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Penyai’s Vision of the School and Education in Selected Poetry in Nhekwe Dziri Kanyi (2011)

Summary The Ndau and Manyika people are well known for their craving for education, commonly regarded as “school” among the speakers of the two dialects. They are also popular for their love for code-switching between Shona and English. In his anthology of Ndau and Manyika poetry, Nhekwe Dziri Kanyi (2011), Ishmael Penyai focuses on many issues, among them: love, the family and education. On education, the poet expresses his vision of the ideal learner, teacher, school head and school curriculum - a vision which the researchers believe is an epitome of the dialect speakers in question. This article is an examination of Penyai's view of education in terms of the above-mentioned. It observes that the poet calls for learners to put first things first, by acquiring education before pursuing such things as sexual relationships and urges them, together with teachers and school heads, to be well behaved and cultured in a bid to facilitate knowledge and skills acquisition. In addition, he also widens learning to include such disciplines as music and sports and urges learners to pursue those disciplines they are good at and comfortable with. The article points out that whilst the poet is right in his call for remarkable behaviour among learners and the practitioners, his vision does not take into account why they fail to live in accordance with the ideals. It concludes that whilst Penyai's vision is plausible and wider than previous perceptions of education, it still needs further sharpening for it to actualise people's expectations.