It’s been quite a while here. I hope this meets everyone well. Here we are at the mercies of the Hive Learners prompt accompanied by some nostalgic feeling. Growing up, I have always envisaged that I would start to make some dough after I was done with tertiary education. You know, according to our society and our childish mentality, the order of life should be birth, go for primary, secondary, and then tertiary education, get a job – get paid, get married, and so on… But I guess at some point we just saw that that was never a normal circle of life. This is major because we never factored in some inequalities but all entailed something as smooth as though life were some Utopia.
For the first time in my life and not in accordance with what I thought when I was much younger, I made some money just after I left secondary school. I was done with my first school leaving certificate examinations and was just home awaiting admission to a tertiary institution. So, in order not just let those times slide without doing something tangible, I decided to take a teaching job in a secondary school because I believed teaching was what I knew how to do best and still is! I already told the principal of the school that I would prefer to take the senior secondary classes, especially the science classes. And so I was accepted.
Next was to talk about the amount I was going to be paid and that was the first time I was asked that kind of question in my entire life. It was really strange really. So, I looked up and down and mentioned the amount I wanted to be 23,000 naira, that’s about $50 per month. But the recruiter who doubles as the principal - don’t be surprised because the school was not that big – told me first as to why I chose an odd number. I wanted very much to just laugh out loudly, honestly but I just tried my best to stay calm and formal. She finally said that since the school was still a budding school, they can only afford to pay just 8000 naira ($18) and I was going to be taking 4 subjects! They were Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
Well, you may say how cruel that was but don’t crucify the innocent woman yet. I told her I would get back to her and she said if I agreed then I can come to start the next day. Since, I just wanted to find something to do and from the advice of people around me, I accepted the offer. And resumed the next day with a normal young boy dressing, no shoe, no formality; just my shirt, trouser and sandal. I was shown to a desk in a small room that doubles as the general staff room and I stayed in there even till the early morning assembly was done. Later on, the principal introduced me to the other teachers and the students I would be taking.
Can you guess the number of students in the class? My friend, they were just 3 students in number in the whole class!! Well, I was like “this suits the pay then”. As someone who loved teaching I knew I thought them even more than what I was paid to. I was in that school for 3 months before I left for the university.
I remember the first pay I got after the first month, I was paid in cash. When I got home, I counted the eight 1000 naira notes and I said to myself “So a whole month’s work is just an eight note thing?”. But it was amazing then that I had made my own money, I was just smiling that whole week. In fact, my mum noticed it from the day I was paid and she guessed right then. For the three months I was there, that makes a total of 24,000 naira ($53).
One more thing, I spent nothing out of the whole money. And on the day I was to buy some things for school. Can you imagine that money disappeared before my very eyes in a matter of hours in the market? A whole 3 months' worth of money gone in less than 2 market hours!!