SUNDAY, February 14th was Valentine’s Day. The day has not been designated as a public holiday but is observed by all those lovers and secret admirers who believe in it worldwide.
Back at home, shops were splashed with red outfits, shoes, handbags and romantic cards marked with love words were on sale.
Some couples even went out for dinner over a glass of red wine to celebrate the day. Others exchanged various gifts in form of roses and so forth. So it was love in the air!
To Pagans the month of February is known as one for expressing love, intimate love between couples.
The genesis of this day is that saint valentine was a Roman martyr then imprisoned many years ago who fell in love with a young girl and as such sent her a love note.
The note he left for his secret admirer was marked as ‘your valentine’.
Since then the day has been observed by those who believe in it religiously to express love.
But amazingly the same euphoria of valentine has been extended to our young ones, the pupils in some private schools.
This has placed most parents in some kind of quandary as it calls for unnecessary expenditures over that period.
One parent lamented that she was forced to saunter from shop to another for the entire week in search of a small red shirt for her son to wear on that particular day as demanded by authorities from the boy’s school.
Sad enough, the same parent could not find a suitable shirt size to fit in the shops to fit her son and ended up procuring a red material which she quickly took to a tailor to be made at a huge expense.
All this the poor mum did was out of the family budget as the family was just recovering from paying school fees as well as procuring school requirements as expected at the beginning of each year and term.
The woman was compelled to oblige to such a demand  simply to make her son happy on that particular day so that the boy does not feel left out from his friends.
In addition some private school demanded that a certain amount of money also be paid to accompany the day.
Thereafter, some pupils were subjected to exchanging gifts among themselves as well as subjecting them to a Valentine’s bash.
Meaning that the whole day which fell on Friday, February 12 th was entirely spent on all these activities which prompted the pupils to digrace from the usual school learning process.
Knowing how excited young minds can be when it comes to fun time even the issue of home work was abandoned or excluded from their time-tables so  that most of them were focused on valentine celebrations alone.
Some might have even spent the entire week nagging their already over stretched parents to get them the red out-fits which they were expected to be adorned in on that fateful day.
Nothwistanding that some parents were still struggling to pay school fees  and others  up to now were still struggling to obtaining school requirements due to limited  resources in their various pockets.
Yet for certain school authorities in their own ,wisdom ,intent and purpose  chose to subject the parents to such kind of impulse buying or expenditure  yet it has no positive bearing on the academic affairs of the pupils is rather unfair.
For those pupils pupils who cared not to participate in the activity in their various school it was no big deal at all as the treated Friday 12 th like any normal learning day.
One may wish to know that some of the pupils were even looking forward to the kind of entertainment that preceded the wearing of the so called red attire.
The whole preparation had preoccupied their small minds on that particular day as opposed to concentrating on class-work.
From what we know when pupils focus their minds on class-work it will yield them fruitful futures to enable them achieve their goals in life of aspiring to become accomplished persons like pilots,doctors , lawyers ,engineers etc .
So dedicating Friday 12 th to a social event without providing any understanding to the young folks, turned out to be a just another big show as opposed to serious learning activities that goes on daily.With this kind of scenario one tends to wonder what values the same private school places on their calendar whether its education or otherwise .
Yes! Educational tours are good to invigorate the youthful  minds  so that they  aspire to become resourceful,innovative  and creative as young scientists would during(Junior engineering technicians and scientists) Jets fair.
Nothwistanding the fact that social outings are good for a hard working minds to enable them unwind.
But subjecting the same young minds to such social events like valentine bashes whose history they may not understand is kind of mental torture or infringing on the rights of the pupils to access  quality education
Innocent Young minds have a tendency to pick on anything they come across as gospel truth unless if they are  properly guided by adults in the right way that they should go.
Teachers should know that in coming up with suitable social amenities,that can assist parents  to inculcate good morals in the minds of the young minds as opposed to exposing them to things that they may not even  understand or in the long run influence their thinking negatively.Pupils need to be counseled rightfully.
The nation expects young ones to behave responsibly so that they end up being good citizens.
Talk of Sports outings or game viewing ,or just a tour to the mighty Victoria falls in Livingstone.
Such ventures  are considered to be good  for the young minds as well as their physical  well being
The Bible suggests that teach a child in the way she or he will grow and will not depart from it.
Pupils need to be taught to fear God and that would bring about wisdom and trigger a spirit of excellence in them which should stimulate value for education.
Going by the statistics that the nation is grappling with in terms of moral decay it is not fair to subject young minds to things like valentine bashes or dressing in red to mark valentine’s day which has no bearing at all to their academic accomplishments.
What is the justification of holding such an event? None !Unless if the so called authorities in the culprit schools could explain motive  behind some of these activities then we might as well conclude that it is just a money making venture for them.
Can they convince the public that such events portray a positive image for  the pupils or else  some parents would do well to differ with them or distance themselves from such social activities.
We would advise the school authorities to spare the young minds, instead  accord them a conducive learning environment  free from any form of interference.
Valentine bashes should be delayed in life until when pupils are mature enough to discern good from bad.
What if one school of thought suggested that valentine bashes  may just turn out to be recipes for illicit behaviour like drug and alcohol abuse for the pupils?
One classic example is that not too long ago Government at was forced to ban leaver’s balls as pupils turned out to be violent or use them as a platform of mischief by those in attendance giving police a hard time to control the seemingly volatile situation.
During holding of leaver’s ball’s  pupils resorted to drinking alcohol and property was destroyed as well as the young indulging in other illicit behavior.
The so called leaver’s balls proved to be a source of total mayhem.
The same leaver’s balls were being abused and used as platforms for drug abuse,alcohol and all forms of illicit activities that precipitated riotous behavior among the pupils involved  that landed some of them in police cells.
Was there anything  good for pupils to involve themselves in leaves ball’s after writing their grade 12 exams without  knowing what the future holds?.
After writing their grade 12 exams there was another path which was to be pursued, either one goes to college or University or getting back into society if they had had failed exams.
So what was it that grade 12 pupils were celebrating during the banned leaver’s balls because the long journey into their future was still on- going and when they were yet to accomplish their dreams ?
A good educational foundation is cardinal for any growing child as long as there is serious learning for a brighter future so be it.So abash valentine bashes whether pupils don’t attend them of what value do they have on education?If none then lets protect the pupils from being led astray!Comments margaretmanga2016@gmail.com.