The ManicaPost
Morris Mtisi
THE fact that Literature is failed rather disappointingly in schools, in the context of the pass-rate index annually, has nothing to do with how difficult this subject is.
It has everything to do with many teachers and students who are sailing in strange waters not intelligently aware where they are coming from, where they are going and where they want to arrive. One needs to be very brave to say this.
Teachers are trained to, perhaps just used to, correcting students’ errors as they mark their written work or orally interact. When the same happens to them, most of them go ballistic. They use their privilege to be masters and mistresses of their classes to sermonise their students almost every day on how good they are, how much they know and how everybody else, including the subject inspector is not half as good and knowledgeable as they are.
Yet, the truth on the ground is that many teachers of English Language, particularly Literature in English are struggling and need help. The number of workshops teachers are forced to attend is adequate testimony of this acute need.
Consider the intellectual mayhem exhibited on one of the App Literature chat groups which I painstakingly follow every day. Most of the inexhaustible questions they ask each other, and often the answers given, are shocking to say the very least. Most of the teachers are asking each other questions that students must ask them, and sometimes one wonders whether we are still in the same Zimbabwe renowned for the best education in Africa and globally acknowledged. When they are tired of asking tired questions, if academically cheap is too strong, they tease and annoy each other with tribal or dirty jokes.
No one must resolve to expose or blame the teachers. They are victims of circumstances and working under a lot of pressure. They need help. They need support and motivation to relentlessly wage the war against ignorance and mediocrity. It is an everyday Chimurenga that demands academic discipline and willingness to continue to learn, especially during this phase of implementation of a new curriculum and new syllabi.
The old, perhaps traditional attitude of a know-it-all teacher who suffers from an apprehension reflex has no place in 21st century education.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1.Nothing can be more useful than changing attitudes and adopting a calm civilized willingness to learn from those who know more and have more teaching competence and experience. There are quite many of them doing a splendid job in their schools. I can refer you to some of the best teachers we have in the sector.
2.Re-organise and plan so-called literature seminars where teachers and students who are tied to old teaching traditions recycle seminars without anything new or enlightening in them.
3.Think of the following questions :(a) “Do examinations test students’ comprehension and abilities to make sense and meaning out of literature or the teachers’ interpretations and personal viewpoints? (b) Do markers mark what they want to be told or read or the candidates’ thoughts, ideas, evaluations and conclusions? (c) Is the worst problem not around groups of teachers and markers (examiners) who tell students how to respond; how to reproduce their own thoughts and ideas labelling the students’ own free ideas and responses as inappropriate and wrong? (d) Are the markers, teachers and examiners not failing students whom they are failing to teach to pass? (e) Are teaching-markers not caught up between teaching what they want to see in an answer and not teaching the student how to think analytically or perceive issues coming out of a piece? Do they (teachers and markers) not have preconceived answers and interpretations which if not adhered to and reproduced, the student pays heavily for? (e) Is that what Literature should do? Is that how it should be examined?
This is an open and direct challenge I am throwing at the education Establishment. Why do Literature students continue to perform badly in their exams? Why must the faults of a system with teachers who can’t teach their own materials negatively affect the examination results of ‘innocent’ students? Education has become a very expensive commodity. A clumsy examination marked by markers with clumsy benchmarks does not give an investor in education his or her money’s worth, does it? If I had my way I would, I have always said, push for a commission of inquiry on Literature teaching, learning, setting of examinations and marking.
Why are people silent? Why are the parents and students silent in the eyes of a blatantly clear situation of a subject pass rate where certainly something is wrong? Is it not their right to speak out and demand answers where there are none? Shuwa mafoirirei echidzidzo akadai muchidzidzo chedu chakarongwa munyika yedu chichinyorwa munyika yedu nevana vedu avo vanopasa zvimwe zvidzidzo shudhu? What the hell is wrong? We ask because certainly something somewhere somehow is wrong…very wrong. What is it? FOOD FOR THOUGHT!
Next week don’t miss some more questions that look for answers.
Meanwhile those who have answers or contributions to make-let us ‘talk’!
My email address is [email protected]. You can call me on 0773 883 293 or App me on the same number. If you want Radio, be my guest. The programme is Head-To- Head With MM. The station is DiamondFM. We can pre-record an engagement or go head-to-head live! I want to hear your views too. I could be completely wrong and completely lost after all.
