Children urged to spend their leisure time developing their talents

Given the increasing unemployment in Uganda, parents need to support their children to utilize their leisure time profitability by doing hands on skills in order to identify their talents which can be developed for future success. Most children especially on weekends spend much of their leisure time in sports betting and other unproductive work which have not benefited them to compete with the current situation in the country.

These and more were words from Mr. Gaaki Stephen a teacher at Kyebambe model primary school in Fort portal when he was hosted alongside Mr. Ganjangu a member of school management committee & Phiona Kanyunyuzi a pupil at Kyebambe model primary schools to discuss live on the topic; ‘Role of parents in supporting their children to attain quality education’. The debate was live on ToroDev supported ‘Orukurato’program that is aired live every Saturday 8-10pm on Hits Fm a local radio station in Fort Portal.

Mr. Gaaki Stephen, a teacher at Kyebambe Model Primary School 

Mr. Gaaki said parents are the first teachers of their own children, to nature and give them good education background by supporting them to do a number of activities that may not necessarily focus on passing national examinations but supporting a child in case he/she failed to advance in academics. He further said parents need to talk to teachers to understand their children better and teachers need to learn the children they teach such that they can share with parents to help the child become a better person in future by doing hands on skills work if the child’s talent is focused there instead of forcing them to read and pass national exams which make them unemployed after such a long period of time when resources have been wasted.

Phiona Kanyunyuzi the education consumer encouraged parents to support their children with school requirements and also talk to teachers whenever they visit school to know the progress of their children in academics and also create time for them over weekends to learn hands on skills where they are taught because when they make products and sale they get money to support their parents to buy some scholastic materials.

Meanwhile Mr. Ganjangu said children should be helped to change their mind set of focusing on passing national exams but be given knowledge and skills to help them cope with prevailing situations in the world. He called upon government to refocus on the current curriculum and also support vocational training in order to make children job creators other than job seekers hence reducing unemployment situation in Uganda. He further said teachers need to help parents by advising them on the talents of their children such that parents can support them to be people who can be self supportive.

children  learning in class 

Children during their leisure time

 ‘’When parents are called at school they are told about how fees has been increased and the proposed building plans the school has other than discussing the performance of their children and how to improve it better, as school management we need to advise parents on their children and also look for ways to develop the identified talents in these children to make them successful citizens in future’’, said Mr. Ganjangu.

Hand crafts made by children at school

He further said we need regular meetings of parents and teachers in schools to discuss a number of factors affecting performance in schools like talent development, infrastructure, absenteeism, drop-out, issues of lunch, etc if we are to improve the education standards in our schools.

During the 2 hours live discussion, listeners participated through call-inns & sms platforms; about 30 people called in due to limited time and these are some of their contributions; ‘’Schools need not to concentrate on academics only but also identify talents in the children they teach and support them together with parents to develop them’’, said Mr. Byabasaija a caller from Kasunganyanja in Kabarole district,  ‘’some teachers have overstayed in some schools and this has forced them to do whatever they want without control and in the long run performance has been affected negatively. There is need to increase supervision in schools and effect transfers for better performances’’, said Charles a caller from Katooke in Kyenjojo district, ‘’Parents have undermined their roles towards education that’s why children are performing poorly and others have dropped out from school’’,  said Henry  Kamugisa a caller from Kasenda in Kabarole district.

We are grateful to SIDA, NED, SPIDER, ICT4DEM, CIPESA & all other development partners for the financial and technical support to run these programs.