READERS' CORNER: Why schools should nurture and develop creative talent

Moi University main Campus Eldoret presents a Luhya (Tiriki) initiative folk song during the Schools and Colleges National Music Festival at Aga Khan Academy on August 8. 2014. Photo/ANTHONY NJAGI/NATION

What you need to know:

  • Learners have been led to sacrifice their innate creative abilities and talent at the altar of academic performance and the consequence is that many brilliant, highly-talented and creative learners think they are not, because the things they are good at in school are not highly valued.
  • This pressure to pass exams has led the learners to resort to unorthodox ways of passing exams.

Why schools should nurture and develop creative talent

By Vivere Nandiemo

The recently concluded schools and colleges music festival at Kasarani was no doubt one of the most entertaining events in the recent times. It was awesome to watch learners from various schools showcase their artistic talent in various categories. This event affirmed the reality that our schools and colleges are teeming with creative talent.

However, in spite of the existence of such talent, it is rather unfortunate that our school system is not doing much to tap it for posterity.

One of the main defects of our education system is that it has placed a high premium on academic ability at the expense of a holistic development of the learners.

Learners have been led to sacrifice their innate creative abilities and talent at the altar of academic performance and the consequence is that many brilliant, highly-talented and creative learners think they are not, because the things they are good at in school are not highly valued.

This pressure to pass exams has led the learners to resort to unorthodox ways of passing exams.

Teachers, on the other hand, have adopted skewed teaching methodologies that emphasise the passing of exams as a measure of excellence.

They spend most of their time pumping into their learners curriculum content that will enable them to excel in national exams.

DENIED TIME TO PLAY

Consequently, learners have been denied time to play and engage in other co-curricular activities, hence killing creativity. Day schools compel their learners to report to school very early and leave very late while those in boarding schools wake up as early as 4am and sleep as late as 10pm; all this time spent in class.

Clubs and societies, which should nurture talent, have been killed in many schools as teachers have turned that time into ‘revision’ time.

Those schools that allow their learners to participate in annual drama and music festivals and other co-curricular activities do so, not for the sake of developing and nurturing the talent but for their egocentric purpose of seeking recognition and for teachers to earn monetary gains from trips.

These activities end the moment the national events come to an end. In a nutshell, our schools have, in the words of Dr Ken Robinson, a creativity expert, excelled in educating children out of creativity.

However, it is time our learning system develops and nurtures creative talent in learners. Creative arts are crucial. Apart from providing a medium through which we preserve our folklore and heritage, art has a tremendous potential of enabling individuals to develop creativity and innovativeness needed in a knowledge-driven economy that the country is gearing towards.

Besides, nowadays scores of people across the world are earning a living from their talent and abilities. People like Daniel Ndambuki (Churchill) and Eric Omondi are comfortably earning a living. Not to mention, our sportsmen and women, our music artists, fashion designers, newspaper cartoonists and thespians.

Indeed, most learners have innate artistic talent. Pablo Picasso, the Spanish artist who is considered one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th Century, said that every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. He goes on to say that art is a lie that makes us realise the truth.

Teachers should encourage learners to participate in co-curricular activities. They should realise that a school is a place where the learner should be moulded as an all-round individual. Besides, they should realise the importance of learning through play. Through play children develop social and cognitive skills, mature emotionally, and gain the self-confidence required to engage in new experiences and environments.

The ministry of Education should also take up its role in nurturing the artistic talent in schools. It is not enough to allow learners to participate in drama and music festivals up to the national level, and then everything ends there. It is disheartening that the only reward for the best students in these events is merely performing for the President in a gala event. No follow-up is done by the government. Indeed, the President has variously pledged that the government will invest in talent academies.

Indeed, the world is changing and creativity is a critical component in enabling learners cope, find pleasure and use their innate imaginative and innovative power.

 

The writer teaches literature at Sakuri Girls’ Secondary School in Kuria East, Migori County. ([email protected])

 

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Corruption and cartels killing research efforts in our colleges and institutions

David Ndung’u Muriu

 

Dear Prof Evan Mwangi. Say hi to canine Sigmund. In Evanston, I hope you are walking along the lakeshore. It looks like your town has a small population, which has stagnated since 1950s. Sigmund must be a great and dependable companion. He needs a baptismal name like Simba, Cimba, Cui, Kanyutu, Hitler or any of the many names reserved for dogs in this part of the world where you were born and raised.

The proposed name is supposed to provoke an immediate discharge of adrenaline. The name should warn any uninvited visitor of the grave consequences that can arise when the dog owner is not near.

I hope your lower back has slowed down its age-dependent painful degenerative process. You called your spinal column  muginyiginyi? I call it munyiginyigi . I do not know whether the difference is due to localities of Mount Kenya Region — Kabete (Kiambu), Metumi (Muranga),  Gaaki (Nyeri/Nyiri ). I guess you probably spend a lot of time seated as you work. Write and walk .You are among the majority of human beings who suffer lower back pains the world-over due to advancement in age.

Your article ‘New publishing rules to expose students to foreign predators’ (Saturday Nation, June 25, 2016) caught my attention. Having been an employee (now retired) of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI, now KALRO — Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation), the article reminded me of the hurdles we faced in research due to predation by predator journals. We suffered predation from both within and without.

The issue of predation was so serious that the institution had to give researchers the list of suspected predator journals. However, there was nothing that could be done about predation by our universities and international organisations in Kenya. Corruption and organised cartels propagated this vice. Once a proposal was written, it was supposed to move up for review and funding. The cartels would forward the targeted proposal to their members who would change a few things here and there and claim that it is authored by one of them.

No complaint on the matter would be entertained because it was generally held that one can own an implemented proposal (report) but not a proposal since two individuals can independently propose the same idea.

Institutions with funds had an upper hand. Following theft of a proposal, they would quickly produce a preliminary report on the proposal thereby denying or locking out any potential competitors. I strongly believe that corruption and cartels are responsible for the current wave of school fires here in Kenya.

 

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Integrity in exams starts early in life

By Franklin Mukembu

The national outcry on the mass leakage of last year’s national examinations should not be swept under the carpet as it touches on not only the candidates lives but also on other stakeholders.

The dissolution of the Kenya National Examinations Council board and the appointment of Prof George Magoha as the new Knec chairman was just the first step. I feel there should be more consultation with various other bodies that are either directly or indirectly involved in administering the national examinations. Testing of students starts right from the early years in school when teachers administer internal examination, and I want to believe that this is where the rain might have started beating us. Students who engage in examination cheating cannot suddenly develop the courage to cheat just at their final year.

They must have developed this habit during their formative years. They develop this habit and become experts when it comes to their final year.

Some teachers are not concerned when it comes to invigilating internalexaminations. They give examination papers to students and move out ofthe classroom and go to the staff room to chat with their colleagues.

Others get on their smart phones and students are tempted to do all sorts of examination malpractice ranging from ‘giraffing,’ referring to their notes and even discussing amongst themselves.To fight this vice, school administrations should reconstitute their curriculum in such a way that internal examinations are administered with the seriousness they deserve so that students take examinations seriously from the day they get in school. Any student caught cheating should be handled in a way that will deter him from this vice.Mahtma Gandth once said that an unexamined life is not worth living and so our students have to be examined for them to live a meaningful life in future.

The writer teaches Kiswahili  and Geography at Munithu Day Secondary School in Meru County

 

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Establish more libraries in communities

BY Nobert Oluoch Ndisio

 

Shortly after one of my articles was published in the literary pages of one of the local dailies, I received an e-mail. The sender had neither written to point out the shallowness of my argument nor a problem with my grammar.

Far from it; the sender had written to congratulate me on the substance of my argument and to draw my attention to the efforts their organisation was making to offer a solution to a literary problem.

The subject matter of the e-mail was the dying reading culture.

Many have written to remind us that our love for books is on the wane. Fingers have been pointed on who is to blame. Some have blamed parents for not being proper role models for their children when it comes to leisure reading and for not buying reading material for their children. Others have blamed the government for making books inaccessible to readers, thanks to high taxation.

All these arguments hold a lot of water. Sadly, there has been little response to these concerns. This explains my pleasant surprise when I learnt that some people are already on the other side of the bridge – instead of merely whining, they are already doing something.

The Denise C. Hogan Libraries in Kenya, in partnership with Above The Seas, an NGO, supports small rural libraries. And to prove their commitment to this cause, they already have 58 libraries under their wings in Kenya. Now, if there are literary initiatives in the country that deserve support, then this is certainly one of them.

Reading should not be a monopoly of those who spend time within the precincts of schools and other institutions of learning either as teachers or students. Let us establish community libraries that will be open to all people, regardless of age or level of education.

A story of how Gem constituency in Siaya County turned into a gem of scholars was once told in one of the local dailies, with special praise to legendary Chief Odera Akang’o. He indiscriminately drove his people to school. It was reported that he even whipped adults who dared to keep their children away from school.

Outfits like The Denise Hogan Libraries have led the way. It’s now upon the central and county governments to fall in step. Religious organisations, private citizens, the corporate society and NGOs should join in. Visit the George Hogan Libraries website http://www.abovetheseas.org and engage them about the resuscitation of our frail reading culture.

 

The writer is a primary school teacher and budding author in Migori County. [email protected]