Monrovia – Despite extra curriculum activities being a challenge for many grade school students in the country, the Maretha International School has organized a Critical Thinking and Analysis Program to enable students to develop their speaking and writing skills.
Report by J.H. Webster Clayeh – [email protected]
The Critical Thinking and Analysis program, established in early October of this year, brought together students mainly from the Junior High section of the school to learn other disciplines outside of their classrooms.
Speaking to FPA after one of their training sessions at the Maretha International School Press Club recently, the trainer of the Critical Thinking and Analysis program, Mohammed Sy, said the extra curriculum training is to enable students to conduct research and also stand before their colleagues and express their opinions on matters relating to their campus and the national scene.
The Critical Thinking and Analysis training program, according to Sy, is comprised of press club and other disciplines.
“The essence of the class is to afford every student the opportunity to express themselves. Learning is not only limited to the classroom it needs to go beyond the classroom.”
Sy, an English instructor at the Maretha International School, said before establishing the class, many students were not able to express themselves clearly.
Many schools in the country are seeing the need for extra curriculums activities to enable students get a broader world’s view outside of the classroom.
As for the Maretha International School, extra curriculum activities are a means to boost many students who are finding it difficult to subscribe to their desired future professions while they are in school.
According to Sy, the program is also going to work with other schools in and around Sinkor in order to form “one umbrella” and be able to speak on ills that are in their institutions,.
Sy also added that it is one of the unique ways that can build up what he called a messy system that the country already has.
“Extra curriculum broadens the students thinking.”
It makes them go beyond instructors in term of making research and it also exposes them to so many new things in the world of academia.
It also exposes them to a high level of leadership.”
Also speaking, many students said prior to the coming in of the Critical Thinking and Analysis program, they were unable to express themselves clearly.
Although they are not in the full stage of completion, Merry Koko of the 8th-grade class said she is delighted to be part of such training.
Aspiring to be an engineer, Koko said the extra curriculum activities have shaped her understanding of what she wants to be in the future.
Koko: “The Critical Thinking and Analysis class has made me understand my lesson and many other things.”
Bobby Smith, a 9th grade student said he would love to be a journalist when he grows up.
He added that with extra curriculum activities he is able to speak about issues that are affecting his institution and his community.
“For us the next generation, extra curriculum activities will help us shape our understanding of our society,” he said.