By Nicholas Anyuor

A team of teachers will visit Kigali, Rwanda, to see how the education system has helped in peace building after the 1994 genocide.

Similarly, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education will train and use drama teachers to develop scripts that promote peace and conflict resolution ahead of next year's General Election. The ministry and the NCIC will also look into including the same in the curriculum. The Kenya National Drama Festivals Executive Secretary Patrick Khaemba said the programme was aimed at preparing teachers to understand conflict and how drama could be a tool for integration and cohesion.

He said the ministry and NCIC are currently using renowned theatre artistes, educationalists and other stakeholders to achieve their targets. "We are preparing drama teachers and we expect works with themes on peace, cohesion and integration," he said. A week-long national training for the drama teachers started before the Kigali tour.

Essay competition

NCIC commissioner Ms Alice Nderitu said the body would also use essay-writing competitions on the importance of cohesion and integration to boost the initiative. The commissioner said training would include script writing, processing and implementation with the help of famous drama artistes. "It will not only be theory, but we shall look into the practical bit of it," she said.

Ms Nderitu added that the programme would also ensure some contents of the current curriculum were improved to make it more appealing to students from minority communities. She explained that while there would not be a lot of colour to the scripts, they would highlight the burning issues in the society. In Kigali, the teachers will learn about how the education system brought about cohesion and, hopefully, borrow from its treatment of genocide cases.