable to catch up with evolution as now we are in an era where a bachelors degree holder is likely to end up in the same place with a person who has never seen the inside of a classroom NOT QUALIFIED. Going to school should not be simply a routine after attaining a certain age nor should it seem like a punishment being inflicted upon a child by their parents. Parents will nag you to get that education and there will even be more of that once school is over and you are still living under their roof; unemployed. The main goal of education is to impart knowledge and skills in order for one to thrive and survive in the world he lives in. If our country has the same goal when it comes to education then we have failed miserably in enacting laws and policies reflecting these same. There is a need to coincide our resources with the end products, match our inputs with our outputs. We have certainly succeeded in measuring the level of education acquired by an individual by the bulkiness of the certificates one holds. Many of these schools lack texts books. What initiative the Government has taken to deal with that situation, am not so sure. It is evident that it has failed to enable students to have equal access to various text books. A city like Dar es Salaam, having more than 200 Primary and Secondary schools in total, to have only one library, which in itself is deficient, is so depressing. 90 percent of these schools do not have libraries in their compounds hence students are expected to buy textbooks by themselves, majority of whom cannot afford to do so. Due to all this and a lack of specific curriculums and syllabus, there has emerged a group of imposters creating false sets of printed facts at a low price which eventually prove damaging to students who rely on them as their source of knowledge. It is rather absurd that the Government is encouraging those attaining lowest grades in their secondary and advanced level examinations to take up teaching courses. Teaching, just like many professions, is a calling hence to be taken seriously. The insufficiency of teachers as a resource should not be compensated by enrolling unqualified individuals and expect them to change the course of how things are at present. I came across these words just recently, Ualimu Pasipo Elimu, meaning Educators Without Education, is exactly what is being encouraged by the Government. We need to realize that teachers compose a very crucial group in our society hence they deserve utmost respect and as a noble profession, have to be valued. Simply raising their salaries will not accredit them with value but a developing a system which will continuously check and foresee their development as a profession definitely will. Sadly, most of us have missed out from great teachers and lecturers during our academic years. We all have our own perceptions of the best teacher. Might be the one with a sense of humor, one who could chew up the subject for you, one with less assignments or home works, one who was less concerned whether you are present in class or one who missed most of his classes giving you more time to slumber. The best teacher is supposed to give you facts, apply those facts to the current situation, interact, engage, motivate, keep you interested, inspires, encourage failure as an opportunity for future success, builds curiosity, develop talents and eventually makes you grow not only intellectually but morally. One should not be satisfied with 1 plus 1 being equal to 2. Ask yourself why is this so? Why shouldnt one plus one be equal to 3 or 4 or even 5? Force your thinking, be creative, relate, think intensively and outside the box, have a hunger for knowledge, deal with facts and evidence rather than depending on conclusions being fed unto you. Once we are able to produce individuals with such characteristics and an open mind then we will have succeeded as a nation. Growing up I used to change my ambitions every other day. I wanted to be a musician at one point, then a fashion designer, then a lawyer but with one goal I wanted to be successful. I, just like many today, success is attained immediately after completing school. To me success was a good job, money, houses and cars. Sadly, our youths dream is based on materialism rather than effectiveness. Students are being given these false assurances about the prospects of education once they enroll into schools and keep up their grades. We have a very wrong notion of this term success. Perceiving success as an attainment of wealth rather than an achievement of something desired or attempted. Neither the real and true meaning of success nor its fundamentals are being emphasized. Merton once said Be anything you like, be madmen, drunks, and bastards of every shape and form, but at all costs avoid one thing: success. Responsibility is to be shared between both the Government and parents, equally, when it comes to the personal development of our children. A parents responsibility is not only to remit fees but also be concerned and do a continuous check on what the child is receiving in exchange. Do not be satisfied with the high grades and positions at the end of the year. The Government has to ensure that the structures being put up actually have the resources to enable them to achieve their ultimate goal, which is quality education. When we observe artists, performers like Beyoncé and admire them, we underestimate what they have to endure to get to where they are. Apparent are the cars they drive, the mansions the live in and the private planes they own and we think, all she did was sing some perfect notes together with a cool choreography, viola, number one artist. She certainly didnt need school for that. Wrong! She needed school but did not depend on the books for her success. Her perseverance, creativity, discipline, confidence, ambition, passion, vision goals and very hard work got her there. Inventors like Henry Ford or Sylvan N Goldman did not just go to sleep and woke up with their state of the art inventions. They were curious, visionaries, critical and intensive thinkers with hunger for knowledge. Each individual is unique with interests, talents, skills, dreams, goals and learning abilities quite different from another. Providing for all these individuals at once with the use of a sole system which is not structured to cater for the needs of each, equally, has proven to be a failure. A school, without the confinements of a classroom, should be one of the sources of reliable information while teachers, instructors and educators train students on how to use that information effectively through various means. Value of an individual should not be based on the test scores as that only reveals the ability to memorize. Our country is full of intellectuals with so much knowledge yet so little skills, morals and values. The education of which they attained with sweat and investment isnt producing any fruits hence forced to channel all this anger, disappointment and frustration somewhere, resulting into social unrest, uprisings, unwarranted revolutions. With all that frustration mixed together with lack of discipline and fundamentals of success, on attaining higher posts and power these so called intellectuals will trade in their integrity for income, by acquiring wealth with less or no regard for others. Community imbalance will continue to thrive inevitably. This nation keeps loosing potential young men and women simply because many prefer going abroad in search of quality education. Majority of these scholars end up settling there due to the presence of ample opportunities matching their potential and value. Most investors coming into the country bring with them their own workforce simply because ours lack quality. Just like laws, education system has to change to concur with the current situation. As it has proven failure, our well known system need to be abandoned and replaced with new and yet effective educational practices which will expose students to challenges and solutions to those challenges at a very young age. Encourage self-education, projects, learning how to learn, group/team learning, develop various skills such as communication skills. As learning is a life-long process there is a need for a continuous education culture whereby learning new things should be a routine without depending on an educator. Skills are being replaced with ever changing technologies and it will be impractical going back to classrooms every now and then just to catch up. This is where hunger for knowledge, logic thinking and reasoning ability comes into place. Life is difficult, challenging. Whoever told you that life will be all simple and easy not only lied to you but dimmed that little ray of hope within your heart. You might be the most educated person, intellectually, and still struggle in life. Keep in mind that these terms difficult, simple, easy, challenging, are all subjective. All those certificates and titles you hold mean nothing in the contemporary world if you dont have discipline, values, character and morals. You will be surprised as to how much of all these are actually taught in schools. Chances are, not at all. MWINGA B Blog ya habari Tanzania | Online Newspaper | Thehabari.com info@thehabari.com CLASS DISMISSED | Blog ya habari Tanzania | Online Newspaper | Thehabari.com

Thread starter Wateule
Start date Sep 18, 2013

Wateule

JF-Expert Member

Sep 18, 2013

flyn ryder

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