THE OVERLOOKED GRADE ZERO TEACHER

Sir,

Born in 1983, so that means I am around 39 years of age. Since then I have been engaged in a non-paying job of social activism and advocacy. This has not been a stroll in the park nor a candy mountain as promised by Moses the raven in George Orwell’s Animal farm. Many have come and engaged in this long walk together and some left, some lost themselves along the way, while others lost directions.

Succumbed

Others sadly succumbed to Mother Nature’s irreversible process of natural selection. But here I am still standing. Regardless of all the physical ills my body has had to go through, with all the weapons that had been set for my failure, I have always seemed to survive and carried on with my duty of being the black sheep of society.

Existence

Sometimes I hear people questioning my 39-year existence as an individual and, usually, I am almost always reminded of my poor Grade Zero teacher. You see, society always and almost overlooks the importance of the Grade Zero teacher, who is the one responsible for sensitising and equipping a child with academic capabilities; which without, the child cannot even spell his or her name.The credit is always given to high school teachers who actually have got the job done for them because the pupil, by the time he or she reaches high school, he or she has got all the reading, writing and life skills; and most importantly an idea of what they want in life, all thanks to the lower grade teacher who we now tend to forget and overlook.

Life

They say life begins after varsity, and I am testimony to that as a former student myself. ‘Iseyindze lendlela’. Along the siSwati language corridors there is an idiom which goes ‘indlela ibutwa kulabasembili’.

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