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Netilie Marozva Cool Lifestyle Reporter
We are at that time when most schools have selected the students who will be prefects next year. Did you make the grade? If you did, congratulations! If you did not, too bad but that is no excuse not to be the best you can be in all your endeavours.

So what is the big deal about prefects anyway? Are they just lucky fish who get to lord it over the other students? Is there any benefit from being made a school prefect?

Being a prefect provides practical lessons in leadership and management. It is a training, an additional qualification that will help you when you graduate, providing you with understanding and skills that will help you in your homes, to find employment, in your working life, and wider society.

Being a prefect, especially a good one, can be difficult and challenging, it requires extra work, but in the longer term you will reap the benefits.

Several surveys have shown that a majority of successful managers, business people and leaders in the Zimbabwean society and elsewhere were prefects at school and generally had good academic and behavioural records

Being a prefect teaches you to:

i. Have self-confidence – be bold and assertive.

ii. Have the ability to speak in public, to students and adults.

iii. Have team working skills.

iv. Be organised and resourceful.

iv. Be polite, honest, reliable, punctual and hardworking.

v. Have demonstrable interest and ability in extra curriculum activities like sport, music.

Muguta Secondary School in Epworth is one of the schools that depend on the teachers’ opinion and analysis on students’ behaviour and academic performance in selecting prefects.

The headmaster, said that for the school to produce hardworking and well mannered prefects, the teachers have to intervene because they know each student and how effective they are in leading their peers.

One of the prefects at the school, Kudakwashe Chizima said that prefects selection by teachers will enable the other students to be guided by someone who has strong leadership skills and can help to guide them well even when the teachers are not around.

“Since prefects have so many benefits as compared to ordinary students, this will inspire the other students to work hard, behave well and take part in school activities like sport so that they can also enjoy prefect ship benefits.” Chizima said.

However, there are some schools who think that students have the right to choose the people who will lead them and they do a better job in selecting prefects than teachers.

This will enable the students to work well with the selected prefects and to respect them since they would be the ones who would have chosen students that they like and look up to.

In our survey of school prefects, we asked them questions about what they like about being prefects and what they dislike about being a prefect?

Audrey Mukombe who is a prefect at Success College in Kuwadzana said that being a prefect has more advantages than disadvantages.

“ Being a prefect makes me develop a spirit of hard work, because I have to balance my prefect ship duties and my academics as well because the teachers and students will be looking up to me.” Mukombe said.

Patience Gororo who is a prefect at Muguta Secondary school said that being a prefect enables students to be more confident and able to handle difficult situations.

“Since I was selected as a prefect, I have learnt to address a crowd and to build self-confidence in preparation for future careers like law, journalism or teaching that require someone to address a group of people.” Gororo said.

Above all, most prefects said that they learn patience, politeness and acceptance of open criticism and it helps them develop leadership skills and teaches them humility.