Promote history and museum study visits in schools

David Nkusi The impact of home grown solutions, if not well catered for and imparted into young generations, will soon die in the near future. Rwanda has emerged from scratch and painful past to a progressive economy that has surprised many due to her uniqueness in finding solutions to level with the arising current problems. Credit goes to the architects of “home grown solutions”. Education being a basic necessity for development, if it is devoid of people’s culture, there is less or no progress at all in that given society. It is on record that having no idea of one’s own identity and heritage has proven to be detrimental to the youth as our future generations. Knowing who you are, and where you come from, is a very critical component in creating better citizens. But what does this mean to the young generation out there? Does the student syllabus cater for museum visits and study tours? Do they possibly know why it’s important to study history and museums? Well, the answer lies in how well history and culture is preserved and transmitted. And this we cannot escape the practicability of museums amidst the national curriculum. That is, archaeology and education is the way to go. In modern society, museums enrich educational process by exposing the youth and the public in general to see, touch and feel their cultural heritage. Rwandan youth ought to understand and appreciate their history, culture and take pride in the achievements of their past heritage. Museums and heritage education has become more interesting in enriching and improving on the material objects and other resources that can, if utilised well, constitutes a learning environment to the public. It’s upon education agencies in Rwanda to see to it that museum study visits are revived. In the past, many schools had eliminated or cut back on museum trips, partly because of the tight budgets and partly due to the growing emphasis on “seat time” strategy to cover class work. To bridge this gap, museums of Rwanda are taking their lessons to schools, through “Museums in schools” outreach program that goes an extra-mile in covering a wider perspective of the public especially the young, as our future leaders. The educational material resources found in museums are not there to be kept but to instill and give students a practical guidance into the path of history and culture. Museums are places where the present meet the past to get into the future. Devoid of our young generations being taught about their past traditions, culture and history the foundation or the rubric of development will be unstable and diluted by other contradicting cultures from the west. The future of our nation is safe in the hands of more informed young generation on the social, political, historical, and cultural trends about our past. We do not need to interact with the past on special occasions, but, rather, history must be in our hands and be part of us. The writer is a Cultural heritage Analyst/ Philosophical studies expert nkusidavid@rocketmail.com