The Star: August 30, 2018

12 Thursday August 30 2018
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
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Fire rages, homes at risk
City pharmacist smuggled out of Zambia
• By Sophie Cornish
A Christchurch pharmacist has
revealed he was smuggled out
of Zambia with the help of New
Zealand Government officials.
Geoff Stark was working as an
interim hospital administrator
at Kalene Mission Hospital in
the remote
north-west of
the country
when political
tension led to
resignations of
the hospital’s
administrator,
executive
director and
Geoff Stark
the board
chairman.
He decided to get out of the
volatile southern African nation
because of risk of violence.
Mr Stark was initially blocked
from leaving by a mass turnout
of hospital supporters, who did
not want him to go. But he was
smuggled out in the backseat of
a car during a thunderstorm,
• By Sophie Cornish
WHEN HALSWELL School
principal Bruce Topham started
teaching 47 years ago, corporal
punishment was used to gain
respect from children.
Now, not only does
the thought of this make
him “feel sick,” Mr
Topham also believes
the industry is in crisis.
Last week, he made
nationwide news for his
stance on cross-country.
Mr Topham believes
it should be optional for
pupils, to provide a level
of fairness and integrity in looking
after children’s emotional
well-being.
He said pupils at Halswell
School could choose whether
TENSION: The main entrance to Kalene Mission Hospital in Zambia, where Christchurch Hospital pharmacist Geoff Stark
previously worked before having to leave amid rising political tensions.
under a traditional chitenge
cloth.
“In March, local politics
around the on-going control of
the hospital threatened to turn
violent, prompting my departure,”
he told the Canterbury
District Health Board’s weekly
newsletter.
Mr Stark works at Christchurch
Hospital.
“It was a complex situation . . .
to participate in cross-country.
However, senior pupils, aged 10
to 12, were strongly encouraged
to take part.
The crisis in education is
another thing Mr Topham feels
strongly about, and believes
a lack of teachers,
competitive pay rates
in other occupations
and the changing status
of how teachers are
perceived, may be to
blame.
Mr Topham said the
shortage of teachers is
creating a “real risk”
that the “bar will be
lowered” over who can become
a teacher.
“A good teacher is somebody
that will create an impression
on a child for life . . . I have a
I am thankful for the diplomatic
intervention of consuls from
New Zealand, Canada, the
United Kingdom, the United
States, and the efforts of the
Christian Missions in Many
Lands Health Board members in
enabling me to return safely to
New Zealand.
“The police did not want a riot
and so I was told to stay initially,
but after hours of negotiating it
fear that as we become short
of teachers, that we will lower
the bar and allow people to
become teachers that are doing
it because it’s a job they can do,”
he said.
Mr Topham said the reality is
that the industry is losing young
teachers because the pay rate
competition with other professions.
“We have fallen behind and
therefore they can get other
opportunities to better themselves,”
he said.
The way children are being
taught has also evolved.
Mr Topham said when he
began teaching, subjects like
maths were taught and then
children were tested to see if
they remembered the things
they were taught.
was decided that I could leave
and the chairman of the CMML
Health Board would take my
place at a meeting, which was
held the following day.”
Mr Stark has worked in Zambia
on and off for the past 20
years.
The political atmosphere in
the southern African nation has
been volatile since the United
Party for National Development
Teaching in crisis - principal
Bruce Topham
Now, he says, the needs of the
child are addressed more.
“All of the assessments we
do now are not about what the
children know, but what they
understand and what we, as
teachers, need to do next to help
them further that understanding.”
There are a number of reasons
for the crisis in education, Mr
Topham believes, one being that
there is not the same “status” in
the community that teaching
used to hold.
“When I went to teachers college,
to get in it was huge, people
use to say well done. Now it’s
like if you have a degree then yes
come on in, you’re in. There’s
not that status that the sector
use to have.”
•Our People, page 18
leader Hakainde Hichilema lost
a disputed election in 2016, to
President Edgar Lungu.
In March, there was an attempt
to impeach Mr Lungu by the
opposition party, accusing him of
constitutional breaches.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and Trade would not discuss Mr
Stark’s case.
Mr Stark declined to talk to
The Star.
in brief
Redcliffs petition going
before committee
The petition to reinstate Redcliffs
School at its original site will
go before Parliament workforce
and education select committee
on Wednesday. The committee
will decide whether to take the
matter further. It is the Friends of
Redcliffs Park group’s last ditch
effort to reinstate the school,
spokesman Chris Doudney said.
Free entry to costume
display for daffodil day
Costume designer Jenny Gillies’
Enchanted Garden exhibition in
the Botanic Gardens is free until
tomorrow to coincide with Daffodil
Day. A daffodil costume postcard
has been specially printed for
sale with all proceeds going to the
Cancer Society and a new daffodil
costume is also being showcased.
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