A Zimbabwean History teacher has been elected President of the Association of History Teacher and Lecturers in Africa (AHTLA) at a History Teachers and Lecturers Convention held in Dodoma,Tanzania recently.
Manners Musongelwa, a History teacher at Kwekwe High School and also President of the History Teachers Association of Zimbabwe was unanimously elected to chair the African body following his pin point presentation at the convention which ran from 7 to 9 November at Dodoma University in Tanzania.
The latest development goes on to give testimony and cement Zimbabwe’s position as the country with the best literacy rate in Africa.
In an interview, Musongelwa said the election came as a surprise.
“It came as a surprise to me for when I prepared my speech,it was just a normal speech. But I was only shocked getting plaudits from colleagues who were saying my speech was the best and I was the best person to lead them. For that I was elected uncontested,” said a jovial Musongelwa.
He said his objective going forward was to recognise the teaching of History in Africa.
“As you know most of our African countries were colonised by western countries and much of the history syllabus in Africa is made up European History. That should be a thing of the past we need to learn more about our African history and history makers ,” he said.
He also said there was a need to integrate history teaching with the Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) that are ever changing.
“The teaching of History across the continent should be uniform and we should make full use of the ICT aspect. During our next conference in Addis Ababa in May next year, I will emphasise on the need to intergrate ICT components that are always lying idle,” he said.
To his credit, Musongelwa working together with Learning Factory Company introduced the history teaching box which easily replaced textbooks.
“We introduced the teaching box, which can easily replace textbooks and makes it easy for those in the rural areas who cannot have access to learning and teaching material to read and pass. That is technology we are talking about that should utilized, ” said Musongelwa.
