2006-02-06Staff Report 2 Anna Ingwafa Last Friday when I opened a newspaper to check the IGCSE results, I had a wish - that the best overall stu-dent would be from my previous school, which is definitely a government school, just to give me a bit of pride. Normally when I check the results in the newspaper, I quickly take a glance at my old secondary school just to have an eye-catch on how many learners managed to obtain 'C' symbols in English and as the norm, I was paging through in search of St Paul's College. I was disappointed when I calculated the number of 'C's and I consoled myself by saying I would get over it but trust me I did not. I was trying to think what are the endemic problems in government schools over private ones? There are persistent flaws and inherent weaknesses, more especially in Government schools. Maybe we should pay attention to teaching consistency in these schools. Why are private schools doing fine? I do not have a problem with our education system, because private schools get tremendous results from it. From my own experience, most of the learners tend to get better teachers when they enter secondary schools. And that makes life difficult. How does one expect these learners to perform well if the medium of instruction at high school is different from that of primary school? Teachers who are trained at universities opt to go to either private schools or secondary schools because that is where greener pastures are in terms of good working conditions and better salaries. They do not want to go to rural areas simply because there is no accommodation, and if there is accommodation, water and electricity is another problem. The teachers who are in rural areas are mostly victims of the old education system and they need new blood to mix with and learn one thing or two for a change. What the Ministry of education is doing in terms of building houses for teachers is a good initiative; speeding the process will attract qualified teachers to go work in rural areas. Not that alone, we should also check our teaching curriculum at our teacher training colleges and Faculty of Education at Unam so that after they complete their studies they will deliver. Let us make our education stronger for the sake of our nation and attain our goals for Vision 2030. Till next time, Adios. Eewa! 2006-02-06Staff Report 2
