The ManicaPost
Morris Mtisi Post Correspondent
Speaking to more than 500 Anglican school teachers at their convention held at St Augustine’s, Friday last week, former iconic St Faith’s school head, Moses Nelson Mukoyi, said the Ministry of Education remembered to write him to remind him and confirm his retirement in February this year, but forgot to thank him.
“At least a thank you in writing would have made me happy,” he said. “The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education owes me that letter. I want a letter to say thank you . . . you fought a good fight. It is important. I want to show my grandchildren that letter. It is more important than gifts and money,” said the visibly agitated retiree.
Moses Mukoyi served the nation as a classroom practitioner and school administrator in various capacities or portfolios. He talks about a long, lovely and unique educational journey spanning 41 years . . . 13 at St Augustine’s-Tsambe and 28 at St Faith’s (Madetere) — the school the whole world knows threw fifteen points at A-level students like confetti; a school at which he saw young people come and go year-in and year-out shifting sands to pursue diverse careers in various walks of life.
Moses Mukoyi left St Faith’s a school that is a popular destination of choice for many a parent and child . . . a school that transformed into a powerhouse of academic excellence in his charge. He served as NASH Secretary General for more than seven years and lurked in the corridors of Education, especially Examinations, as special advisor in various capacities. Certainly he deserved a special thank you letter from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
Astronauts, physicists, programmers, musicians, technologists, doctors, engineers, lawyers and all other professionals that make the world go round have one thing in common-a good teacher who gave light to their dreams. Moses Mukoyi was one such teacher and educationist.
When he lamented, and rightly so, at the ungratefulness of the ministry he served faithfully and competently for 41 years of his life and left with a sense of fulfilment, I had one question to ask myself: “How many such education icons received such a letter anyway?” Perhaps none! I certainly received none when I quit the teaching profession except a written, rather angry threat intended to be an advice, that I would not receive my pension and retirement benefits. My crime was having resigned and not retired.
I seriously hope if someone at the helm of the Ministry of Education today reads this story or hears about Mukoyi’s sentiments about an imaginary thank you letter that he is still expecting to this day, he or she will politely advise Education to do whatever must be done to write him this letter which on his mind remains unfinished business. It does not have to be long. One paragraph of four, five to six lines depending on the fluidity or lucidity of the writer’s language, would suffice I am sure for Moses Mukoyi.
It would not be a lot of work writing these public relations letters to members of the teaching fraternity who are quitting or resigning. It would not be cumbersome etiquette too I am sure. It is the Ministry of Education that talks about Ubunthu / Hunhu. I am sure the erstwhile Ministry would not mind in the spirit of ‘charity begins at home’ to begin to think of this kind of Ubunthu in the new dispensation . . . an era of changing approaches, attitudes, thoughts and mind-sets.
At the same teachers’ convention running under the theme BETTER TOGETHER, Mr Mukoyi also warned the Anglican teachers present to stop the cry-baby attitude to responsible authorities and even government for salary hikes that they know will not come.
“If you waste time mourning and complaining and hoping the Diocese will give you money, you will be disappointed. You will go down with stress and hypertensive depression. The Diocese will not give you that money. They don’t have the money. Simple. The same with Government . . . it too, like the Diocese, simply doesn’t have the money. So what money are you talking about and angry about? Pray with all your heart to God your Maker and Creator . . . He has everything you want . . . and will give you. I am awesomely surprised by the love and mercy of God who has given me opportunities and money no one would have given me,” said the veteran educationist.
“Be innovative. Be industrious. Work with your hands. God strategically planned for you much bigger business to do, than teach. Ask Him. He will reveal to you what else you can and must do to make money to look after yourself and your family.”
Come to think of what Mukoyi was saying! Wisdom and inspiration put together! God knew us (whoever we may be) and knew a time shall come when no one would give us the money we wanted in our pockets and banks to make ends meet. He knew. And he knows. He is the God of wealth. He does not enjoy seeing His people crying, hungry, angry and poor.
May be people make the mistake of barking wrong trees as they pursue survival strategies! They do not ask God. Yet He is the best consultant around our fears, challenges and problems. Instead they ask people and blame people . . . instead of consulting Him. Going back to the basics . . . where we came from! In honest prayer and genuine humility, God will download for us wisdom to fend for ourselves and reveal to us wisdom to unlock the potential He put in every one of us to make money even where everybody else does not see it.
May be indeed it is time to change mind-set, especially for teachers, and accept that the solution to keeping above economic woes is in each teacher’s own hands . . . not Responsible Authorities or Government which are themselves struggling to keep economically afloat. They too need to genuinely look up to God . . . perhaps.
May be indeed instead of weeping every day about inadequate salaries and resorting to drawing daggers and being angry and confrontational, the quickest way to survival is for each individual, teachers included, to adopt entrepreneurial intelligence. It is essentially what the last concepts to be added to Education3.0 are all about, namely Innovativeness and Industriousness.
Teachers must organise themselves, put money together if needs be, if it is not enough . . . approach banks for soft loans, and buy items for sale even in the schools they teach. How many outside individuals, cooperatives and companies provide food items, books, furniture and other services in the schools . . . and teachers see them go back all the way to their banks smiling? Is it not better for teachers to spend time and energy bargaining for business opportunities of this nature than to be angry and confrontational?
Where the laws do not allow, negotiate an open-for-business avenue even in the schools you teach. Negotiate with Responsible Authorities and Government to allow you to use the land on their vast expanses of farmland to do your projects . . . organised gardening, backyard butcheries, movable shops (stalls), uniform sewing . . . the list is long.
Teachers have better things to do than cry, complain and fight. Against whom do they fight? Who owes them a life or livelihood, except themselves? Are they not their own liberators . . . a mind-set and philosophy that galvanised Chimurenga . . . the War of Liberation into action and victory?
How can teachers inculcate the spirit of innovativeness and industriousness in pupils, in students, as Education 5.0 encourages, if they are not innovative and industrious . . . if they are not a role model . . . if they cannot do what they preach?
