HOW SCHOOL KILLS CREATIVITY

HOW SCHOOL KILLS CREATIVITY

As considered as major ingredient in terms of productivity and innovation, creativity is gradually dwindling in our schools especially the tertiary. This could be the reasons for the decline in the creative ability of students:

Overdependence on slides: In the university, one of the sources of the course material is the slide prepared by the lecturer. It can be in the form of PDF, Word or even the PPT. The thing is most students depend solely on the notes prepared by the lecturers to the extent that they don’t visit the library to read anymore except what is given them by the lecturers. This attitude is not helpful for students because you only stick to one source of information and it intends makes you shallow in terms of knowledge. Remember that the more you read, the more you understand and the more knowledge you acquire.

Examination minded: another canker of creativity today is the mindset of studying to pass their exams. In one way or the other almost every student is somewhat guilty for spending so much time for their exams. Most of the time we do ‘chew and pour’; we read and read our lecture notes in order to store it in our memory, go to the exam hall and try remembering what we have learnt or read and pour it on the paper. At the end we pass alright but we forget what we wrote in the exams because we did without thinking. This also is wrong because it doesn’t make student think critically- they only focus on their notes because that is the source of exams questions.

I suggest that teachers, lecturers should not just set questions from a question bank but they should set practical real life questions that is not in the lecture note; questions that will make the student think critically and come out with creative ideas or solutions.

Another killer of creativity is the theoretical approach to studies. Most of the things learn in the classroom has nothing to do with the world of work so sometimes applying the theory in a practical way makes matter difficult. So this explain why we are churning out unskilled graduates who remain jobless after their national service. A succinct comparison is Africa and Europe in terms of development. The ability to apply whatever you have learnt in school for the benefit of society is what we call true education.

No technical courses: Technical courses are very useful today; from soap making to tie and dye, to catering and to more advanced course like architecturing, engineering and IT. These are the courses that broadens your mind and help you to be critical and creative but even the technical courses we have in our country and our schools is even more theoretical than I thought and is killing creativity.

No practical assignment: Assignment and project work are a great way to explore the creative powers of students. It can help them to be more creative in the sense that the assignment itself is a practical one that involves deep thinking. The student has to do research, conduct an experiment, do a survey, organise data and draw conclusions… this is the type of project that can contribute to society. This is what we all yearn for.

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