Photography & Stories: March 2014

General Winget Boarding School

at Chefe elementary school, Feb 2014

One of the stories I got to hear doing photography is the story of former General Winget School. I believe we all heard of General Winget Boarding School. At least we know our late prime minister, Meles Zenawi went to Winget. However, there is so much more interesting stories most people does not know about Winget, like it is one of the very few schools visited by the queen of England.

Winget had paying and scholarship students, scholarship students pay around 30 Birr a year, while paying students pay 300 birr a year. The students used to be randomly assigned in their dormitories. They used to name the blocks with different colors, often Green House referring to the block for students that came from rural areas.

In Winget, a day used to start with a prayer followed by a national anthem sang by students while raising the flag. Class was very intensive, and students also had to attend after class study hours that last till 8:00 pm. Teachers used to be assigned to check if students were studding.The students actually used to enjoy every moment they spent in library. The alumni still remembers the brilliant teachers they had by name, some that came from Britain.

No scholarship student used to get a ‘C’ grade. Ten students with great distinction and other students from competing schools like St. Josef, Teferei Mekonen used to get an award called Haile Selassie First Price Trust Award, and a 100 birr monthly stipend which was a lot of money back then.

Winget students used to also be involved in various extracurricular activities. One of these was a drama club where they used to perform Shekesphere's Hamlet, Twelfth Night and much more. They used to even perform for the Emperor.

There were also sport activities like basketball, football, badminton. Students used to also be part of a cross country game with other schools. In addition there was a Winget scheme which is like what we call Scout now. Debate club was one of the many other clubs in Winget that helped the students with their communication skills.

Students used to compete on how many books they read, and at the age of 16-17 some of the students read thousands of books. And the standard for ‘arif’ was literature, students used to even carry books to toilets.

at Chefe elementary school, Feb 2014

Students used to be given 'fat pocket money' (a term used by alumnus) which was 1 birr, from this they used to pay 15-25 cents to get a hair cut, and pay 50 cents if they dare to get their hair cut at Piassa.

Former students of Winget speaks with pride that they used to wear Clarks shoe, that came from Britain. Their blanket that was once ‘bernos,’ (which people now a days use to clean floors), was soon replaced by expensive ‘kashimere’ blankets that were sent from Britain.

The alumni of Winget still remembers how delicious the different kinds of meal they used to be served with; ‘siga wot’ ‘miser wot,’vegetables, egg, margarine & honey with bread so on. The students used to also be served with orange that used to be imported from Jaffa, Israel. During that time if the boys saw a beautiful girl they used to complement her saying, ‘you look like Jaffa orange.’

Referring to what it feels like attending boys school an alumnus says that, "life stops if a girl comes to the school like a certain incident when we had football game with a certain international school, the students brought their girlfriends to the game and at break time they went to kiss their girls, that was like a different world for us."

During the coup, most of the people involved were, former students of Winget, as a result the king was afraid what kind of generation he was making. During the short time I spent with few alumni of Winget I learnt most of thee students who went to Winget are now prominent people in the country, having important positions in leadership?

To name few;

Gebrekiristos Desta, poet and artist

LoretteTsegaye Gebre Medhin, writer

AtoTesfaye Dinka, prime ministers during Derg,

Legesse Zenawi, as they used to call him back then, the late prime minister

Dr. Kasu Yilala

Shimelis Adugna,

Shaleka Birhanu Amesh (not sure if I got his spelling right)

Dr.Haile Fidda,

Firew Yibessa

Birhane Gebrekiristos

many more ministers

Amare Aregawi, Reporter newspaper

Tegen Workgetu, UN

Dr. Niggusu Mekonen

Milkiyas Tekelgiorgis

Berhanu Tadesse

so many physicians

at Chefe elementary school, Feb 2014

Well, I am not writing this only to share what life was like for students back in those days. Hearing the names of the students that went to Winget, I realized a generation was framed in a certain way in that school. A certain elite group was made. And that was the generation that is making a great impact to the country to this day.

I heard one of the former students of Winget say, “We are a dying species, and we need to be focused on the next generation.” That is just what worries me; yes they are the dying species! And imagine the generation we are making in this time. What scares me most is the quality of education in schools these days and most of all no one is giving much attention on behavior.

I always groan inside when I hear stories about elementary schools, eighth grade students making out in class while the teacher is teaching, teachers sleeping with students in elementary schools, students bringing alcohol to school and getting drunk in class, smoking, chewing chat and all sorts of drugs at such a young age…all these now a days happens in elementary school.

The quality of education in universities is way down these days that can just make another long blog post.

Speaking of teachers, I remember back in the days how we used to respect our teachers, how we were disciplined, and how passionate teachers were about their work.Now a days, most teachers are teaching only because they don’t have other options. I heard of teachers, who speak all obscene language in front of or actually with their students. Let me quote a certain teacher who said to his students aged 13-14, ‘I started having sex when I was 13, how come you all didn't start yet?’

at Cathedral girls school

I don’t totally blame the teachers as well. I went to Dilla Teachers College, for fresh man, and I have seen many students who are placed into teaching department without their choice. They are forced into the life they don’t want while they were young and passionate. One graduate of that university and who is a teacher now, once said to me, ‘the only thing I got out of campus life is ‘addiction, addiction to drugs and alcohol.’

I can’t imagine what kind of generation is in the making through all this process?

It always makes me sick to see young boys and girls, at the bars in Bole, Piassa…area, girls dressed like ‘sluts’, high with drugs…imagine this is the generation; imagine who will be leading the country in 40-50 years?