Shortage of recreation facilities killing students' talents

By John Vianney Ahumuza

I will forever be grateful to missionary schools and their philosophy of allowing students to comprehensively develop their gifts and talents.

From a historical perspective, the education system in Uganda has overtime been transforming. At first were missionary schools and later government aided schools.

One unique aspect of traditional government aided and missionary schools was the emphasis of developing talents and gifts beyond class room work.

An ideal school then would have enough space for pitches for various games like football and volley ball. Football pitches were ideal venues for athletics where able bodied talented students showed case their skills. A main hall or sometimes a multipurpose dining hall or refectory would be a must to aid training sessions for music dance and drama among other activities.

Above all was manual work a compulsory weekly activity done by every student especially on Saturday's inclusive of working in school gardens. Some students would slash the bushy compound; others would clean dormitories, classrooms or clean lavatories and showrooms like in secondary schools to maintain good hygiene. In primary schools, there was time set apart in the course of the week for hand work.

Students were often given freedom to creatively make mats, mold pots, bee hives, weave baskets, pounding pestles and many other items which would always be displayed and sold to parents at the end of term on the day of collecting reports. Excellent students in this activity were often rewarded by members of the board or school administration. Parents often made it a point to attend this last day of the school to purchase items and appreciate the innovation and creativity of their children.

Generally in most schools, classes run from eight to four thirty in the evening, Monday to Friday. The rest of the evening hours were basically spent in participating various compulsory extracurricular activities. In almost all religious founded schools, Friday's, Saturday's or Sunday's were set apart for spiritual prayers to inculcate morality and ethics so as to produce responsible learners.

These rigorous activities kept us focused and disciplined leaving no room for boredom. Even those who came from lazy families were put right in these traditional schools. I deeply thank schools that have continued to give service in the context of this philosophy. What is worrying though is that apparently, many upcoming primary and secondary schools seem to have ignored this aspect of availing facilities to help develop student's talents.

Apparently, many schools only focus on academic pursuit and run classes during the day, evenings and nights. Weekends have been turned into classroom time leaving students with almost no chance to engage in extracurricular activities.

Post primaries, National athletic competitions, national musical festivals which originally provided a venues for sporting talents is now least attended. The cry of every parent and school is results, results and results! This trend is in Uganda is not very good for our future generation. I therefore recommend the following to avert this challenge.

- Extracurricular activities must be compulsory in all schools

- Schools should make manual work a compulsory affair to eliminate physical laziness

- There is a need to reward talented and gifted students to motivate them for greater hopes

- Compulsory hand work in primary schools should be revived. In secondary schools and tertiary institutions innovative projects should be encouraged.

With these measures put in place, we shall have a great all round generation in Uganda that will drive our country to a middle income status sooner than later.

The writer is a lecturer at the Uganda Christian University Mukono