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PIGG’S PEAK – Introduction of expressive arts throughout the school curriculum can be the solution to unemployment.

This was noted by Lungile Vilakati, who was doing a presentation during the Hhohho Region Expressive Arts Workshop yesterday. The workshop was held at the Hhohho Regional Education Officer (REO) Office in Pigg’s Peak and was attended by head teachers from the Hhohho Region. The workshop is part of an ongoing regional Expressive Arts Advocacy Workshop for head teachers of primary schools.

Vilakati said expressive arts was a core subject under Competency-Based Education (CBE). She said it had four strands namely, music, drama, dance and visual arts.

Further, she also revealed that the strands include entrepreneurship which enables learners to acquire knowledge, skills, attitudes and values. “It encourages creativity, imagination and innovation,” she said.

Vilakati said it was not uncommon to find that even after completion of university or college programmes, some of the graduates remained unemployed. She said one of the solutions could be the use of expressive arts. These she said include music or visual arts.

Entertainment

She also said in countries like the United States of America (USA) or South Africa, a lot of money was generated from the entertainment industry. She said expressive arts such as music, or script writing have been used to generate content and then income.

Vilakati also revealed that the workshops had already taken place in other regions and today (Thursday), it will take place in Manzini. She also said head teachers were also educated on what CBE was. Vilakati said it was important for head teachers to ensure that educators effectively taught the subjects in schools.

Meanwhile, some of the head teachers expressed concern that they did not have the equipment to teach expressive arts. However, they were told that the issue with teachers was that they did not read the teachers’ guides.

They were told that teachers could use various means to teach children. One concern that was raised by head teachers was that it was difficult to teach a child how to play the piano when they did not have one available.