Talent and education form the best mix

When Principal Secretary for Basic Education, Dr Belio Kipsang invited Olympic medallist, Eliud to speak to students after the 2016 East African Secondary Schools Games and Sports Championship at Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret recently, the athlete had two pieces of advice for the youngsters;

First, talent has an uncanny ability to bring good things to the talented person. Second, use education to propel the talent. The second piece of advice Kipchoge gave was that discipline is a crucial element in the success in games and sports in general.

There is no discipline that requires uttermost discipline and good conduct (no pun intended) than sports. Indeed, no personal success, achievement, or goal, can be realised without self-discipline. It was gratifying that the blend between athletic success—talent and discipline—came from a personality who has been at the pinnacle of athletic excellence.

I believe students looking beyond the East African Secondary Schools Games and Sports Championship took notice: that discipline and successful sportsmanship are two sides of the same coin. I also discerned truth and beauty in the inexorable connection between talent development and education. Kipchoge may not have been aware that in pitching for education on the part of talented sportsmen and women, he was plumping into a central core of what has long animated education philosophers and policy makers.

All nations look to formal education as the chief instruments for providing the finest development of individual talents, abilities and capabilities. Further, it is a tool to dedicate learners to the common goals and needs that provide the conditions and opportunities for individual fulfilment in a context of shared ideals, and values.

The assumption is that all children are born with certain abilities and talents. Justice requires that each individual develops his or her ability to the fullest. You discern this principle in the visionary ideas Plato, Thomas Jefferson had in their works.

You see this in basic documents on education by UNESCO, and world governments.
The abilities and talents are as varied as the individuals who inhabit society. And they are all useful to facets of human needs and also in the totality of the well-being, stability, prosperity of the society.

Incidentally, the running thread underlying the Curriculum Reform process the Government is undertaking is to identify and nurture the talent of every learner. The proposed curriculum aims at creating a number of pathways that will create opportunities for nurturing three categories of talents and abilities and inclinations: academic, talent oriented and vocational or technical inclinations.

The curriculum is billed to have greater choice and flexibility into education. Opportunities will be provided to encourage those with special talents to go as far as they can. The government is meanwhile strengthening Vocational and technical training institutions to help develop those with ability and inclination to pursue a vocational and Technical Training path for their career development.

This path will enable the ambitious students to attain graduate certifications in technical fields if they want.The envisaged curriculum is also holistic. It will provide students with a holistic education, focused on both academic and non-academic areas.

The 12 year schooling at basic education levels will enable the students not to just grow up, but will provide them the opportunity to develop the skills and values that they will need for life. It will not be just about equipping students to earn a living, though that is one of the main pillars of education. It will also equip them with skills on how to live.

Kipchoge’s homily reminded me of remarks by President George Herbert Walker Bush, in a teleconference in September, 1991. A student asked him: “Mr. President, what if you are talented in art and you drop out of school because you can make a bunch of money?”

President Bush replied: “Talented in art and you drop out of school to make a bunch of dough? Well, first place, I hope - maybe if you’re asking about yourself or someone in your family, I hope they are talented in art. But I don’t think you ought to drop out of school. You can have one discipline. You can have one area of expertise. But to be a full human being you need a wide array of knowledge.

And so my advice to somebody that fit that description would be; keep up with the art. Do what you do best, but don’t neglect being a whole person. And you only get that from a full education.