Primary and Secondary schools in Kwekwe district should take arts activities seriously as to develop a culture of reading, writing, acting, singing, dancing and other forms of art. Schools in Kwekwe lag behind other schools in the country when it comes to arts development as part of extra curricula activities or as part of school lessons, schools in Kwekwe are not taking any forms of arts seriously as there are no visible Arts and Media Clubs in schools.
In Kadoma recently gospel maestro Charles Charamba lamented the lack of enthusiasm in school authorities in implementing comprehensive arts activities in schools. Speaking at a prize – giving ceremony at Lady Tait Primary school in Kadoma Pastor Charamba said “arts and culture activities must be taken seriously in schools to equip children with diverse skills”.
Arts and culture is one of the most important programmes in a school as children could survive on arts and other talents in future. Most members of the society look down upon arts, but the time to groom the youths is now and children should also desist from taking arts lightly as it requires professionalism and good management.
Schools in Kwekwe are even lagging behind from their counterparts in Kadoma who are taking arts to greater heights in schools by linking with community arts centres and institutions that assist schools in implementing sound art programmes. KWAMECC (Kwekwe Arts and Media Community Centre) is forging ahead in providing technical knowledge in setting up of Arts and Media Clubs in schools in Kwekwe, but the ‘beaucratic sausage machine’ in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary is effortlessly shooting the programme dead.
“ Since third term last year we have approached the relevant district education offices but to no avail, they are just hoping us from one office to another, dragging the whole initiative to a still born status, but we have devised a new strategy of approaching interested pupils and students to come to our centre especially those in fine arts like poetry and creative writing, in order to set up a diversity Arts and Media Club, that will identify and develop talent in interested youths in schools, but we hope the Ministry of Education in Kwekwe and Provincial Offices in Gweru will take heed and open up”, said Kudakwashe Zvarayi, KWAMECC Coordinator.
The Arts and Media Clubs must be oasis of information and centres of developing arts in the youths and most of the art areas mostly neglected are creative writing, poetry, public speaking, painting and drawing, photography and graphic designing. Media is very important part of students’ lives. Most students spend a lot of their time consuming media messages by watching TV, surf internet, and listen to the radio, read newspapers. Therefore it is imperative for students to develop a conceptual understanding of the media that will involve both critical reception of and active production through media. Arts and Media Clubs in schools will provide students a platform to not only understand arts and media but also to express themselves through arts and media.
