Education or training always seems to come up in the conversation when I meet someone who I haven’t seen since the old days in Rhodesia. Why is that? Is it because we’ve seen the education standards in other countries and realise how privileged we were to have grown up in Rhodesia?
We benefitted from excellent government and private schools with high academic standards and first class sporting facilities. The Cambridge and AEB (Associated Examining Board) exams and school-leaving certificates were part of the UK system and recognised worldwide.
Milton, my school in Bulawayo, was the largest high school in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. In the early 1960s, there were over 1,150 pupils, including 150 sixth formers, and 70 staff members teaching 26 different subjects. There were 9 utilised sports fields with 2 in reserve. In addition, there were 4 tennis courts, a squash court, gymnasium, 2 outdoor basketball courts, a swimming pool, and a rifle range.
Other Rhodesian schools may have been smaller but would have had similar facilities appropriate to their size.
Tertiary education got going in the mid-1950s, when Rhodesia established the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (UCRN) in Salisbury and the Teachers’ Training College (TTC) in Bulawayo.
UCRN offered degrees from the University of London, and a degree in medicine from the University of Birmingham. Despite this, most European school-leavers opted for the South African universities with their long histories and standing. Others gained admission to Oxford, Cambridge and other top overseas universities.
I chose UCRN, but was unsure if anyone else from my school was also going there. On the platform at Bulawayo Station, I found a handful of students from my school, plus one or two I’d met from other schools. Exciting times awaited us.
We would all be living in one of the university residences. Swinton Hall, the women’s residence, sat alongside Manfred Hodgson Hall, the large men’s residence on the hill near the main university entrance. At the bottom of the slope next to the sports fields stood the smaller Carr-Saunders Hall in a setting much like a men’s country club.
I discovered only one person from my school in Carr-Saunders, but he’d been a year ahead of me in school, and I didn’t really know him. I’d previously met two other students from Christian Brothers in Bulawayo. At least, that was a start. We remained friends through university and still to this day.
First, we needed to go into town to The Book Centre on the corner of First Street and Gordon Avenue. It was the bookshop that sold the essential course textbooks. Victor Tarica, the gentleman who owned it, was an excellent salesman. He greeted you personally as if he already knew your name and expected your arrival. It was almost a pleasure to spend most of your first semester allowance there. Thank you, Diana Hale, for reminding me of the shop’s name and location, and the legendary owner’s name.
Most of the students understood instinctively the true purpose of university life. It wasn’t to study, but to attend university dances, hang out at the brand-new students’ union, and chat in someone’s room, drinking coffee until late at night. For many, sport occupied the late afternoon.
The residence common room, popular with smokers and novice bridge players, was the place to congregate after dinner. It delayed the inevitable return to your room to work on an often-dull course assignment.
The lecturers would post assignments on a notice board in the central hall of the main lecture block. You would scan the board for any relevant to you. Its absence or presence would determine whether you left with a lightness in your step or burdened with more boring research. Sometimes the submission date could be six weeks away. Inevitably, you’d leave it to the last week to rush to the library to research the topic before attempting to write about it.
The African students benefitted from lower entrance qualifications at the university. But it made sense to lend your completed assignments to the struggling African students because by the third year, you might well need to borrow theirs.
Like all universities, UCRN was political. African nationalism blossomed, and frequent demonstrations took place, though their purpose wasn’t always clear. Clubs and societies flourished. I attended one advertised meeting that sounded interesting but found myself in a hotbed of African nationalism. But overall, relations between the races remained polite, and we respected political differences.
New students were unaware of the terrifying annual raids by students of the Gwebi Agricultural College. The week leading up to the university rag parade through Salisbury proved a risky time at UCRN. Raiding parties from Gwebi invaded the grounds at night and waylaid any unfortunate they found. They shaved their heads, leaving a few long unattractive strands which needed to be removed before someone else saw them. Some things you can’t unsee.
The coordinated raids proved hard to withstand because you never knew when they would occur. In addition, the Gwebi students, physical, tough farming types, found the academically inclined university students easy prey. Each morning, a new crop of bald or partially bald heads appeared at breakfast.
After the first semester’s excitement, the second semester settled into a comfortable social existence. The students’ favourite watering hole was the George Hotel in Avondale. A few of Salisbury’s local toughs also favoured the hotel. Tense times for all!
The third semester began with the sombre realisation a year’s work needed to be completed in the few weeks leading to the exams. ‘Such is life!’
In its short heyday, the 1960s, UCRN enjoyed a lively and successful existence, adding to Salisbury’s reputation as one of Africa’s leading cities. But its golden period only lasted until 1970, when a phased withdrawal of the London and Birmingham degrees began. No doubt UDI (the Unilateral Declaration of Independence) contributed.
Irrespective of the educational institution, the standard of education in Rhodesia remained high. The technical schools and colleges instructed students in the various trades, and the latter doubled as teaching centres for articled clerks in the accounting and legal professions.
There are many examples of persons excelling overseas through the education and training they received in Rhodesia.
The following links may be of interest to you:
No Ancient Pile by Michael Bullivant is an excellent history of Milton Milton High School History No Ancient Pile (oldmiltonians.com)
UCRN University of Zimbabwe – Wikipedia
The History of Gwebi Gwebi College of Agriculture over the first thirty years.
TTC Hillside Teachers’ College (hillsideteacherscollege.ac.zw)
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