i. SCHOOL ACTIVITIES
School never started on the date it was supposed to start according to the school calendar, due to some irregularities related to lecturer’s allocation to cope with the growing number of students with the same number of lecturers. The timetable and the revised calendar came out two weeks later, and it was fortunate that all the lectures were given as they were planned. I came to realize more seriousness of lecturers with the weekend class students compared to the way we were when two of us were in the morning session where lecturers were too flexible to all possible movements or changes that always came in with immediate effect and could affect us negatively by for example having classes postponed because the lecturers (who were overloaded) had to attend to newer students at the exact time we were supposed to be with them. This happened several times and could not be solved by the administration that kept on welcoming new students every three to four months without increasing the number of lecturers. At least in weekend class, lecturers have fewer classes to deal with and also have less pressure than the weekday’s sessions where many timetable crashes are experienced.
I have so far enjoyed the weekend classes because there is enough interaction than two of us in a day session. We found eight students, which with two of us made a class of ten which is far better than our ex-class of two in terms of interaction and group work. Another interesting thing about this class is that all the 8 students we found there are adults who work in IT departments of local companies in Lusaka and have experience on hand, we therefore can learn a lot from them.
We are taking the following modules in this semester:
I will also be working on my last semester’s group project that was not submitted because of improper planning with my colleague (ex-only classmate).
For all these modules, we are still at the introductory part and everything is moving on as we expected. I will detail each of them in my next report as we go deeper.
They are all interesting and most importantly filling my gaps on my dream skills in the ICT profession although we do not have necessary tools and resources at school to make good use of the technical skills. This is a general problem for our developing countries, not for Zambia or Cavendish only.
ii. PERSONAL ACTIVITIES
I have been thinking of finding a place where I can volunteer with teaching IT of doing an IT related work since I only have Saturday and Sunday of class. I will be making contacts with local IT training centers and other IT companies soon. Volunteer work in my field of study does not require a work permit, so it will still be legal to do it without a work permit.
iii. MISCELLANEOUS
Nothing important to mention.
