What to say — a continuation

WE start this week’s article by giving the last two suggested language points to use to be a success story, a discussion held last week. Remember the exercise was on remaining positive even when faced with adversity. For example, you are encouraged to say “I’ll find out.” Do not say “I don’t know.” Before even going further such kind of answer annoys the teacher as it shows that the concerned learner does not want to learn.

Learning is made up of trials, one time you fall and the other time you rise. Do not give up easily. When you do not know answers to something instead of saying “I don’t know,” try saying, “I’ll find out”. If you adopt this “I’ll find out” mindset, you will enlarge the horizons of your knowledge. But if you say “I don’t know” you will close the door to expanding your mind.

Say, “This is a challenging opportunity.” Do not say, “This is a problem.” In your life as a learner you will face problems that seem insurmountable. Something goes wrong at the last minute, what will you do? Instead of seeing the situation as a problem, look at it as a challenging opportunity. For the benefit of avid followers of this column who might have missed the first part of the phrases successful learners use I present a summary of them here:

Research shows what you should say and what you should not say. Say I get to, do not say I have to. Say I will figure out and do not say I cannot do it. Do not say I made a mistake but say I learned something. Say I am working on this, not I am bad at this. Say this will take some time in contrast to saying I am not smart enough. Do say, “I don’t” but do not say “I can’t”. Say I will but do not say “I should.” You can ask, how can I keep improving? But do not say, “I’m already good at this.”

As shown earlier on, say “I’ll find out” not “I don’t know”. Say this is a challenging opportunity. Do not say this is a problem. I believe this helps our enthusiastic followers of this column and thank them for their valued support and appreciation without their contribution the spirit to go on would perhaps have fade by now. Turning to general topics affecting the public and education of their children, Form One emap enrolment has not been understood by many users.

There are thousands of learners who have not been enrolled for Form One with parents and guardians running around looking for places at schools of their preferred choices. Reality on the ground shows that most schools have fully enrolled learners and do not have the capacity to take in more. The number of borders which can be absorbed into boarding schools is very small, 24 000 compared to over 100 000 learners who sat for their Grade Seven examinations.

The Government through the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has made it clear to anyone who has cared to listen to the situation currently obtaining. Given such a scenario it is obvious that boarding schools cannot absorb every learner from every corner of Zimbabwe. Parents and guardians feel this new method of enrolling Form Ones is unfair to them as it denies them the chance to have their children at their preferred schools.

They quickly decline schools which could have accepted their children and when it comes to reversing the choices they face problems. The system continuously says pending for ever. The question then is, is it lack of knowledge on the use of the technology concerned or the system is inefficient? People need explanations for them to have trust in the system because as it is learners are crying out there blaming parents and guardians for not getting them places at preferred schools as if out of their liking.

Some parents and guardians do not take kindly to be told that all places have been filled at the schools of their preferred choices as they remain adamant that their children want to attend those schools and they refuse to budge. One wonders what they expect to be done.

The Government is of the view that all schools are the same as far as offering basic education is concerned but people do not buy that idea. People’s decisions are influenced by results coming out of different schools hence they scramble to enrol their children at the few schools they feel are of repute. Gone are the days when all schools were regarded the same whether in urban or out in the remote areas. Of course, nowadays schools have vast differences in terms of infrastructure and resources.

However, at the end of the day such discrepancies do not count much as many schools, even in the remotest areas have produced learners who have excelled in life. Some business executives, if their backgrounds were to be traced, would reveal wonders as they did all their education out in the rural areas and came into town to look for employment. As far as I am concerned, I share the view that a school is a school whether in the city or out in the bush.

The attitude and discipline of learners counts more. Universities are teeming with students from many schools not from the few which are considered elite or high fliers. So, parents and guardians when looking for school places refrain from being elitist and work on the attitude of your children. Good behaviour practices taught at home help the child even more at school. You cannot expect your child to do wonders at school when that has not been exhibited at home.

I know I have touched a hornet’s nest and need to take cover, but more still has to be discussed on this emap enrolment of learners into Form One.

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