“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and earth had passed and there was no longer any sea and I John I saw the Holy city, a new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Looking at the unprecedented turn of events, one cannot resist the temptation of thinking that the long awaited prophesy has been fulfilled. Now the air feels good, quite refreshing and reassuring.
It is clearly evident that a tide of new hope is rising and sweeping across the length and breadth of our beloved republic. This fresh aroma is indeed an energiser of the soul and mind challenging all and sundry to get back into an action mode to relive shattered and deferred dreams. No stone should be left unturned. All people, buoyed by a rejuvenated spirit of patriotism, should raise their hands and be counted as an integral part of the process of national renewal and rebirth. Coming closer home to the issue of education, one notes with a sense of pride and gratification the recently announced change of nomenclature for the Ministry of Education. The incorporation of the welfare of children will most certainly herald a new dawn. The work of reconstructing a country begins with laying a solid foundation for the children from the elementary kindergarten to the more advanced senior secondary education. Under the new dispensation, the education sector will now embrace the human rights component, giving prominence and attention to the welfare of children.
The new nomenclature demands a swift and immediate rethinking of content and strategy. The children should be the epicentre of teaching and learning. Everything a school does should be decided and settled in the best interests of students. Seeking to focus the work of a school, prominent Harvard Scholars Rachel E. Curtis and Elizabeth City put it in a better perspective when they said “the education of children is our number one priority. Number one above power struggles, political whims, or practitioner or parental excuses.”
Here lies the tone. Safeguarding the rights of children entails creating an enabling climate permitting children to blossom to their full potential. Children are very delicate and fragile in nature and can return the favour when treated with love, tenderness and respect.
Any school environment that does not maintain a totalitarian and unrelenting focus on all children under its care has no reason to exist. Schools exist to nurture and unearth talent. The environment in which students receive their education should be so empowering and so inspiring.
A sombre, dull and intimidating school atmosphere does not allow children to fully apply themselves in the teaching and learning process. To realise their potential, students require a free and relaxed atmosphere allowing room for experimentation and trying of new things without attracting the wrath of classroom practitioners and fellow students. One of the most archaic and primitive practices, which might be inhibiting a free flow of ideas is the use or possibility of application of corporal punishment. Many parents no longer use corporal punishment at home and its continued presence in schools could be causing fear and panic among students. Corporal punishment is also not consistent with human rights because it is considered a dehumanising element. Full preservation of the rights of children might call for the total ban of corporal punishment. Also children should be taught that it is okay and normal to make mistakes because best learning is realised through trial and error and experimentation. In the classroom theatre, teachers should play a facilitating and enabling role.
The traditional approach where teachers dominated classroom proceedings is not consistent with the goal of encouraging students to stand on their feet and become masters of their destiny.
At the end of the lesson or at the next teacher-student engagement, the question should not be what did the teacher teach but what the students have learned. An empowering learning environment helps students to graduate from being free passengers in the learning process to being active participants. Students feel honoured and respected as powerful resources in the classroom when entrusted with the task of searching and working out solutions to problems. Cracking problems on their own gives confidence and reason to desire to come to school the next day.
