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Blend mentorship in education curricula to secure youth’s future

youth

Blend mentorship in education curricula to secure youth’s future

A disproportionately large number of Kenyan youth are experiencing challenges.

Homelessness, school suspensions, early parenthood, drug usage, self-esteem issues and a lack of academic confidence are just some of the issues that threaten to derail their path to success.

Worse still, we have ignored essential components that complement and expand on traditional teaching methods.

What then is the solution? While there certainly does not exist the proverbial silver bullet, a growing body of research, however, finds that students with some forms of social support are more likely to re-engage with school in the face of challenges and adversity.

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Education, particularly at the period when young people are transitioning from adolescence to adulthood, offers the foundation for sustainable growth.

The social support that is so ardently required can be introduced through mentorship, which needs to be integrated into the educational system in this scenario.

This suggests that Kenya needs to think more broadly about mentorship. The Ministry of Education's announcement of the National Mentorship Policy in 2019 was a major move in this direction by the government.

It paves the way for the development of an active, empowered and ethical citizen by moulding, mentoring and fostering national ideals.

Its implementation should additionally include private institutions that have previously pursued equivalent ambitions in their own programmes.

It is an open secret that the adolescent years are sometimes fraught with a number of challenges that come with the turbulent transitional years.

The mentorship programme should address the elephant in the room: youth struggling with low self-esteem, low confidence and a lack of soft skills required to flourish in modern society.

It should serve as a model for young people who need to learn critical skills to thrive both professionally and personally through practicing and acquiring critical skills such as problem-solving, discovery and imagination.

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Most importantly, the youth (15-24 years old), who today make up 10.1 million of a population of 49.7 million, will play a critical role in constructing the next horizon economy.

They need to see and hear that they are valued, important and need to be involved in creating their own future on a regular basis.