BY MENGESHA AMARE
“It is you who have really made a mistake, Sir.” “In what way could I be erroneous, what wrong deed I did? Did I make a mistake? Would you please substantiate your idea citing convincing justification?” “You did give the exam to the class when Manchester and Chelsea made a football match.”
“The match was conducted on Thursday I remember starting from half past one to ten to two and we were in a certain play station to watch the game. “ “Shouldn’t I have provided the class with the test out of 20 keeping my academic schedule?” “Yes, of course. You shouldn’t. You deliberately did it to hurt us.”
What a coincidence it was! Should I have given priority to the football game setting my academic and pedagogical responsibility aside? “Yes, of course Sir, we always prefer watching football to following our education and attentively studying.”
The above conversation is made between a Chemistry teacher and two of his grade nine students. It is quite a real and solid occurrence the teacher encountered. It is a practical and incredible dialogue what a teacher I once met in a public service we have frequently been employing made with his stubborn students and told me while we were talking about quality of education.
The teacher, who was made accountable by his students, came up with a genuine response for their irregular quest, indeed. Students’ utterances forwarded to the teacher who asked them why they missed an exam out of twenty as he has finalized preparations to transfer the mark list to record office giving 45 and 48 out of hundred, they missed a twenty-mark exam.
Is it the teacher who told me this truthful incidence or other colleagues of mine or I myself, schools, education bureaus or the Ministry of Education or the community, or any other body, who are responsible for low level of academic performance of students at national level, a result recorded this year can be raised a case in point, for instance? What the national exam outcome garnered this year has told us something clear—a missing link—that has to be bridged soon.
As far as I am concerned, no one is to blame as we all have contributed to the weakness of students in their academic performance though the degree varies. It has been well proved that pointing fingers towards others has never borne fruits, but looking to oneself critically has been evidenced effective in bringing about change in all aspects, especially concerning the education sector. Needless to state, capitalizing on this sector is laying the country on an unwavering basis for building independent institutions and producing competent generation starts from it.
The low level of results secured by students in the previous national exam attracts a range of convincing reasons. To mention but a few, teachers are not that much responsible, with exceptions of course, and willing to exert utmost effort towards producing competent, ethical, civic-minded, and role models for the juniors to come.
Marks are secured not based on merit and proper performance evaluation. I am not saying this out of the blue as I have concrete evidences and I have known every detail of teachers and their behavior on academic journey. I, myself, am a teacher; there are still exceptions along this line too. There are also teachers who are intentionally cutting classes. This must also receive due attention.
Efforts have not yet been exerted to shape students’ ethical behavior. For example, the above example is more than enough to well comprehend at what level students these days are. Teachers must know that they are not growing a season-stop garlic, onion, tomato or vegetable. They are rather planting human beings, the basis of building a nation.
Families have to discharge their respective reasonability of nurturing children well and follow up their whereabouts as much as they can. The aforesaid two students principally focused on football game, not their education as a result of loose attention given on the sided of family and school community, no doubt.
Look! How unprincipled and fuzzy students have become! This aspect has thus to be cut short. If students are nurtured and helped grow in a scenario that enables them to have firm sense of belongingness to their country, patriotic spirit in clear terms, respect their family and one another, developing work-loving spirit, they can easily be confident and build the country.
True, the generation secured in such away would be confidently capable of taking over the country with its future. Yes, drawing important lessons from past weaknesses is quite important to bring about change in all aspects and build a great country. Since we all are responsible for generation faintness, the combined effort of all has to be the call of the day.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 6 JUNE 2023
