Kenya to pilot new arts curriculum

The project was unveiled at the Creativity for Youth Empowerment stakeholders' workshop in Nairobi last week.

Enhancing Creativity for Youth Empowerment and Community Development is funded by the National Research Foundation and is geared towards collecting data that will be used to design a post-secondary curriculum for arts trainers in Kenya.

Project head and International Music Council president Emily Akuno says that a disconnect exists between what is taught in class and the creative industry.

Akuno told Music In Africa that many graduates in the creatives arts were finding it difficult to fit into the sector because they lacked knowledge and the appropriate skills.

“Young Kenyan creatives have become a force to reckon with in the economic sector. Therefore, they should be equipped with the right skills and knowledge to enable them to influence opinion and make greater strides in the sector going forward,” she said.

Akuno said many young Kenyans who were not formally employed engaged in creative activities. However, most institutions that were providing basic training in the arts were out of touch with the sector.

“This will be a post-secondary education training. A final draft document on the data collected during this research period will be presented to the public and the sector’s stakeholders on 7 and 8 February 2019, in a major conference that will discuss the proposed system.

“We will then begin the pilot phase, which will run for about a month. We will call in about 50 young creatives to take them through some training as per the curriculum.”

Akuno said the pilot phase would provide the project coordinators with information about its viability and areas requiring changes.

Kenyan author and Ketebul Music boss Tabu Osusa said the new curriculum should bridge the skill gap between academia and the creative sector.

“The curriculum should breed creatives who are both culturally and musically literate. Sometime you find an artist who can sing but when they perform they sound American. These same artists will tell you that they want to be famous beyond the country. This cannot be achieved if we do not introduce cultural aspect in our training,” he said.