average European pupil. Furthermore the teachers sooner orlater will be ofan inferior quality. We have a gigantic educational programme which aims at starting no less than 120 new secondary classes next year. Where arf: the teachers coming from? We can cope at the moment and a number of nice long-haired youths are eager to come out and do their stint for good money. Sooner or later we shall have to mount a crash teacher training programme (shades of post-War 11 in U.K.)and then the standard of teaching must deteriorate. None of this will matter to the emergent African citizen. After all the majority will live and die here and the standard will be the same for them all. They are going to have their own university which will have an entrance qualification as low as 'O'levels. Rather like the backwood universities of America. There is nothing wrong with this for the Zambian but our children will have to go out into this wide, wide world and fight it out with highly qualified men and women.If your children go to school in U.K. or S.A. it seems pointless for Mum and Dad to sit here for the rest oftheir lives. This despite the good pay. Finally there is always the feeling of insecurity. If you ask the top brass whether they want the European to stay, the answer is of course they do, and yet, day by day we see the Zambianisation of post after post.To the young man this is not a good prospect. It does not matter at my age so very much,except no one likes to feel insecure in his work. R.A. Birkby(57-60) writes from Johannesburg: "I've at last embarked on a university career, and am in the second year of a B.A., majoring in Politics and Languages. I may say, as a matter of interest (Quotable Quotes dept.)thatseven years ofLatin,including thefour at Kearsney, have given me most valuable assistance on Languages. Not only the vocabulary, which, in so many ways permeates all the Romance languages, but also the technical terms and mechanics have been of great value. Moreover,one develops through Latin an indefinable'sense',I suppose one could call it, oflanguage and mood. Just like in tackling an 'unseen', one may not know the exact meanings, but one knows what the fellow's after. Qn University (Wits): I'm glad I started so much later than I might have. University-level study becomes a great deal more difficult, but also that much more rewarding to one as a person. Earning a living in the world of reality, wherever it be, makes one maturer and more thoughtful once at university. Qne's outlook is one moulded by other influences beside school and campus. Potted Facts Dept.: Ispent more than a year in England and Scotland(1961),working and living all over the place, loading trucks, picking apples and washing dishes — all the usual odd-jobs, and have continued travelling, on and off, ever since. I've chalked up some 18 countries so far. 1962 saw me in the army which went quite well: I went on a further promotion course this year and am now Intel'igence Officer for the South African Irish Regiment. Worked in Johannesburg in 1963 and had brief return trip to U.K. before deciding to come back to university. Have continued to do a great deal of photography,and have been free-lancing; I'm obviously destined to do this for a living — the thought of doing anything else horrifies me,anyway. I have dabbled in music and I have become a fairly competent guitarist. The Future I hope to go back to Europe after varsity, and I also have plans for a yacht venture, either solo or in partnership for 1967, although this may take con siderably longer to bear fruit. 52
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTc3MDU5Nw==