Education experts want life skills introduced at early level
Officials from Uwezo assessing the level of life skills among adolescents in Nakawuku, Wakiso District where parents of the adolescents were also interviewed. PHOTO | DAMALI MUKHAYE
What you need to know:
- Ms Grace Maina, the deputy director of special programmes at Kenyan Curriculum Development Institute, told Daily Monitor that some children express violent behaviour because they lack healthy interpersonal relationships with others.
Education experts have asked the Ministry of Education to incorporate life skills and values in the curriculum from pre-primary to university level to churn out a graduate ready for the job market.
Dr Mary Goretti Nakabugo, the executive director of Uwezo Uganda, an NGO working to promote equitable quality education, said the government should acknowledge that young people do not only thrive on academic knowledge.
According to Dr Nakabugo, the ministry had moved in that direction when it introduced the lower secondary curriculum, which is competence-based.
“These skills need to be nurtured from when the children are born in their home to pre-primary and upward. However, we started in the middle when we introduced the lower secondary curriculum,” Dr Nakabugo said at the weekend.
She said skills such as communication, respect, and problem solving, among others, should be incorporated and assessed among learners.
Dr Nakabugo cited a study done eight years ago by the Inter-University of East Africa in five countries, Uganda and Kenya inclusive where it was established that 50 percent of graduates in those countries were found unfit for jobs. In Uganda, the percentage went up to 60 percent.
It is against this background that Uwezo and Regional Education Learning Initiative (RELI) in East Africa, have commissioned a study to assess how adolescents between the age of 12 to 17, are faring as far as life skills are concerned. 16,000 adolescents in 20 districts in Uganda are targeted with findings expected at the end of the year.
Ms Grace Maina, the deputy director of special programmes at Kenyan Curriculum Development Institute, told Daily Monitor that some children express violent behaviour because they lack healthy interpersonal relationships with others.
“In EAC, we focus so much on the intellectual development of a child at the expense of other dimensions that affect a child. Teachers, parents and learners are keen on learning achievements, completing assessments and how they perform at the national exams,” Ms Maina said.
“There is no emphasis on collaboration, development of social skills, emotional stability and nurturing of values and yet they are very critical in forming a whole person. Learners need to deal with personal issues, develop and maintain healthy relationships with others and make informed decisions,” she added.
