The inspirational talk, which attracted a lot of The Polytechnic students, was centered on four pillars:academic excellence, essence of discipline to academic performance, motivation and career guidance.

According to Motivation Hub co-founder, Yamikani Chipangula, the talks were aimed at changing the negative perceptions that secondary school students have towards education as they undermine themselves based on which school they are learning.

A third-year student studying Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering, Chikumbutso Walani, while talking about academic excellence, told the students about the differences between success and excellence.

“Success is when one has achieved their goals whilst excellence means that one has improved in their daily operations,” Walani explained.

Walani added that students need to change their attitudes to manage time effectively and to work hard for them to achieve greatness in their studies.

The Polytechnic Students Union President and co-founder of Motivation Hub, Japhet Nthala, who tackled the remaining three pillars said the students can do better in their studies if they are willing to work hard and value education the most in their mindsets.

Nthala said, “God created everyone with the potential of doing great things; what matters is hard work and understanding one’s capabilities.”

He further used environment theory to teach the students why abiding by school rules is most important, despite one’s intelligence. 

He explained:“School rules are like a good environment, which a healthy tree needs to grow well; this applies to you as students no matter how hardworking and intelligent you are. Abiding by school rules will help you to excel in your studies.”

On his part, a senior teacher from the school who accompanied the students, Luke M’bawa, said the talk has slightly changed some students’ mindsets toward education, as they had an opportunity to gain more knowledge from college students’ experience.

M’bawa added that the talk has helped their work to be easier as, for them, teaching students who had no goals in their lives and lacked self-motivation was very difficult.

“Students’ performance also depends on the perception that they have about themselves, though as teachers we do take  responsibility to motivate them, but the inspirational talk will make a huge impact on  our teaching,” he said.