THE PERFECT SCHOOL
I WILL attempt to describe a certain secondary school through what happens on a daily basis but I will not mention its name for ethical reasons. One wonders, what is it that this school administrator ate that other school administrators did not eat? I am using the word eat in a loose manner to mean doing things properly. THE SURROUNDING
As you drive deep into the bush you notice that there seems to be no sign of civilisation for a number of kilometres and suddenly your eyes pop out as you perceive breath-taking scenes with a large poster indicating the name of the secondary school.
You start wondering how on earth they discovered this part of the country and how the beautiful building materials were transported to this awesome remote place. You see a 100 percent natural but well looked after stretch as you enter the school yard. As you go on, you find yourself surrounded by beautiful well blossomed flowers in neat flower beds with butterflies hovering over them.
Later on you find well trimmed hedges and neat footpaths which lead you to the school administration block. You cannot ignore a soothing water fountain just in front of the administration block.
At a distance is a tiny fish pond and you can immediately tell that it is more for decorative purposes as opposed to commercial purposes because of the presence of multicoloured gold-like fish. As you approach the Principal’s Office, you notice two large flower pots which contain healthy nice looking creepers.
THE ADMINISTRATION BLOCK
Finally, a school without a torn flag on display exists. The Principal’s office is neat, clean and spacious with modern furniture and curtains which have a colour and texture which are appropriate for a room of authority. The office is accessed through a secretary’s room housed by a cheerful welcoming person. Sadly, we all know that this is not the case everywhere no matter how much you train people.
THE CLASSROOMS
There is a silent rule in the classrooms: “Thou shall not touch the wall.” You have to believe me that the walls are as clean as can be. They have not been repainted for a long time but they look good.
Touching the wall is an offence whether your hands are clean or not. There is a very clean small waste bin in each classroom which is meant for non-food waste. Food is not allowed in the classroom and if any morsel of food is traced in that bin, the whole class would be severely punished. It follows that chewing is not allowed in the classroom whether one is chewing gum or air or any other thing.
You may be wondering what happens at break time. All the pupils go to the dining room for a snack except day scholars who sit on benches which are surrounded by healthy green grass and flowers. At knocking off time pupils know on their own that they cannot leave a dirty class room. There are brooms, mops and a dust pan in a cupboard at the back of each classroom and whether the teacher is there to supervise or not, cleaning is done, and I mean thorough cleaning. Just what is the difference between these pupils and THOSE pupils?
DORMITORIES
The school has a very very strict policy of not allowing visitors in the dormitories so I was told that under no circumstance would I be allowed to go in. As I continuously praised the matron for keeping the surroundings clean and tidy, I was finally allowed to go inside one and only one dormitory. You understand that the positive energy that I poured out onto the matron earned me permission to view at least one dormitory.
I found the pupils getting ready for inspection. The inspection that they were talking about involved the display of the following items:
• A clean and well folded school uniform -skirt, blouse and socks
• A clean and well folded sports attire
• Cleaned and polished school shoes
• A well made bed with clean linen in a hospital corner style
•Clean and well folded clothes in the locker (opened).
Marks were given to the neatest and cleanest dormitories and at the end of each term they got an award. Girls who consistently got low marks during inspection were taken for counselling and if that did not work, their parents were informed. How embarrassing! No wonder all the girls were neat every time.
THE SCIENCE LABS
I was allowed to go in one of the science labs and was impressed to see how spacious it was. I was shown the neatly packed reagent carriers and other apparatus. We often come across people who have confessed that the first time they saw a science laboratory was when they went to university. If a school has no science labs then it is not a secondary school but it was just upgraded by lip service which is very unfair to its pupils.
THE DINING ROOM
The dining room has a silent rule: “Thou shall eat all the food on your plate.” This is a very strict rule and all the pupils obey it. They are taught not to waste any food because there are a lot of people in this world who are suffering and have nothing to eat at all. They would willingly switch places with any spoilt pupil who wants to throw away healthy food in preference for some junk.
Pupils who waste food invite a punishment for everybody. This works well because everyone is told to be on the lookout for those who want to throw away food and they stop them for fear of mass punishment.
THE CHAPEL
The chapel felt strangely holy. Upon entering it you felt like someone had sprinkled cool water on your whole body. Seriously, if one had grave sins they would be forced to repent just by looking at the beautiful roses placed near pictures of Jesus and Mother Mary. Now you can guess the type of schools that I am writing about. The floor and the benches in the chapel were spotlessly clean and the widows looked like they had no glass on them due to cleanliness.
I was told that pupils have to come to this chapel for prayers soon after their morning prep. No wonder there are high levels of discipline with a 100 percent pass rate .... God really prevails on each school day’s routine. Start your day with a prayer!
THE SCHOOL FARM
You should have seen how the children of ba “some of us” (the affluent) were holding the hoes at the school farm. I had a good laugh because they made my day. One child was holding the hoe upside down and screaming. “Teacher, I don’t wanna do this .... we don’t do hoes at home...” This was followed by a light Booo from her friends.
The pupils grow their own maize and they are taught how to do it from planting to harvesting. This is the maize that they take to the grinding meal to manufacture the school mealie meal. What a saving! They also have an orchard and they are also taught how to take care of fruit trees. No one is allowed to eat any fruits alone unless with the others at meal times in the dining hall.
I was further shown some healthy vegetables which were kind of part of the lessons for the pupils. These included healthy looking cabbages, dark green rape and pumpkin leaves. They also had okra and beans.
As I walked further down I saw some red as well as white onions which were almost ready for harvest. Some tomatoes had just been planted while others were already flowering. I started wondering whether the school spent any money at all to buy any relish for the pupils because they seemed to have everything. How wise!
When I was taken to the poultry section I was amazed to see that they had healthy broilers which were being dressed by pupils themselves not for sale but for consumption. The pupils dressed the chickens with so much skill and speed that it was amazing to watch them. I saw some layers so I concluded that the school does not need to buy any eggs at all for the pupils. Come to think of it, some schools do not even have a single bed of vegetables growing in the school yard.
Further down was the fish ponds where healthy breams were taken care of both for consumption by pupils and for sale to the local community. What can I say? I just visited a perfect school. How I wish all schools were like that. What I mean is that the pupils do not only learn what is prescribed in the textbook by syllabus but they learn how to do maize farming, dress chickens etc.
CONCLUSION
I have to stop writing due to issues of space but I still had the school hall and the computer lab to describe. How I wish every school could be like this one that I visited.
There is holistic teaching of mind, body and soul. Children learn to be self reliant, hard working, humble but reasonable. They grow up using their common sense very well.