It was during school re-opening at the beginning of the year when something unexpected happened to our school. My school is based in an economically disadvantaged community where the levels of unemployment, poverty and illiteracy are high.
Because of their situations very few parents here take an interest in their children’s education. Some, if not the majority of learners, are orphans while others head their own families.
Under these circumstances our task of delivering quality education becomes very difficult. Most of the time we get distracted and have to play various roles, such as social workers, councillors and legal advisers.
As is common practice, when schools re-open we tidy up the classrooms and the entire school yard. Normally we solicit help from parents so that we can start teaching on the first day.
But as indicated above, only a small number of parents take school matters ÂÂseriously. The high rate of joblessness means parents cannot afford to pay school fees or make any financial contribution to hire cleaners. So we have no choice but to get our learners to do the onerous task.
But unlike other schools mostly in the urban areas, which are made of brick and mortar, ours are makeshift structures built with clay. And when learners sweep the floors a huge cloud of dust engulfs the entire area.
While others apply polish on the floors, the practice here is to smear the floors with fresh or wet cow dung, which can smell rather bad. Getting learners to carry out this kind of assignment can be a bit demanding. In fact some of them choose to stay away on the first day of school so that they can avoid this.
So on that day we succeeded in persuading a few learners who pitched up to clean. And reluctantly they got on with their thankless job. The dust was so overpowering that we had to wait for it to subside before we could go into the classes.
But just at that moment departmental officials, who made an unannounced visit to the school, arrived. They were deployed to monitor the situation at various schools in our region.
Unexpectedly the head of the delegation barked instructions at the learners and ordered them to stop sweeping. Learners were instructed to go into the classrooms with dust still bellowing out. We stood there shocked and dumbfounded. How can a senior official behave in this fashion, we asked ourselves silently and with indignation.
The principal was called into the office with the whole school management team. We were asked a lot of questions, interrogated, lectured and reprimanded. The principal had to explain the cleaning. Curiously and bizarrely, the principal was also asked to draw a span of oxen and yokes. What that had to do with the issue at hand is something we cannot explain.
We were then dismissed and sent to our dust-laden classrooms. Learners were confused and teachers were equally helpless. The situation was tense. This left the impression with the learners that by cleaning their ÂÂclassrooms they had committed a serious offence.
It was such a bad day for both learners and the teachers. If anything, we never expected this from the so-called senior education officials. Instead of sympathising with our situation and trying to see how they could intervene to ease our predicament, they messed up our day. For me this was one of those experiences that will stand out in my teaching career.
Francina Nomasika is a teacher at Ntshiqo Secondary School in Tsolo and also a member of a school governing body at Excelsior Secondary at Mthata in the Eastern Cape.