Holidays: Petty trading or recreational activities?

Holidays are the most exciting moment in the lives of school kids. Curiosity grips every moment of their time and puts them to the test with just two outcomes - failure or success.

Many take the challenge to do what is meant for job seekers and mature people. In a vulcaniser’s workshop in Bonaberi, Douala, for example, primary school children inflate and deflate tyres, patch up tyres with holes and even change car tyres.

According to the vulcaniser, Thierry Ntongen, who does not accept apprentices less than 14 years, parents are getting wise by sending their kids to learn such trades during holidays rather than just eat and watch movies as it used to be the case.

While boys carry out apprenticeship in motor mechanics, carpentry and vulcaniser’s workshops, girls find solace in sewing, hairdressing and aesthetic salons.

Away from apprenticeship, holiday classes are also where pupils and students spend at least a month to get a foretaste of what they will meet in the new school year.

Some think that holiday classes are for weak students, but the Head Mistress of Star Bilingual School, Bonaberi, Tebo Agnes, says bright students need to attend holiday classes as well to boost their understanding during normal session.

While some parents enrol their kids in academies that offer recreational activities like music where they learn how to play musical instruments, some prefer sports like football, judo and karate. For pupils and students from poor homes, petty trading is ideal to augment family incomes and meet school and other needs.

They hawk items like groundnuts, plum, roast maize, bananas, oranges, chocolate, biscuits, among others on the streets, under traffic lights, at popular junctions, in bus stations and from office to office, just to prepare for school reopening.