Don’t let schooling interfere with your education (2)

October 23, 2013 by Dr. Anderson Uvie-Emegbo

   

Dr. Anderson Uvie-Emegbo
| credits: File copy

The call came in the wee hours of the morning of Thursday, October 17, 2013 — my first teacher had gone the way of all mortals. The past few days have passed in a blur. I am numb with pain from the loss, for my ‘first’ teacher made me.

There are schools and there are schools. The United Nations International Children Emergency Fund estimates that Sub-Saharan Africa needs 2.4 to 4 million additional teachers by 2015.

 As at September 18,  2013, UNICEF estimates that 29.8 million (52.3 per cent) of the world’s 57 million out of school children are in Sub Saharan Africa. “More than 20 per cent of African children have never attended primary school or have left without completing primary education.”

 I was fortunate enough to attend a popular though not too impressive public primary school in Warri, Delta State. By virtue of the generous lunch money I took to school and a top 5 position in class, I was the leader of the pack.

Life couldn’t have been better or so I thought until my ‘’first’’ teacher showed up. He orchestrated my transfer to a new school – Delta Steel Primary School 2, Orhunwhorun near Warri in time for the second term of primary two.

Attending an upscale, better equipped school with classmates from several continents was a whole new experience for me. I was clearly awe- struck and terribly out of place there.

And it showed in my results where I scored a total of 25 marks out of a possible 450, taking the 90th position in a class of 99. Poor me, I was overjoyed because I thought the 2nd in the phrase “2nd term” on the result sheet referred to my position.

When my first teacher saw my results, I could feel his pain, his shame and his outrage.

Over the next few days, he drew up and enforced the following strict reading plan for me:1.00pm-1.30pm — Get home from school; 1.30pm-2.00pm — Eat lunch; 2.00pm-4.00pm — Observe siesta; 4.00pm-6.30pm — 1st study period; 6.30pm-7.00pm — Help out in the kitchen; 7.00pm-7.30pm — Eat dinner; 7.31pm-9.00pm — 2nd Study period; 9.01pm — bedtime Fridays; evenings — inspection of all class notes for the week; TV time — few hours on weekends only.

I hated this plan and tried unsuccessfully to outsmart it. One particular day (weeks later) my class teacher celebrated wildly when I was the only one among my classmates with the correct answer to a supposedly difficult question.

At the end of the 3rd term I took the 55th position and was promoted on the basis of my significant improvement. No longer was there any need to enforce the reading schedule I had fallen in love with knowledge. By the end of my third year in primary school, I occupied the 15thposition in class.

I had become a close friend of the librarian raiding the school library for any and every book I could find. Few took me seriously until the 2nd term of the next year when I emerged as the 2nd best student in my set.

This marked a turning point for me. Suddenly, my name was on the lips of pupils, teachers and parents. I kind of like that. From then it was as if the “genius in me had been unleashed.”

In the coming years, I graduated with the best result in both the Junior and Senior Secondary School Examinations in Delta State while attending the Delta Steel Technical High School, Orhunwhorun.

I was also fortunate to emerge as the 4th best student in Biology in Nigeria at the 5th National Junior Engineers and Scientists competition. While applying to study medicine and surgery at the ObafemiAwolowo University, Ile-Ife, my “first” teacher gave me a stark warning not to expect him to beg anyone for my admission.

I took this advice seriously and made the cut off mark. He taught me to believe that I was really on my own…and I could make things happen for myself and by myself.  I went on to win undergraduate scholarships at State merit levels from both the Shell Petroleum Development Company and Mobil Producing Unlimited (now Exxon-Mobil).

When I had some financial challenges in my university days and I was unhappy with my “first” teacher over it, he pointedly asked me, “are you going to school for me or for yourself?” and reminded me that “schooling afforded me the opportunity to have a meal ticket.”

 I was determined not to have a repeat of such conversations. I wanted more than just a meal ticket. Weeks later, I started my first foray into digital management consulting and the rest they say is history. Such was the influence of my first teacher that I could not have escaped the harsh realities of growing up in the Niger Delta if he had not envisioned a preferred future for me.

He committed the resources to chart my new course. He literarily shaped my world view and as early as the age of 10,I already knew the names, capitals and presidents of over 50 countries in Africa. He understood that one should never write off any child.

“There are no dull students. There are only teachers who have not found the right approach to make these students learn.” Every child around you carries a gift. Help that child find his/her innate talent(s), nurture them and don’t give up on them.

Today through www.gapsacademy.com and my involvement in a number of postgraduate institutions, I am increasing my contribution towards improving the state of education on the continent. My “first” teacher deserves the credit for laying a solid foundation.

I have many wishes…many regrets but one cannot turn back the hands of the clock. My “first” teacher would never read this article. As the tears flow, I will celebrate his life and times…with my writings, my speech and my life. The memories of the years we had together would remain priceless. Adieu my mentor…my benefactor…my friend…my “first” teacher…Patrick Tobore Emegbo, my father!