WHY CHILDREN WHO BALANCE CLASS WORK WITH HOBBIES GAIN MORE

SCIENCE or soccer? How many parents would want their children’s names on the soccer list when for generations, most parents have considered co-curricular activities a waste of precious study time?

Braxton Okot, the programme manager of the Child Resilience Programme of Save the Children in Uganda, says co-curricular activities are not just physically stimulating but also come with positive mental attributes. “It enhances a child’s concentration. “This contributes to their cognitive development and improves learning.”

He says activities like music, dance, drama, sports, debating and forming discussion groups boost the self-esteem of young people, which makes them more confident. This confidence, Okot adds, translates into good communication skills. And with good communication skills comes good leadership skills, Okot says.

Aggrey Kibenge, the education ministry spokesman, says this is why the ministry insists that all schools include co-curricular activities on their calendars and time-tables. “We insist that schools give co-curricular activities equal attention with classroom activities. We include this in the school year calendar, which is given to all schools at the beginning or end of each year. Nobody has authority to alter that calendar except through the permission of the commissioner of education or the permanent secretary,” he says.

Kibenge says the calendars show that schools must have music festivals, sports days, science fairs and regular physical education lessons because these activities support the teaching and learning process.

“The education of a human being must not be one of the head only but of the whole body. We have had some products of this system who excelled in classroom work but ended up becoming a problem to society and even to themselves after school, because they know nothing other than cram work,” Kibenge says.

A 2005 study by the Child Health Promotion Research Centre at Edith Cowan University in Australia revealed that students who participate in co-curricular activities develop good social and interpersonal skills, which results from the feeling of self-worth that these activities add.

James Billy Matovu, the headteacher of African Outreach Academy in Luweero district, says co-curricular activities also help children develop their talents. “Children can take up careers in some of these sporting activities like football. Not everyone is supposed to be a teacher or a doctor; that is why we encourage children to develop their talents,” Matovu says.

A research by Dr. Greg Hamilton, Prof. Donna Cross and Dr. Marg Hall also found out that children who participate in co-curricular activities not only have good relations with their peers but also with their teachers.

In fact, the research revealed that co-curricular activities play a big role in preventing children who are at risk of dropping out of school from doing so. Children are at risk of dropping out of school for many reasons, especially stigma, probably because the child comes from a family affected by HIV/AIDS or traumatised children.

Okot says the psychosocial programme, which is now in many schools in war-torn northern Uganda, involves forming discussion groups in which each child gets an opportunity to teach the others life skills or classroom subjects where their strengths lie.

The strongest direct effect that participation in co-curricular activities has on drop-out prevention is during the high school years. “Strong friendships grow from these groups. This helps the children to cope with challenges they may be facing either at home or school. Children find it easier to confide in other children,” Okot says. In this case, the children have good friends who can steer them away from trouble.

The Edith Cowan University research, which set out to find the role of co-curricular activities in helping reduce smoking among adolescents, found that having co-curricular activities in school provided a positive, safe and structured environment for children to use their spare time.

Steve Duncan of Montana State University, who holds a doctorate in family studies, says: “Co-curricular activities and involvement in community clubs and organisations are important in fostering the strengths of youth; which help young people steer away from undesirable behaviour.”

However, Kibenge says the education ministry is finding challenges in ensuring that schools use the time for co-curricular activities on their timetables for these activities, because of the attitude of some school administrators who think that this is a waste of time.

“Much of the misfits in our society arise as a result of this kind of attitude. Some schools think of only preparing children for exams. In the end the children become irrelevant even to themselves, because they do not have the right attitude to fit in with others. They are not even creative, which is an important problem-solving tool,” Kibenge says.

He adds that with the current strengthening of the function of school inspection and regulation, the ministry is going to catch up with administrators who downplay the importance of co-curricular activities.

He advises schools to not only think in terms of cash to run co-curricular activities but to “look in their backyards.”