Kenya's ability to provide right education and training to its people will ultimately determine its path to economic development, social stability and political maturity,the Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs, Mr Mutula Kilonzo has said.
Mr Kilozo who was speaking during the official opening of the National Students' Consultative Forum on National Cohesion, Integration and Tolerance said among the issues that characterize the right education is its ability to inculcate mutual social responsibility into the minds of the learners.
“This would play a critical role in the development of virtues such as concern for other people's welfare and personal integrity which are critical ingredients in as far as national cohesion is concerned,” he said. “Since schools generally mirror social values and behavior, it is important to inculcate national values to our youth at an early age.”
The minister said schools should mainstream and integrate cohesion issues in the school curriculum by enhancing that subjects taught highlight the elements of national cohesion.
“The dangers of negative ethnicity and tribalism should be clearly spelled out,” he said, emphasizing that there is need for the school curriculum to be used as a means of promoting national values as espoused in the Constitution of the country.
The minister who was opening the forum at Alliance Boys High School, one of the oldest national school in the country admonished that co-curricular activities such as games, music and drama festivals should be used as means of nurturing tolerance of diversity amongst students' population as well as the country's official languages, English and Kiswahili not only for academic purposes but also for promoting national unity.
He pointed out that schools should come up with mechanisms that will ensure all inclusive and accommodative electoral process in the selection of prefects and club officials to ensure that students are involved in decision making as well as “reviewing existing school policies to ensure that they promote social integration and avoid segregation. This will go along way in inculcating democracy in the minds of the students.”
The forum which is a joint initiative between the Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs and the Youth Agenda – a civil society organization come at the backdrop of “a society in which loyalty to clan and ethnic identity strongly influences economic, social and political organization and expression,” the minister who is a lawyer said.
“Unfortunately,” he said “historical, political and economic factors have preyed on the rich ethnic diversity in the country leading to ethnic suspicion and disharmony.”
He said that “poor and ad hoc management of ethnic conflict over time has served to reinforce ethnic disharmony and as a result, Kenya seems to be caught in cycles of violence.”
He pointed out that “the 2007 Post Election Violence remains a stark reminder that national cohesion and integration cannot be taken for granted. It remains an urgent and long term national priority if the country's social, economic and political stability is to be assured and the national aspiration of that Kenyan Vision 2030 are to be achieved.”
National Cohesion and Integration for the country is so important that it is no longer solely the preserve and responsibility of Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs, he said. Rather, it is the collective responsibility of all ministries, departments actors and stakeholders as a sure way of ensuring maximization of opportunity and exploitation of best practices. “Approaches and strategies developed through such approaches entail exclusivity and responsiveness to citizen's needs and concerns.”
No comments:
Post a Comment