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Diary of a teacher

Possible!

It’s another season for the future defining or should I say university placement deciding exams. We call it WAEC, GCE, IGCSE (by the way, did you know that many have no clue what these abbreviations stand for?)

Nothing defines a Teacher like the final results of his passing out students. The simple fact that the result in their hands sets them optimistic to face what the future holds. I can tell for sure that it’s harder dealing with a student who has had one subject short of the university requirement. I had a tough case on my hand a few years ago with Carol; I smile as i remember Carol... hmnnn.

From the outcome of your results, your grades determine immediately if you made it into a higher institution or not. They  can even tell what course you may be accepted to study. The new system lays emphasis on the school certifacate exams results, the matriculation examination has little impact. It is the era of A1s; Cs are outdated.
Now, I have a few students who fell short last year and have been caught with the new development. It is really important how I handle this as a teacher.  Two of my students are returning to retake the external exams. Five from other schools have also come in and of course I have the outgoing senior students. It’s a new challenge... so we brace up and face it together as one. We are eliminating histories and embracing the future. No middle lines, no mediocrity.

Dressed in  my Sunday best today, Today day we set goals. My words will either spur to victory or condemn to mediocrity. Today I wear no sadness on my face. I stand in the school hall face to face with my ‘credentials’, that’s what these children are sometimes... my bragging right! We do this first for them, then for my resume. Today, I feel like “Coach Carter” encouraging his students to do well in both basketball and their studies. I feel like Archilles charging his warriors to immortality at the fall of Troy. I feel like me saying bring on the new requirement , raise the bar even higher because we will crash every bit of it.

It’s my turn to speak. I step on to the podium, my eyes meet with Segun; whose only issue was math, a few more marks and he would not be sitting here. Ngozi,  the head girl in her previous school  still can’t tell what went wrong with her results. Ovie … already tearing up as I settled to start my speech...

“What is your fear? I asked. Are you afraid of failing a second time, or even the first time? Are you scared for your parents or your peers? Is it the subject that proves difficult? We sit here as once sat the authors of the texts we now use, as once sat the our parents who have not set the bar this high, as once sat every single person who scaled a huddle, crossed a line and even went on to set new records!  So, what’s your fear? We are far too strong for the chains that hold us bound, far more able than the set standards. Our fear is that, as a moving train, we’ll crush every obstacle on our tracks until we become the new standard. Our fear is that with every heartbeat we move closer to achieving, with every stroke of the ink, we redefine the word success and yes, the certificate is only a paper which God would use to open doors of endless opportunities’’

Boy! Was that from me? The students gazing with mouth open, the teachers, looking like they’ve been hit.

My final word,   IT IS POSSIBLE!’’

Maureen Awulonuh

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