Zim history teacher makes history
KWEKWE High School history teacher Manners Musongelwa scored a first for the country when he was elected president of the Association of History Teachers and Lecturers in Africa (AHTLA) at its convention in Dodoma, Tanzania recently.
Musongelwa, who is also the History Teachers Association of Zimbabwe president, was unanimously elected to chair the African body following his presentation at the convention which ran from November 7 to 9 at Dodoma University.
His achievement re-asserts the fact that Zimbabwe is one of the leading nations in education in Africa.
In an interview, Musongelwa said the election came as a surprise to him.
“When I prepared my speech, I just thought it was a simple one, but I was shocked by the plaudits I got from colleagues after I read it,” he said. “They said my speech was the best and I was the best person to lead them and I was elected unopposed.”
Mr Musongelwa said his objective was to recognise the teaching of History in Africa.
“As you know, most of our African countries were colonised by western countries and much of the history syllabus in Africa is made up of European History,” he said.
“That should be a thing of the past, we need to learn more about our African history and history makers.”
Mr Musongelwa said there was need to integrate information communication technology into history teaching.
“The teaching of History across the continent should be uniform and we should make full use of the ICT aspect,” he said. “During our next conference in Addis Ababa in May next year, I will emphasize on the need to integrate ICT components that are always lying idle,” he said.
Mr Musongelwa, in partnership with Learning Factory Company, introduced the history teaching box, which replaced textbooks.
“We introduced the teaching box, which can easily replace textbooks and makes it easy for those in the rural areas who have no access to learning and teaching material to read and pass,” he said. “That is the technology we are talking about.”
TURF Primary School, about 70 kilometres off Masvingo-Beitbridge Road in Mwenezi West, is no ordinary school.
It gained infamy after recent media reports insinuated that for the past 17 years, it had been recording zero percent pass rates: and that is the first falsehood.
But, the picture on the ground is totally different.
There are six unsung heroes, the teachers and a para-professional, trying to bring hope to almost 400 children.
Turf, while a registered Grade 7 examination centre, falls in a bureaucratic no- man’s land since it has never been designated on land-use plans as a school.
That arose because it is in an A2 resettlement area, but instead of the lowdensity resettlement of the plan, the area was settled by large numbers of landless people at the turn of the millennium at a far higher density.
The authorities reckoned that while the legalities were sorted out, the community’s children should still be able to go to school.
Despite the absence of standard classrooms and furniture, basics that most schools take for granted, Turf teachers and children believe brighter days lie ahead.
Established in 2002 as a satellite school for Hariyevumba Primary about nine kilometres away in the wake of the influx of landless people into the Mountain View resettlement area in Mwenezi, Turf had its first enrolment in 2003.
Those pioneer pupils wrote their Grade 7 examinations in 2009, which dispels media reports that Turf has been recording zero percent pass rates for the last 17 years.
The Herald visited the school last Friday and instead of being confronted with despair and submission, there was burning flame of exuberance and tenacity exhibited by both the 376 children, five qualified teachers and one para-professional.
Teacher- In- Charge Mr Bernard Mahutse believes some of the negative publicity about his school has been unfair.
“It is not true that we had zero percent pass rate for 17 years because we only opened our doors in 2003 when we had our first enrolment of Grade One pupils,” he said. “If anything, since 2009, our average pass rate has been 15 percent despite the many challenges we face.”
Mr Mahutse said rather than looking at the negatives, there was need for society to focus on the flip side, especially the five unsung heroes who were working against all odds to educate the 376 children at the school.
“Our average pass rate in the Grade 7 examinations is 15 percent considering that there are a lot of challenges we face as an institution,” he said.
“We are now a Zimsec examination centre and it is fortune that Grade 7 exams are written in October before the onset of the rains,” he said.
With a teacher pupil ratio of 1:75, Turf has been soldiering on.
“We have a very high teacher-pupil ratio and some of our teachers are forced to take three or four classes every day because qualified teachers are always leaving the school, which affects our pass rate,” said Mr Mahutse.
“There should be eight teachers, but getting that full complement is almost impossible. We need houses for teachers so that their belongings can be secure if it rains. We have some furniture, but we need to have proper structures, otherwise the furniture and textbooks will be ruined by the rains.
“There is no administration block and all the structures are makeshift. The staff should be complemented for their resilience and commitment under such circumstances.”
Teachers at Turf share a nearby borehole with the community, but sometimes water is a problem, which affects their performance.
“We try to do our job, but the conditions are hard,” said one of the teachers who preferred anonymity, citing protocol.
“We hope the situation will improve once we are officially designated as a school, for now we are simply braving the challenges.”
Other challenges are that of transport and health facilities.
“We have to walk for 7km to Mountview turn-off to access transport and we have to leave the school at 4am,” said Mr Mahutse.
“The nearest clinic - Mwenezi Health Service centre is about 120km away,” said Mr Mahutse.
This has seen a high turnover of teachers at the school.
“Female teachers mostly don’t want to stay because of the difficult conditions obtaining here and currently we have one female teacher and we hope she will stay,” said Mr Mahutse.
He said the major problem with Turf was that the school was established at a place that had not been formally designated to house a school by Government.
The school even stocked building materials f rom well- wishers, but construction cannot start until the site for the school is properly demarcated.
“The major issue is pegging, our school has not yet been officially recognised by Government,” said Mr Mahutse. “Its location was not pegged by the relevant ministry ( of Lands and Rural Resettlement) so donors cannot support us in building the school even if they want to.”
Pupils sitting for final Grade 7 exams at Turf used to bring their own chairs and desks, but the situation has since changed after donors extended a hand.
While Mwenezi senior district education officials were unreachable, District Development Coordinator Ms Rosemary Chingwe lamented the situation at Turf.
The school, according to her was not yet officially designated as one, but Government had to establish a satellite institution to cater for the local community and had done so 17 years ago.
“The issue of Turf still has to be deliberated on because the area ( Turf ) was designated as a model A2 resettlement area, but landless people settled there and the population grew,” she said.
She said final determination of the area’s land use pattern will decide the future of the school.
However, for the five teachers at Turf, there is light at the end of the tunnel, they are determined to raise the bar despite all odds.