Instil positive self-talk in children
Reinhold Mutighoma has urged parents and teachers to instil in their children positive self-talk about their abilities to succeed academically. According to him, this is the only way for youngsters to feel good about their education and talents.
Mutighoma is a government employee in the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture. He is the head of the mathematics and science department of Nzinze Combined School.
Besides that, Mutighoma is also a tutor-marker at the Namibian College of Open Learning (Namcol), where he is responsible for the Child Development and Learning module, tutoring students, conducting orientation and exam preparation workshops, as well as marking assignments and examination papers.
As a head of department, Mutighoma's diurnal role is that of ensuring effective teaching and learning take place at school by rallying collective efforts from all subordinates, starting from the non-teaching staff, whose mammoth contribution should not go unnoticed, as they are
part of the school as an organisation.
He is also involved in planning and preparing for every lesson.
Born and raised in a small village, called Simanya, situated between Nkurenkuru town and Mpungu village, Mutighoma joined the public service because he wanted to give back to the government.
“I joined the civil service at the behest and caprice of my passion to give back to the government for every opportunity granted to me throughout my schooling.
“I could not think of a better way to give back to the government than to contribute to efficient service delivery and taking ownership of all programmes that would contribute to a better depiction of services provided by civil servants,” he said.
According to Mutighoma, working for the government is one of the privileges relished by many civil servants but seldom appreciated. He said working for the government expands personal growth and one gets a plethora of chances to participate in continuous professional development programmes.
“Working for the government has imparted me to be disciplined while at work, which is the panacea against self-destruction, respect for humankind and properties that belong to the state and always doing the right thing even in the absence of supervision,” Mutighoma said.
However, he said, teaching comes with a lot of challenges. For Reinhold, dealing with learners from different social backgrounds and unique home situations has taught them to always come to school with a full arsenal and expect the day to go south.
“We are faced with the challenge of making sure that regardless of everything that they went through last night or the previous day, we should see to it that they excel in all the subjects, conduct themselves in the most dignified manner and not see their challenges as obstacles.
“The 40 minutes allocated to a period does not go by without finding ourselves in the voices of school counsellors, magistrates or law enforcement officers. It is for that reason that teaching is regarded as a calling; it's not for the faint-hearted,” he said.
Mutighoma, however, said, the uniqueness of teaching as a profession is that one has two products, either results or regret, to send children into the streets, which should never be considered, or send them into government and private offices.
“The feeling of walking into an office and you are attended to or served by one of your former learners is one of the most satisfying feelings that keeps us afloat. As for the senior teachers, they get so fortunate to share a work environment with some of their former learners who have now completed tertiary education and come back to share the same stage with their former teachers as a way of appreciating them for being role models,” he said.
Other than that, Mutighoma is satisfied with the reverence that teachers receive, especially from parents in the rural schools who give them the vehemence to do their work even in the conundrum of criticism and sporadic attacks from our ministerial officials.
About his achievements as a public school teacher, Mutighoma said he is proud to have contributed incalculably to human capital development, as some of his first learners have now made it to university and in the job market.
“As part of my achievements, I'm content to say at every school that I have taught, my team and I have always taken learners on excursions to meet this requirement of the curriculum,” he said.
Public misconception about civil servant
On those sentiments, Reinhold maintains that there are facts that support a debate of incompetency and inefficiency of civil servants if employees submit their applications for whatever services they require at the human resource department but it is not attended to within a reasonable time frame – that can constitute incompetency and inefficiency.
He further said a similar scenario can be the proclivities of teachers administering assessment activities that pile up in the learners' books unmarked and learners do not get feedback on their performance until when continuous assessment marks are needed.
He said it demeans the nature and purpose of formative assessment, and such civil servants can be regarded as unproductive and inefficient.
“I only agree with the sentiments in question if they are alleged based on facts and with specific references to the perpetrators of such acts of ignominy,” Mutighoma said.