SCHOOL CATCH UP - Cholera disturbance

I WAS bombarded with questions from concerned parents and learners on how to recover the lost learning time after the cholera disturbance. In reality, time, once lost can never be recovered at all.

It is unfortunate that innocent souls lost a lot of time to cholera simply because of this and that, an occurrence which could have been avoided. Anyway I have been told several times by my mentor not to cry over spilled milk. There is a lot that can be done to catch up on your lost learning time.

Here are a few of the many catch up activities for secondary school kids.

1. TIDY UP

Most pupils may not agree with me on the point I am about to raise. The first thing to do on your catch up programme is to tidy up. Tidying up will include cleaning up and organising your learning materials in a neat and easy to reach manner. Tidying up includes removing unnecessary materials which are irrelevant for school. Tidying up also includes getting rid of all destructive materials so that your school activities go undisturbed.

I know you want to ask a question like where should we do the tidying up? Ok the answer is simple: first you tidy up your physical surrounding and that includes your desk, classroom, flowerbeds, locker room etc.

If you are a day scholar, tidy up your bedroom, study table, kitchen, sitting room, dining room, outside and everything/ everywhere you can think of. When all this is done with your whole heart, mind and soul, Cholera will never ever step its foot in Zambia!

The second thing that you should tidy up is your mind. Yes, your mind. I know that the younger pupils will ask whether to use Ajax, Jik or Dettol to sanitise the mind as they tidy up. Actually, the tidying up of the mind is a mental and psychological exercise. Remove all negative thoughts that are clinging to your memory. Remove all thoughts of hatred that will surface.

Delete all hurtful events and forget or even forgive the people who made you cry. You cannot learn anything in class if your mind is full of irrelevant hurtful poisonous thoughts. Delete them so that you can create room for positivity.

These suggestions may seem impossible at a glance but it is a process and as days go by you will feel fresh enough to learn and study. A faster way to remove negative things from your mind is by displacement. Replace each negative thing by thinking of its corresponding positive.

For instance, if Aunt Edna pinched your ear at one time and you got upset, longing for revenge, think of the good things that she has done for you. May be she pinched you to correct something and you are now a better person.

When your physical surrounding is tidy and your mind is also tidied up, you are very ready for the catch up programme.

2. GROUP UP

After tidying up your mind and physical environment you are ready for academic exercises. Make study groups of not more than 5. Ask your teacher to help you with the composition of your study group. The teacher should also help you to choose a group leader who will keep the study group going. Teacher knows who to choose.

Avoid grouping up only with your close friends because they may fail to see your faults and they go uncorrected due to loyalty.

Once the study group is formed with the approval of your teacher start group discussions on topics which you have already learnt and also do some research on the next topic to be learnt. That way your teacher will go faster than usual to catch up on the lost learning time due to the cholera outbreak.

There are a lot of benefits of working in a group. You are free to consult your peers at close range. Your friends patch up the missing knowledge in your learning process and it works more like looking for a missing piece of a jig-saw puzzle which is quickly supplied by a group member until the whole puzzle is complete. Group work is fun and when you are having fun you learn more and your brain retains the concepts for a longer time.

3. ASK FOR EXTRA

Bear in mind that you lost some learning time because of the Cholera outbreak so learn to ask for more work from your teachers. I know that the teacher on his own will give you extra work but since he has a lot of pupils to take care of, you are allowed to take the lead and ask him for more work.

More work can be in form of exercises, home work, projects or anything helpful you can think of. Pamphlets, past papers and textbooks are all very helpful when doing a catch up. Remember that whatever you use for your catch up should be approved by your teachers because there are a lot of materials on the market written by untrained or fake teachers.

4. GET TESTED

It is a good idea to accept or demand for regular tests especially on challenging topics. Tests enhance your preparedness for exams and also for your passing on to the next grade.

Learn to love tests because they check where you stand and they indicate where you need to put more effort.

Tests are like a laboratory test of your blood to see what is wrong with your body in order to help correct diagnosis and hence guide on the appropriate treatment needed. Love your tests and cherish the results.

Once you get your results, do not hide them from your friends but go back to your groups and look at the mistakes you made so that together you can find solutions.

When you fail to find the right answers go back to your teacher and do not leave any question unanswered. You may get a past paper and test yourself bearing in mind the allocated time and instruction.

Give your answers to your teacher for marking and take note of the wrong answers for group work.

5. LEARN MORE

If it is possible ask for more learning time from your teachers. Extra hours of learning may just bring you to the level where you were supposed to be. Too much learning is as bad as too little learning but your teachers know how much extra is good for you.

A little more learning a day will do you a lot of good and in the accumulative sense you will have caught up with the laid down scheme of work.

I know that in certain government schools, one classroom is shared by different grades making it impossible to use for extra learning. It is also possible that the teacher that you need for extra learning is needed in another class after teaching your regular hours. Do not despair but find another way. Where there is a will there is a way.

Doing a little more work is beneficial even in adulthood because it makes you be ahead of things and takes care of laziness. When you do a little more work you tend to appreciate what you are doing and in no time you find that you start enjoying whatever subject it is you are studying. This is true in academic circles. I’m not sure about other spheres.

6. READ MORE

In order for you to reap the benefits of whatever catch up programme your teacher has set up, develop the culture of reading. Of course you must read things that are related to what you are learning but you can also read other beneficial articles from newspapers and story books.

When you read for fun you sharpen your mind and you open up your learning horizon. A culture of reading also helps you to learn a lot of new words which when encountered in your exams will look familiar.

If you often experience discomfort in your eyes when reading, tell your teacher or parents to help you arrange for a check up with the optician.

Most children who have eye problems are not aware that they can relieve their problems easily so they shun reading to avoid the discomfort.

One would think that reading was banned in Zambia because most of our children only read when they are at school and just text each other and watch TV when they are at home.

Even this catch up article which I have written will only be read by about 1percent of pupils and the rest of the readers are parents.

WAY FORWARD

The way forward for those pupils whose school opening was affected by cholera is not to focus on the negative fact that they are lagging behind but that they can easily catch up and perform just as well as the others.

Pupils who are in those schools which were not affected by cholera should not just relax and take things for granted but should be alert and work hard as well.