Teacher training curriculum should be reviewed to ensure left handed learners who faced stigma and discrimination enjoyed the same treatment as the right handed who formed the majority of those at school.
According to studies, left handed learners in Kenya frequently faced negative attention and taunts and that has been known have negative effects on the way they interacted with teachers and colleagues during lessons.
Instances where some are forced to become right handed at home and at school where they also faced taunting from fellow pupils needed more elaborate research before corrections are undertaken
Experts in education indicate that discussions on how to treat the left handed learners fairly have been low in the country’s education curriculum this against the International Left Handed Day being celebrated every August 3oth of the year.
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Communications consultant Mr. Jason Nyantigo while analyzing the treatment of left handed in the education sector stresses the need for curriculum experts to come up with systems through which the left handed learners could be treated the same way as the right handed for them to fully benefit from education.
There was need for control in the present system at school where the left handed are sometimes forced to adopt use of right handed tools and objects right from early childhood, suggested Mr. Nyantigo.
Forcing the left handed to adopt to use of tool designed for the right hand created some inconvenience in smooth learning especially under the now nearly eight year old CBC system which emphasizes competencies especially in the practical and technical fields.
The consultant wondered whether tutors now handling CBC subjects actually hand the required skills to handle left handed pupils this against international data showing that at least seven to ten percent of the world population was left handed.
He said that handles on how some cultures where the use of the left hand is stigmatized at school needed to be resolved through policy review because that could disrupt successful smooth acquisition of knowledge for innocent pupils in the lower grades.
Research, Mr. Nyantigo said had revealed that when a child is forced to use the right hand their mental and physical capacity and development at a tender age when love for education is supposed to be inculcated in them.
Education experts, teachers and the government, he suggested needed to factor the drawbacks which could confront the left handed CBC learners and especially due to the stigma they faced at class and while tackling technical subjects.
Left handedness should not be viewed negativity linked to some culture and religion given that some of the most successful world leaders and artists were left handed having bequeathed the world some for the best masterpieces.
Teachers, he said remained a key pillar in campaigns to ensure that left handed learners were a appreciated and guided and unleash their power and genius.
’’The genius in the left handed children should be unleashed through the knocking down of the mental boundaries that cast the left handedness negatively’’. said the consultant.
Mr. Nyantigo insisted that in the wake of adopted CBC curriculum great artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo who gifted the world some of the best master pieces should never be ignored.
By Robert Nyagah
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