At the beginning of the raining season, the pupils bring seeds and yam sett. During harvest season, the corn and vegetables are harvested and shared for the pupils. The yam is exclusively for the teachers.
Every pupil looks up to when they will be in primary five - the terminal class - with the possibility of becoming a perfect and eligible to partake in roasting the yams for the teachers. The prefects were in charge of gathering firewoods, making fire and roasting the yams and sharing it for all the teachers. The school Gardener was in charge of the harvest before giving the prefects for the roasting. About five to ten tubbers are harvested weekly - particular on Fridays - for this purpose. I was eager to get to primary five and most probably become a prefect in order to participate.
When my set got to primary five, prefects were appointed and I was made the time keeper. We had the Head boy, Head girl, Social prefect, time keeper and few others making the number to be about 8 out of more than 20 pupils in class.
The crops were grown in the school farm as usual and it was our turn to take charge of the yam roasting. The school authority made some adjustments into the rules and regulations guiding the pupils and prefects.
In the previous years, when the prefects roasted the yam, a part of it was given to them as a compensation for the work done. However, during my time, the rules were changed and the prefects were made to share all the roasted yam for the teachers. This didn't go down well with the prefects but we had no option than to follow the instructions of our teachers.
Few weeks into the task, we weren't comfortable with the punishment of having to perceive the aroma of the roasted yam but ended up not having a taste of it. Whenever we were moving from office to office to serve the teachers, our presence was always noticed meters away by the scent of roasted yam that traveled ahead of us. For the reason best known to the headteacher, she said we shouldn't taste it.
On a particular Friday, we decided to eat from the roasted yam while peeling the skin. We got to the office as usual and as I opened my mouth to greet the headteacher, the kind of roasted yam aroma that left my mouth made her beckon me to move closer which I did. She instructed me to open my mouth while she took a closer look to realize that I ate yam. It happened in a manner that we couldn't deny it. We were caught. We were punished for it.
One of us came up with a suggestion on the way out. He suggested that we should have a toothbrush each and a toothpaste in school so that each time we eat the roasted yam, we brush our teeth to avoid being caught. This we started doing and after sometime, the teachers started noticing the smell of fresh paste in our mouths and soon began to wonder if it was the brushing of teeth in the morning that was still bringing the scent of fresh paste in the afternoon.
They started to monitor us without us knowing. We were caught in the act while brushing our teeth after eating roasted yam. We were summoned to the headteacher's office immediately.
We were asked to kneel down while a plan of giving us corporal punishment was being muted. We remained in the position when the proprietor of the school came to the school. She asked about our offenses and the teachers in the staffroom where we were held explained our offenses to them.
She had a different understanding of what the ideal arrangements were supposed to be. To her, it was wrong giving us the task of preparing roasted yam for teachers without tasting it.
She said the relationship between the teachers and pupils should be like that of parents to children. She posited that she believed that no parent would make it a culture for his/her child to cook food for him/her without tasting it. "It's not fair enough," she concluded. We were smiling that we were being defended.
The headteacher turned to us and lambasted us for exhibiting such dubious character at such a tender age. She scolded us for not following the instructions of our teachers under any and every condition.
"If at all pupils will be roasting yam for teachers, they should have a taste of it," the headteacher concluded.
That punishment of having to perceive the aroma of roasted yam without having a taste of it was put an end to.