| In the second term of his class 1 (he did not go through Nursery School since there was none in the slums), his Mathematics teacher tried to tease him with work of Class 2 to “cool him down”. To his surprise, the boy could quickly grasp and apply the concepts. The Mathematics teacher decided to involve the headmaster who later appreciated the extraordinary ability of the youngest boy in the school.
The headmaster decided to summon the parents to school in order to seek their consent to accelerate him into Class 2 since the boy was very capable. However, the elder brother was in class 2 and there would be a problem at home if the boy accelerated to Class 3 where the other older one was.
The headmaster insisted that the boy accelerates but the family would take none of it. As a matter of fact, the family involved a close relative who later involved the District Parents Board to intervene in saving the family unity since the process of acceleration would make the other siblings look foolish.
Finally, it was decided that Tom remains in class 1 where he kept on getting top marks without much effort.
Shortly, Tom began to get bored of and disillusioned about school, and would create lies of sickness to avoid going to school. When he discovered that lies of sickness would not work anymore, he started to disappear with peers in the slums with the excuse of passing-by the house of a sister who had been married off at a tender age, and would often be fetched by parents from such peers.
By the time he was in Class 5, and at the age of 9, Tom was reported to be part of a gang that had been terrorizing residents and was armed with a gun. Most of his colleagues in school appeared to know this as they all feared to say anything about him.
Two years later Tom narrowly escaped death when they were cornered by police trying to rob a motorist along an isolated street in Cape Town. The bullet graced his head and tore off his left ear. He was arrested alongside 3 others and 2 others died of bullet wounds.
Since Tom was below the age of 18, he was put in juvenile custody where they would receive light punishment and counseling. Limited education would be provided to them with a bias to apprentice (still part of punishment) since it was believed that such characters could not achieve anything in formal education.
It was during this apprentice education that Tom invented a hand-made sprinkler made from primitive waste metals and swamp reeds. This devise would not use electricity o need for a generator but would tap water from a nearby swamp for irrigation of horticulture within the prison industries and this became a major supplier of horticulture to the neighborhood.
So successful was Tom’s invention that during a visit by The President, the prison authorities guided the president to “see one of their inventions”. The president was so excited about the progress and enquired about who had invented the device only to find out that it was a child prisoner.
The president got so remorseful that he decided that Tom be acquitted since the 2 years he was in custody was “enough punishment”
and should be allowed to grow his invention in real world.
After his release, Tom reformed completely and continued to use his invention to support irrigation for arid areas and recently won a scholarship for further studies for a Bachelors Degree in Water Management and Irrigation, in the US, having successfully completed O level studies.
This is just a tip of the iceberg for Gifts and Talents wastes in Africa. Many such gifts die naturally at the onset and Tom is just one lucky case.
Extract from: Death of Talent at the onset: The Politics of African Admission and Examination Processes, by Prof. Humphrey Oborah, ACfGT President.
A presentation to 18th Biennial World Council for Gifted and Talented Conference for Gifted and Talented Children , Vancouver, Canada (3-7 August 2009).
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