A
Hindu teacher’s professional journey in a Christian country
7th August 2020
He comes from humble beginnings,
an expatriate whose survival in a third world country when many young educated
children are unemployed
has not been an easy one too.
And for a Hindu working in a
Catholic school and attaining positions unusual is what has been the strangest
in Ajayagosh Narayanan’s journey as a professional in Lesotho and the respect
he has earned through his contribution to the country’s education sector. But that
is the generosity of the
Basotho!
Narayanan’s struggle and effort when
he arrived in Lesotho were to build a home, support his family and to give
something back to the indigenous community that welcomed him then, and
continued to feed him and his family for 30 years.
He says those are the very people
that gave him strength throughout his journey while God gave him the will to
continue.
“I am now retired as a teacher
but continue staying in Maseru with the hope to pursue my dreams to support
education in the country, if and when possible. I continue dreaming,
and that keeps me alive,” he continues.
What can be written about me?
What can be emphasised on my survival and existence when I am surrounded by
people who supported me in Lesotho, how can I act differently? Muses the
veteran teacher when asked to share his experiences and how he has helped shape
education in the country.
“I was simply following
the tradition of a great nation
of Moshoeshoe.
My Indian background gave me the dreams and values of a culture that I
considered extremely precious to me, yet I could not find an earning at home!
It was one of my teachers,
Mr Thampy who
helped me find a job in Kenya in 1988. That was the beginning of my long
journey that ended in Lesotho,” Narayanan recalls.
He
says he had never heard of Lesotho, but only of the neighbouring South Africa
as a green pasture. As a young person from a humble background earning a steady
income migrating would only be to a place where he earned more to make a better
life for himself and family…this was important.
Narayanan was born and
brought up in a South Indian state of Kerala, where he spent long arduous 30
years; spending the other 31 years in Africa - 29 of
those in Lesotho invited by one of his well-wishers, Mr Bhanu, while he
was struggling in Kenya.
He started working at ‘Mamohau High
School in 1991 and Koali Moima,
a teacher, veteran politician and now
Private Secretary to the Speaker of the National Assembly, was the school
headmaster who gave Narayanan his appointment letter to join his team.
“I believe that the three years
that I lived at ‘Mamohau has
taught me a lot about Lesotho, her welcoming rural life and about Basotho. That
was the period when qualified teachers were scarce in Lesotho, but
revolutionary transformation was taking place in the education sector.
At the same time, conflicts and
tension between the Ministry of Education and school proprietors were brewing
and that caused church schools to
be closed indefinitely in 1992
because as I heard ‘the infrastructure belonged to the churches, so the
ministry could own the children and the teachers and remain with them’,” he recalls.
This tension indeed changed the
education sector in Lesotho, and according to Narayanan, this compelled
government to build more government classrooms for primary and secondary
education.
“I could be wrong! This is the
same time when debate on a free education policy was also aired. Year 1995
brought the teachers’ strike, and from that incident teachers learned
about the newly implemented education policy for Lesotho. Free Primary
Education Policy was also implemented soon and that indeed benefitted many
vulnerable Basotho children.
This is the background that
shaped my teaching career in Lesotho. However, what disturbed me throughout this
transformation in the education field was that, the professional development
programme was slowly diminishing. And this had a long-term impact on
the quality of education in Lesotho,” he says.
Teaching
life in Lesotho
The teacher says it was shocking
for him to live in a thatched Basotho hut, a young Indian who just landed from
a crowded town living a modern life in Kisumu (Kenya); a hut was unbelievable
and unacceptable.
But he says he had no choice, and
that this was an eye opening experience,
as “’Mamohau taught
me the other side of human life as I soon became part of the school community.”
Due to family issues he had to
opt for a transfer to Cenez Secondary
School in July 1991; the late Kanono Ntoane was
the headmaster at Cenez,
and Narayanan was invited to join the team there – which he accepted.
Both ‘Mamohau and Cenez are
Roman Catholic Church school and movement between those is easy.
Narayanan remembers, “moving
from ‘Mamohau was
painful but I received a wonderful and memorable farewell from the staff there;
and when I reached Cenez Secondary
School in Naleli,
Maseru, I found a yard with two blocks for 6 classrooms facilitating about 300
students all total, a small admin block with 10 teachers and two cooks working
in a small open kitchen. Lunch was
cooked using gathered fire wood.
I remember, we had to walk to the
nearest mountain to gather firewood, but I enjoyed that fully. I remember those
days of teaching the kitchen staff the Indian way of cooking soup!”
Cenez at
the time had no electricity, water or other resources but this is where he
learned typing using two fingers, which he still does typing on his laptop even
now; and printing documents using
stencils.
In 1995 management took the
initiative to upgrade the school and opened the first Form D classroom in a
small domestic science laboratory. He says raising funds for the project was
fun.
“The school had a humble
starting, and we build from there to today’s Cenez High
School you see with 19 classroom blocks, a multi-purpose hall, computer rooms,
library, drawing room,
domestic room, a science laboratory, computerised office…and above, all
electricity and water.
The progress was remarkable;
however, I am more concerned with the inadequate human resources and human
development.”
Narayanan’s observation is that the
Lesotho education sector, though doing a lot for teachers, is not enough, and
that teacher’s professionalism is always compromised.
Their dreams and visions are
marginalized, when a teacher enters in a
school with hopes and dreams to bring changes in the life of a student child,
the teacher thinks this is inevitable and his ability must
be appreciated, he says.
He continues, “Soon, the
inadequate and inefficient machinery crushes the dreams. As a result, he
becomes part of the existing system and lives up living the life of a mechanic
as a teacher. Learning is highly compromised in the walls of the classrooms and
the light in the eyes of our children fade away. Lucky those are those few who,
somehow, were successful.”
Many schools excelled because the
school headmaster had a dream, and in most it was a one man show, he says,
adding that others followed blindly or rebelled.
The outcomes are obvious then,
either the schools soon excel or fall off the wagon completely from fatigue;
this because the system requires revisiting of policies and programmes.
Teachers need to be committed
to shape their professional identity, and that has always been Narayanan’s worry.
“Shall we conduct a capacity building activity for teachers,” he once
asked, and luckily received instant support from his headmaster, Benedict Moiloa, and
from the education ministry’s officials.
“I
met Ntate Moiloa when I joined Cenez High School in 1994 July. He was
deputizing Ntate Kanono, the principal. We were young, energetic and dreamers
but did not compromise on our views. After the unfortunate death of Kanono in
1997 Ntate Moiloa was promoted as the Principal of Cenez High and then I became
his Deputy.
A
long road we walked together, a team with a common vision and aim. We took
Cenez High to a better level from about 300 students and 12 teachers in 1996 to
about 1 000 students and more than 30 teachers in less than 10 years,” he
reminisces the old days.
Ntate Narayanan and Ntate Moiloa
fought, argued, and debated a lot and on everything under the sun. They faced
challenges together too, making his principal a special component of his life
in Lesotho.
“He
was a pleasant guy, highly emotional and argumentative but able to give freedom
to a person once he was convinced they deserved it. He enjoyed being bossy, an
authoritative leader, but appreciated hard-work. He was one who would not
hesitate to extend an opportunity that came his way to others,” he remembers
his friend and boss.
He
says their journey together was unique, exciting, energetic while challenging at
the same time; a journey they travelled on together until 2017 when Moiloa
retired.
Moiloa
extended his vision to reach out to other teachers in Lesotho, and that
motivated Narayanan to conduct various capacity
building activities for primary and secondary school teachers across the
country. His contributions to education as a teacher, as a deputy and as a principal
in a Catholic schools remains unchallenged.
“He
took me to heights that I could not climb; he introduced me to the leaders of
the nation, and to various organizations. He took me to places which I could
not reach, if travelled alone. He believed in me, confided in me, and shared
his worries, dreams and secrets with me.
At
work, we complemented each other and progressed on the same pace. I am where I
am because of him, that I acknowledge at this moment with gratitude and
appreciation.”
“My focus was on Mathematics and
Science. We aimed to share ideas on peer learning and innovations. Visionary
officials like Dr Lira Molapo,
Mr Vincent Sekoala and
Mr Teboho Moneri (Ministry
of Education) supported me unconditionally,
and participated in many such activities.
The academics from other
countries whom he met during various educational conferences also listened to his
plea and visited Lesotho for the facilitation of a small-scale teachers’
programme. In many occasions these invited academics raised funds for their own
travel, and Narayanan’s task was to raise money for catering.
“Many well-wishers, friends
and non-governmental organisations helped me to meet the cost,
Professor Mark Schafer (Rhodes University), Dr Patrick Barmby (WITS
University), Dr Harries Anthony
(Durham University), Dr Mpalami Mpalami (LCE),
Dr Norma Boakes (Richard
Stockton University) were some of those academics who supported our programmes.
Since 2012, we conducted about 8
workshops on peer learning, origami, numbers, creative ideas etc.,
and that motivated teachers.
In 2016, I was approached by the Irish
Oblates to conduct a study to investigate the needs of the Roman Catholic Church
(RCC) schools in Lesotho. I conducted and completed the study successfully by
2017 with support from Dr Harries and Dr Mathot
I also received support from the Ministry of Education and the RCC leaders.
The findings pointed out the need for resource development to improve the
classroom learning and teaching.
40 schools participated in the
study and the findings were shared with
various stake-holders. The study also helped me in the sense that Professor
Peter Tymms and
Professor Christine Merrelle ((Durham
University) approached me to conduct a study on Grade 1 pupils under the PIPS
(Primary Indicators for Primary Schools),” he narrates.
This was another milestone in the
research field, with PIPS, the teachers developed local materials for teachers
and learners, then conducted and coordinated the
study to evaluate the
Grade 1 pupils’ learning capacity.
The study was
completed in 2019 and the report was
published (www.ipips.org),
after which it was proposed and prepared for
the next stage by expanding the study to all districts in Lesotho.
Unfortunately, with the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic
also striking Lesotho, the execution of the plan remains on ice due to
prevalent safety protocols borne by the national lockdown.
Reflective
thoughts
How did these experiences empower him
as a person? A question he says he repeatedly asks himself.
“I believe that I was lucky, and
I repeatedly say this to myself. It was my school teacher who took me to Kenya.
I was a raw material with crude thoughts in mind. I was
inclined to an Indian way
of looking at situations. What mattered then were the Indian values and my
Indian background!
Kenya was my classroom, and I
learned restlessly. The political chaos in Kenya (1990) forced me to explore
elsewhere.
Basotho then opened the door for
me through Ntate Moima.
He appointed me as his Head of Department (Maths and Science) and I remember
the first question that my neighbour-teacher asked me then, when will you be
leaving for South Africa? I simply said, wait and see. I
am still in Lesotho!”
During
those days, Lesotho was a transit for many young fortune seekers, and he says
he can’t blame anyone for thinking like that as life was tough.
He continued, “I have seen the
changes and transformation on the education sector, in about thirty years in
Lesotho. As a teacher I have seen my colleagues, headmaster and some students
growing into politicians and ministers or pursuing decent professions.
‘Mamohau was
an experimental pool for me to draw the correct kind of organic materials as
nourishment for my career! Cenez High
School was my dream child, and I progressed in career with the school growing.
Thanks to the Cenez community.
I was one of the first Heads of Departments officially recognized by Ministry
of Education.”
Narayanan says he got the
opportunity to be the
Deputy Principal and then took over the school for a couple of years after Moiloa retired
as the headmaster at Cenez, having appreciated and acknowledged his earlier
shown enthusiasm and efforts - and working together as a team.
He says he has also received and opportunity
to attend MPhil (Management
in Education) at St Augustine College in South Africa, his third Master’s Degree.
“MPhil helped
me a smooth entry for my PhD at Rhodes University (Mathematics Education). Soon
after, I received a great opportunity to engage in a study to investigate the
needs of catholic Schools, and then became part of iPIPS team
to conduct a study.
All these are blessings from God,
through various great humans and academicians as his agents. I strongly believe
that you do your karma (god
given duty) and god will give you the opportunities to grow, and to
serve others. Materials do not matter, what mater is your dreams, vision and
values!” he continues.
The travelled teacher says that
many officials ranging from government ministers to education inspectors
supported him, friends offered their financial help, international
organizations simply extended their backing to his calls; that they all
believed in him and cemented his efforts to conduct various workshops for
Lesotho teachers.
