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my first port of call was the headmaster, whom I expected to be a lion whose demands to study were followed like law.He, Mr M. N. Mukoyi, is nothing of the sort. Students passed him by as comfortably as they went past prefects, teachers and each other.“St Faith’s is a very stable school,” said the grey-haired head in an attempt to summarise the school’s academic excellence in a sentence.
“We have a culture of hard work, massive support from the parents, qualified and hardworking staff and students with a passion for success.”The words were well chosen and probably ran over the school’s secret to excellence, but they were too clever, too diplomatic and vague for my liking. I was looking for a more Manicaland reply, something I would not hear from another headmaster anywhere in the country.“But is it not true that you only enrol the best students?” I shot.“It is,” he replied.
“I take students with good passes. Then I have a meeting with their parents and I tell them that since they have given me intelligent students, if any of their children fails after four years, they are free to storm into my office and insult me.”
That is the confidence of the man at the helm of St Faith’s. That is the assurance of a man who has been at St Faith’s for 21 years. This confidence, I later learnt, ran through every student at the school. Yet, that is not even the secret to the institution’s academic excellence.
Mr Mukoyi joined the school when the pass rate was 65 percent for ‘O’ Level and 88 percent for ‘A’ Level. Those were to be the lowest pass rates under his reign and he has seen them soar to 93,9 and 100 percent achieved by last year’s candidates.
So amazing are the school’s results that the chairman of the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) board, Professor Norman Maphosa, visited the school and did a paper to present to colleges on why the school is achieving such exceptional results.
Mr Mukoyi can be forgiven for being a little boastful about his school’s achievements during his reign. He had 27 students with 10 As and above and 91 out of the 95 ‘A’ Level candidates achieved 10 points or better.
Who would not be bullish with such results and similar ones spread over 20 years?Yet Mr Mukoyi remains modest, humble even, like a man who is used to these achievements and who knows how to bring out the greatness in students. So, I left him and joined the students in the dining hall to get less decent, more unrefined responses to my question: what makes St Faith’s tick?
My first port of call was a juniors’ table. I randomly asked them their names, former school and how many units they scored at Grade 7.“I’m Brighton Nyamudeza, I’m in Form 2. I was at Houghton Park Primary School and I scored four units.”
“I’m Panashe Borerwe. I was at John Cowie Primary School here in Rusape and I got five units.”“Tinashe Nyamudeza, Gillingham Primary School in Dzivaresekwa; four units; form 1.” “Daniel Chitsaka; five units; Hatfield Primary School.”“Tanaka Nyabaya; Form one; four units; Seke 7 Primary School.”
Initially, I had assumed that no student can enrol at St Faith’s after scoring more than five units at Grade 7.I spoke at length to Tanaka Nyabaya to understand how the new St Faith’s pupils think.
“I was always first or second in primary school. But here everyone is sharp. It is going to be difficult to be even in the top ten. But I can do it. Instead of having prep from 6pm to 8pm like the others, I have already extended my prep to 10pm so that I become number one again. There is just so much competition here,” said the young boy.
You could tell Tanaka was determined to prove that he can be the most intelligent amongst his classmates and return to his glory. You could also tell that he was not guaranteed top spot.
But Tanaka also felt at home and does not miss home even though this is his first time being in boarding school.“The head is not scary. No one is allowed to bully others. We have fun here. I play cricket. After lunch I’m rushing to play some cricket, I’m a medium pace bowler.“I’m doing 10 subjects and they are all fun. I just have to work very hard because getting five As is nothing at this school. I want to do more than that.”
Tanaka has already set great standards for himself. I gave him my business card, telling him to call me once at the end of every year informing me how well he was doing compared to the other boys and the standards he has set for himself.
Next I moved to the seniors’ section of the new dining hall that is under construction. I met one of the 59 students who scored eight As and above at ‘O’ Level. Takudzwa is now in a Lower Sixth commercials class and summed up what he called “the problem at St Faith’s High School”.
“The problem at this school is everyone is intelligent and yet they want to choose geniuses and dull students from amongst us.”That sounded like a real problem.
“If you get four As and six Bs, you are one of the dull ones. So we all work hard to be among the geniuses and end up doing 12 or even 16 subjects. The highest last year was Kelvin Chawafambira and he had 16As and one B.
“I got here five years ago from Mt Melleray Primary School in Nyanga with four units and I felt very intelligent because I always used to come first in primary school. “But ever since I joined St Faith’s, the best overall position I have taken is 24. I once even came number 50 out of 150 although my results were good. I got eight As; two Bs and one C, but, 47 people were still better than me with nine As and above.
“So, to feel intelligent again, I must push harder,” said Takudzwa.And from those three interviews, I saw the secret behind St Faith’s success. It is not the fact that they get pupils with four units at Grade 7. Many schools get such students, but they still never achieve 10 or even five As at ‘O’ Level. St Faith’s creates an environment so competitive that students no longer aim for good results as those are almost guaranteed for everyone. The students, from Form 1 to Upper 6, aim for the best possible results. Tanaka may be in Form 1, but he already knows that five As at ‘O’ Level will not be good enough. He wants 12 As or more. If he falls short, he may get 10 As. But, still, he will be continuing the legacy that St Faith’s High School is setting.
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Article publié le mardi 9 avril 2013
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