Mowabites Worldwide

For a villager in the city for the first time, there are too many shocks than the eye can digest, too much for the brain to process. Places people in the city are sick of seeing become great tourist attractions and holy sites for the villager. Many customs and traditions held sacred back in the village do not count here in the city.

And the freedom of doing as you please in an environment where no one holds you accountable is intoxicating. No gossips. No one to pass judgment on what you say or do. You can go anywhere, that is if you have the means, and return when you’re in the mood.

When my family first moved to the city, one of the first things I noticed apart from the comfort of city life was the huge difference in the ages of workers in our former town and  those in the city who occupied the same posts . In the town we used to live in, one may find a woman or man in their forties operating a big shop used for photocopying and printing of documents. In the city, much younger people occupiedthkse same roles. 

I have noticed that till date, more and more employers are prioritizing hiring young single individuals instead of older married ones. One area where I see more of this is in schools.

To cut down on the numerous expenses threatening to drown a school, school owners go for high school leavers and first degree holders with little work experience, with the bait of giving them “experience”. For an unemployed youth  uncomfortable with constantly depending on his or her parents for every need,  a job is welcome news, irrespective of the salary proposed.

It is no wonder that the quality of students produced and the standards of education are falling. The older, experienced teacher comes with much more than teaching experience. He or she comes to the workplace as a mentor, a parent, counselor and an inspiration to students. They stand a better chance of instilling in students and pupils the kind of discipline children need to go far in life.

Of course, there are young teachers who are more skilled at their jobs than some older colleagues. But many of such young individuals wouldn’t work in a school that pays paltry sums to its staff.

In the long run, our country will have a different breed of youth, lacking in so many qualities essential to building a formidable nation.

Naturally, the big schools will have the means to hire square pegs for square holes, but the sad reality is that few students (compared to the masses within the country) can afford those educational institutions. And even in such private institutions, discipline is sometimes laxed to bring in more customers. In as much as some teachers have abused the used of corporal punishment in schools, forcing the education bureau to ban caning of students entirely in all schools, we see a big difference between the quality of students who schooled during the corporal punishment era and those of the post corporal punishment era.

Sometimes, it isn’t the fault of institutions to hire less qualified personnel for the job. The economy and circumstances are contributing factors. The solution is to hire highly experienced personnel to head the various departments of an organization so that they can mentor and train the upcoming, inexperienced ones.