This article was first published in the New Vision on March 10, 2021
By Bob Kisiki
It really is a matter of priorities, when all’s considered.
The kindergarten debate is back, and the views are something to warrant a full study. After the education ministry announced the timeline for the resumption of education institutions, where they also declared that pre-schoolers would not return to school till further notice, social media exploded with commentaries and queries and debates on the matter.
There were two main themes — are we witnessing the death of kindergarten/ nursery schools in Uganda? And, do we even need these schools? The first question seemed to fear that by suspending the reopening of the lowest level of formal education, the government was testing ground for banning them, so education can begin with Primary One.
On the other hand, the people asking the second question thought that though ideally kindergarten was a key stage in a child’s education, in Uganda, it had been kidnapped and made to serve a totally different purpose, so why not do away with it completely, so parents can take up the role?
See, kindergarten, when it began in Germany back in the 19th century, was modelled around the concept of a children’s garden (kinder is German for children, while garten means garden. So Friedrich Froebel coined the term, to mean Garden of Children). Froebel believed that children were beautiful and tender like flowers, so they needed similar care and attention like flowers in a garden received, thus the idea of a school where children of five years (sometimes with those four years or six years) could develop and flourish freely through self-directed play, under the guidance (not direction) of a teacher.
Unfortunately, that is no longer the case with majority nursery schools in Uganda, where teachers use them to begin on the primary education curriculum. There’s barely any play; children hardly get time to interact and acquire the socialising skills Froebel envisioned and they no longer even leave school at midday like in the past.
Some now study all day, yet many are made to wake up before sunrise, so they can catch the van that picks them up from home or a place near home, ready to begin classes at 7:00am. Over time, the children become disoriented and, if their parents don’t figure how to handle them, they could hate school for the rest of their lives. Those who don’t, sometimes grow up as little human automations devoid of human attributes that make them social creatures.
Kindergarten in itself is not the problem; it is in fact essential to the growth and development of children. For this reason, parents must drop this typically Ugandan craze for grades and salvage their children, and demand that schools offer proper kindergarten education.
Let the children receive social skills. Allow them time and space to play. Teach them the basic foundations of academics; mostly numeracy and literacy. Nothing more. For parents to think that because schools are doing it badly, therefore, we should do away with it is to campaign that we throw out the baby with the bath water. Counterproductive!
So, what happens in the interim? Let parents stand in the gap. Rationalising that you’re too busy to attend to your children is to state in not too many words that you place your work and businesses above the children, which does not speak too well of your order of priorities. I aver.
The writer is a parent, teacher and social worker
