Comments on: Kwani Litfest on Africa Journal

By: Irene

Irene — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:13:13 +0000

I think creating a participatory environment in school would definitely help. Our education system is seriously flawed, teachers do all the talking and the students’ role is to listen..there’s no room for “personal” thought not even in the social studies. If there was room for some kind of exchange between students and teachers in the classroom, the general attitude towards english as a language of “commerce” would gradually diminish as students become more comfortable expressing themselves in the language. As a result, they’ll be more likely to pick up a book written in english outside of regular classroom instruction.

By: ke

ke — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:17:13 +0000

This is a topic that is of interest to me because I do enjoy reading. They’re several reasons for the lack of a reading culture in kenya and not all of it is the people’s fault:

1) Most people simply can’t afford books
2)We have no public libraries and even if we did, most people who borrowed the books probably wouldn’t return them!
3) The heavy curriculum doesn’t give students enough time to read anything other than their exam subjects.
4) The stakes on passing the national exams are so high that parents don’t encourage their kids to read anything other than what is going to be tested.

And I’ll add something else here:
When I read comments on non-kenyan blogs, the level of writing is much better than what you find on regular kenyan blogs and I attribute these somewhat poor writing skills to the lack of a general reading culture in Kenya.

By: Mwari Wa David

Mwari Wa David — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:49:57 +0000

……. ’84 % literacy level for Kenyans, one of the highest in Africa’…. very encouraging.