The holiday is here again and I know that you have been longing for it after spending three months studying. Teachers have kept you very busy with lots of lessons, writing examinations and doing co-curricular activities and that is why they have given you some months to relax and refresh as you prepare for the New Year. The struggle continues.

 You have achieved a lot this term in form knowledge and skills and it is important that you consolidate your achievements by doing some revision and research while at home. This may sound unrealistic to some of you who think that holiday time is a period of total bliss whereby you feel that you are supposed to abandon everything associated with studies until you report back to school next term. You should realize that you are undertaking your academic journey which is quite long but it has stop-overs in form of holidays. In real life, when you embark on a long journey you keep stopping at certain points to relax and refresh but your focus remains on the journey that you have to complete. The same thing applies to studies. If you go for holidays, you should be able to read a bit so that by the time the new term begins, you have the momentum to push on. You should focus more on your weak areas according to the progress report for the first term.

You should be good ambassadors of your schools by being responsible at home and in the entire community where you live. One of the main roles of education is to make society a better place for every individual to live in. As someone who is pursuing education, you should respect your parents and the rest of the community members. We expect you to interact with everyone well so that the values of education are clearly reflected in you. If you engage in any kind of mischief at home or in the wider community you will be undermining the fundamental values of education that your teachers have been equipping you with. Likewise, when you are at school, the parents expect you to promote the values that they inculcate in you at home and they get disappointed whenever they are invited at school to handle cases of indiscipline where you may be involved. Therefore, you should know that both the home and the school work in partnership to shape your morals.

Being responsible at home means being self-directed in the way you participate in domestic chores. You should know that the home provides you with informal education which is vital in developing you as a whole person. There are many life skills that you should learn while at home which may not be emphasized at school. The society requires you to learn how to care for your siblings and being able to participate actively in cooking food, washing clothes and tiding up the house regardless of your gender. These are core values of life that you should promote. Even if you attain lots of degree qualifications in future, you will not be considered as a whole person in the society as long as you are unable to perform certain basic tasks at home. If you have parents who pamper you by doing everything for you at home, you should request them to stop it because they are not creating room for you to become self-reliant. They are simply ruining your life and future wellbeing.

Holiday time should also be a period for you to offer volunteer service to your community by participating actively in public clean-ups, offering support to the orphans, the elderly and disabled. It is your responsibility to offer service above self.

 I wish you a happy holiday and may God bless you.

The writer is an English Language Instructor at Akilah Institute for Women.