Inshindo Interviews New Tutors

Last Updated on Saturday, 28 August 2010 12:41 Written by Webmaster Saturday, 13 March 2010 01:26

11 March 2010, Kabwe

The PSA program in Kabwe and Mwinilunga Districts has completed the interviewing of young people that are interested in serving as tutors of the Preparation for Social Action Program. The interviews that were conducted by PSA coordinators and Directors attracted large numbers of youth, most of them in their early and mid twenties. 20 people in Kabwe and 15 people in Mwinilunga have been selected to participate in the third step in the tutor selection process the study of the first unit of Discourse on Social Action and one of the PSA units, Properties.  The first step was consultation with community leaders who then recommend youth from their communities who they think can serve as tutors while the interview was the second step.

In Kabwe the interviewing panel included representatives of Kabwe Municipal Council and of the Department of Community Development, Mrs. Mseteka and Mrs. Ndjovu respectively.

“Tutor selection is a very thorough process and I think it is getting better and better with every exercise”, explained Mr. Malitonga, the PSA Program Director. “It is important that we get the recommendations of the community leaders because they are ones that know the communities and the people. When we interview the recommended people, we focus on a number of things. First is their comfort with English because this is the language in which they are going to work. If they are not able to speak and write English properly it is impossible for them to facilitate the PSA materials. Second is the clarity of their expression. Someone may be able to speak English well but not have the ability to express ideas clearly. This of course is an ability that the program develops in the participants and we know that everyone involved in the program, tutor or student, will improve their expression greatly but where tutors are concerned, there is a minimum level of ability that is necessary.”

“This is tricky one because on one hand we want our tutors to be confident as they will be working with the community and guiding their peers but on the other hand we want them to be humble because without humility they cannot learn. Both are not easy to judge because people are very nervous when they come to the interview and one might judge that as lack of confidence and on the other hand one may say too much about himself and come off proud and cocky simply because he has been told that that is the way one should be during interviews in order to get selected,” Mr. Malitonga explained.

“But we try to put them at ease. We meet them in groups, sometimes five people together other times only three people and we tell them from the very beginning that we are not doing job interviews. What we are doing is having conversations with them in order for us to get to know them better,” Mr. Malitonga continued.

Other factors considered in tutor selection is experience with service at the community level. Mr. Malitonga explained that this is an important consideration as the most effective tutors are those that are service oriented. “Serving as a tutor is not a job, it is a service one offers the community. Of course we give the tutors allowances for lunch and transport, but we do not offer them a salary. One must therefore come to the program with a strong service orientation without which he or she cannot be effective.”

An interesting feature of this year’s selection has been the large number of female applicants.

“This was done deliberately,” explained Mr. Malitonga. “As an organization, we have a firm belief that only progress borne out of the full participation of men and men, as equal partners, is sustainable. The equality of men and women is one of the fundamental principles underlying our conceptual framework. However due to circumstances totally beyond our control we have found inconsistency between our belief as an organization and our action. The entire organization has only 2 women serving in various positions, one in office management and another as a tutor. Two other female tutors we had left to pursue other things. We therefore had to do something deliberate about the situation. What we did is not affirmative action per se but in order to redress this unfortunate imbalance which is at odds with one of our fundamental values, we asked the community leaders to give priority to girls in their recommendations. As a result in Kabwe we had 30 applications from females and only 5 from males.”

Inshindo is hoping that at least 15 of the 20 new tutors who will be finally selected will be female which will raise the female participation on this level in the program from 10% (2 out of 21) to 41% (17 out of 41). Such an increase is important because at the group level females constitute the majority of the students.

Mr. Malitonga also reported that the interview process was very revealing.

“I really do not think the leaders at all levels, local community, district, and national level, are fully aware of what is happening with the youth. It is very sad and actually scary. 90% of the young people we had conversations with said they are currently doing nothing. Of course when we probed further we found that they are involved in some activities at the church. But the vast majority said “I have just been sitting at home”. There is a lot of anger and frustration among young people. This is mostly a result of high levels of despondency and hopelessness that they feel. Most lamented that their parents have no jobs and therefore food, healthcare, further education, are constant problems. Some said a lot them are being driven into prostitution at the risk of contracting HIV because with every year the alternatives are becoming fewer and fewer. Alcoholism is a big problem that almost every young person we talked to lamented. All of them, and it was hard for me to believe, but all of them felt that the majority of the young people their age are wasting their lives away with no vision and no hope.

“All of us involved in the interview process felt a great sense of urgency and in a way confirmation that what we are dedicating our time, maybe even lives to, is of such importance. We need to transform this energy that exists in abundance at the community level into a force for change. I do not think this is something to be lax or political about. It requires long term, systematic, and unified attention. Some people live in very sheltered environments and they keep these matters at a distance. It is however another thing to sit in a room with young people, right in their community, and listen to how frustrated, desperate, and angry they are. While confirming that our efforts are for a noble cause and strengthening our resolve to run the full length no matter the challenges, it is also scary.”

The young people selected through the interviews will, for the next 10 days, participate in the study of the texts Discourse on Social Action and Properties. They will be joined in the study by 7 project staff of Kabwe Municipal Council.