Friday 22 January 2010

Little Mosonga!

When I was in Standard Six (Primary School Education), our English teacher (Mr. Chilemeji Wilson Mabuba) punished the whole class (canning!!!) for mixing capital/block letters with small ones in a sentence.

Fearing not to repeat mistakes which meant extra canes, I had to write with extreme care.
'Unfortunately' while constructing a sentence I came across the pronoun 'I' in the middle of the sentence!
No way, it was written in small letters as 'i' -to avoid canes!!!
Oops! It turned out to be another blunder of my own! Thank God, the teacher corrected me without punishment!
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As a Std V pupil I encountered an algebraic question in Mathematics which proved to be tricky and challenging. May be that's is why the question itself and its answer is still stuck in my memories since then.!!

The question was:

a/2 + 1 = a - 1
Tafuta thamani ya 'a'

(The answer is 4)
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Just imagine. What is wrong if the multiple choice questions with small cases - a), b), c), d) are answered with capitals A, B, C, D?

My Form II Siasa* teacher (Mr. Maningu) gave me 'zero' for each of my correct answers put down as A, B, and D -instead of a, b, and d respectively -except for C where he gave me a score!

Eventually I scored a total of 56% in that terminal exam! (But had he given me full score for each question I got right, I would have scooped an A of 86%!)

NB: Students should be aware of these minor, 'hidden' and 'untold' instructions!!
To drop the deserved 30% because of 'carelessness' or 'ignorance' is suicidal especially in this modern and competitive world of academics!

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Maisha ya Shule ni Safari Ndefu - Vumi... Vumiliaaaaa ni Safari Ndefu....!
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*Siasa has nowadays been changed to Civics
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