Games and Rules

I remember vividly when I was in high school, the rampant malpractice conducts carried out during examinations. There was this boy in my class who would never cheat no matter what. Everyone respected him for being so true to himself but we still laughed at him behind his back. We believed he was just being naive.
    Time for our final examinations came. Everyone knew the way out, we saw an open door and we took it. Yet,this particular  boy kept to his naive ways. He would neither ask for answers or copy from the phones and textbooks we brought with us to the hall.
      One day, a girl named Maija decided to join us. She had not been cheating in previous  examinations. She was trying to copy the answer to question number five. She was not smart. The invigilator caught her and snatched her papers. She was disqualified from writing any more papers. Sad! but if you're not smart I really believe you should not just follow others
       Time flied. We all dispersed. I furthered my education. I went to a college of education first, got a diploma in education before my degree. I'm an orphan. My aunt who is not so well to do raised me. After my diploma, I got a teaching job to support myself through graduate school
         Its been hustle upon hustle. How unclean the world is today. Getting Government jobs had nothing to do with merit but real connections. Those who had such luxury found it easier to land high paying jobs.

  I knew no one and no one knew me save all the students I taught that loved me. Talk about hardwork and diligence again, my hardwork could not  geFor me,t me a good job. The student that loved me could not help either. People I studied harder than had gotten nice paying jobs through their connections. So I knew hardwork and diligence meant nothing
       My name is Safa Nehi I said. I tried to paint myself well. "Resume tommorrow" the hiring officer said. That was my lucky day. After seven years of managing stressful jobs that could barely feed me, I got a Government job with a high pay.
        I resumed the following day. I worked hard year in and year out. I was getting promotions. After a few years of service, I became the Principal of the school. I was now the one to interview applicants. One faithful morning, I had ten people to interview. I was going through their Resumes but only one person had a Third class degree. All the others were first class graduates. I wondered what the guy with a third class could teach. His file did not look impressive like the others. I started asking them questions. None of them could provide correct, satisfying answers save the Third class graduate. Funny right?
      After all the questioning, it seemed fair justice to the applicant, the school and the students they will teach to employ the Third class graduate. Throughout that day, I was baffled with the thought of how this people got their first class degrees. Perhaps they saw open doors and took it blindly or maybe their connections.
       So the third class graduate resumed. He was punctual, diligent and super competent. We all came to love him for being up to the task. The only issue I had with him was his disobedience of simple protocols. Every teacher knows that they  have to fill their lesson notes manual, have up to date notes no matter how busy they are. He always prioritized what he gave the students over what he showed. Though the world today does not follow such principles.

A lady from the ministry of Education paid the school an August visit. She came under the camouflage of being honest, straight forward and principled. I have met so many people in my teaching experience. I knew this one was also pretending. The Government needed to downsize. It could not afford to continue paying its staff.
    She visited each class, watched every teacher teach, requested for my statement on all the teachers and went through their lesson notes. I warned Mr. Terru about leaving his manuals incomplete. That day, he became a prey, a victim. The lady saw his notes incomplete and started barking about protocols and rules. She penned down his name, he was to be dismissed the following month. That was the crazy plan our government could come up with.
     I begged, teachers begged, other students begged but no, her mind was made up. The other teachers who were not as diligent as Mr. Terru were spayed. They had their notes completed. Some were not regular to their classes but the law does not care about integrity. I lost a diligent staff to crazy protocol. Mr. Terru sure will have to endure some hardship before getting another job.

Months later, I was going through staff record after he left us. I was happy to still have his number in old staff record folder. I called him that morning. He informed me he got a higher paying job. The world may be crazy, but the laws are still in place. His goodness and diligence served him well. But I was not wrong, he had to endure some months of financial lows before he got the job.
      Now, here I am seating in from of my desk.The graduation ceremony of yet another set of students in my school approaches. Young talented minds about to go through the drilling of life. They will face alot and still battle with the corruption in the country. I am lost. What do I tell these fresh youths? I do not want to lie like the custodians of so called protocols. I will tell them the truth. I will tell them to work hard but keep their eyes open. I will teach them all I know,all I can. The rest they will learn themselves.

Author:LITERARYPARADISETV
To read more add +2349035654034
Read interesting stories on our whatsapp channel daily.