The Miseducated
How many times in a supermarket queue have you had to stand for twice as long as usual because the store clerk had to assist someone with his/her phone to make a mobile payment?
Let’s be very honest. Its rarely just old men and women anymore who are failing to complete their transactions. I have seen young men and women hand over their mobile phones to the clerk and request that they be assisted. One young man even told the clerk that his touch screen wasn’t very response, so she would need to see if she could flip the screen (rotate).
I am worried about the literacy levels of the youth of today. As a nation we are making so much noise about youth empowerment and enterprise, yet it seems the youths are failing to master the basics of literacy. I have tried to work out where the problem could lie on the phone bit. Its all in English on the Ecocash platform. Sometimes all it requires is your pin. Is it completing the transaction or the fear of doing it in public?
Because you know in classes there is a tendency to not say the answer when its asked even if you know it. I remember a time in my youth when the sound of my own voice was irrationally very loud to my own ears. Perhaps the same fears persist for others on any public platform. Our education system is also not very tolerant of failure. The wrong grade and your fate is sealed. Even those who do not qualify for school teams are not given the chance to continue training in that sport.
One thing that bugs me more than anything, is why a child who is enrolled in any school in this country can fail to communicate in English. English is the language of instruction. Yet I have encountered boys and girls who could not, sometimes would not, make a sentence in English. Recently l was part of a team addressing a group of students at a high school. When we arrived, the girl assigned to greet us hugged me, then when I asked how she was her response was “Me good.” Four times she answered this way as she hug greeted each member of our visiting party. Are they not being taught register anymore, or even some etiquette, because I sure wasn’t comfortable with being hugged.
I don’t understand why we take pride in not being fluent. I have heard people say, I don’t care if I am addressed in English, I will answer in Shona. People point at fluent English-speaking kids and ask, can’t they speak Shona. Like not being able to speak Shona reduces access to career and development opportunities for anyone. And of course, Shona speakers forget that there are many local languages and dialects in the country, and if each speaker chose to stick to their mother tongue it wouldn’t necessarily be Shona, or the dialect they know.
What exactly is the value of our education if we are not more fluent, confident and adept at learning new things?
