I sometimes struggle to create new blog posts. It often feels like I have already said things in previous posts, or that I really don’t have much to say right now. That’s how I am feeling right now…but strangely enough, it is often in these moments that some kind of inspiration mysteriously appears. Although this blog is going to be a little unusual, I do have a few things to discuss with you.
On social media, I have a presence mostly on Facebook, and on Twitter/X. I have a personal presence for my football stuff on both, and a separate account for Friends of Pakati also on both. I have a number of followers for FoP on Twitter/X and it is on this articular forum I have come across someone who is interested in what we do.
I DM’d him, & am now in contact following a post he made looking back at his own schooldays. I will talk a bit about him & quote from some of his posts on here. This is what he looked like in what is now Grade 2…
I will just use his Twitter/X name on mere for now, you can find him @KingJayZim and that picture above caught my eye, along with some of the accompanying text, for example:
“..Growing Up Coloured in Rhodesia: The Little Boy in the Photograph”
“…let’s step outside that classroom for a moment and look at the society that little boy was growing up in. Because I was growing up in a country where something as ordinary as choosing a primary school could depend on the colour of your skin. I was Coloured.
That was the term used for people of mixed race in Rhodesia and South Africa, and in the context in which I grew up, it was the accepted description of our community
We weren’t Black. We weren’t white. And being coloured came with its own peculiar place in the racial structure of Rhodesian society.
Our choices were limited.”
He goes on to describe getting to school by bus, about moving areas & schools because he was ‘coloured’, and to eulogise about his experiences at Ardbennie, a government school, and all the staff who worked there.
Some of the things he talked about reminded me of my own school journey, at Priory Lane Infants & Juniors in Ashby, Scunthorpe (see image below as the schools is now). Raising money for school projects, annual events like Harvest Festival, bringing food to the school for them to donate to worthy causes, tree planting, sports events including staff v students (particularly at secondary school), etc.
One thing where his experience differed from me was this:
“…it was my final year at the school…& so that little boy sitting behind the desk in that photograph eventually became Head Boy.”
However, my own version of this was much later, in that I got appointed to Acting Head of Pakati school after two years…
@KingJay goes on to talk about his Secondary school, and its shortcomings, such as not having proper lab facilities for science lessons. Maths & English were very strong, but…
“…History was another story altogether. As I grew older and became less brainwashed I began questioning some of what we had been taught….I remember learning more about the Afrikaaner Voortrekkers in South Africa than I felt we learned about the history immediately around us. I didn’t question it then.
Much later I began to realise that education isn’t only about what you are taught…it’s also about what you are not taught”
Pakati Secondary school, where I taught between 1989 & 1991 can be considered as a fairly typical rural African school, and as such suffered/suffers from a lack of resources compared to other schools. In Zimbabwe, the rural schools have very little funding apart from the fees paid by parents, whereas Government schools are better equipped as a rule. Then at the top are the extremely well funded Private schools, some of which are better than International schools.
The bottom line for me is I would like to see Pakati schools have the scales tilted more in their favour, by improved funding to support a better learning environment all round. Improvements for students, staff, administrators & the local community. For example:
- classroom environments – floors, walls, ceilings, doors, windows, desks, chairs, black or whiteboards, access to textbooks, writing materials, use of IT becoming commonplace ( as the curriculum actually demands), access to the internet, steady electrical supply for lighting & IT
- Staffroom & Admin block improved to a similar standard of the classrooms
- Teachers accommodation also improved to a similar standard – teacher retention has long been a problem for the more rural schools
- Teaching materials need improving & being brought up to date, along with relevant upskilling for staff particularly in the use of IT in all subjects
- Transport links are also an issue for teachers in rural schools
- Better local community links, through use of school facilities by families of students, such as IT classes for non-students.
- Facilities in other local community settings, such as the nearby business centres such as Chigwada and Jacobo townships.
All the above show the importance of getting a good, steady supply of electricity to the classrooms, through ZESA and with solar power as a good back-up supply.
To complete the ZESA connection is I am lead to believe likely to caos around US$1000 per school, so $2000 in total. At current exchange rates that means we need approximately £1600 in total.
Our current total in our bank account stands at £283.55, so we have a lot to raise in the coming weeks.
If you can help, or know someone who might be supportive of our work, please use either of the following methods of payment;
http://www.paypal.me/friendsofpalati and/or http://www.gofundme/Friends-of-pakati
Thank you!
