East African MDD festival urges schools to harness talent for socio-economic devt

The East African 2024 Music, Dance, and Drama (MDD) Festival, currently taking place at Wanyange Girls Secondary School in Jinja City, has brought together over 70 schools—50 from Uganda and 20 from Kenya.

The event, themed "Greening Schools: Our Responsibility Towards Our Environment," emphasizes the use of talent as a driver for socio-economic development.

MDD is part of the co-curricular activities implemented and examined under Uganda's competence-based curriculum, which was rolled out by the government.

Since then, the Ministry of Education and Sports has supported government schools by facilitating MDD programs.

The festival, set to run for a week, aims to prepare learners to showcase their talents as a viable path to socio-economic development.

Commissioner Ismail Mulindwa, representing the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Sports, encouraged students to take their participation in school MDD festivals seriously, highlighting opportunities to showcase talent at national and even international levels.

"All over the world, entertainment is a multi-billion dollar industry providing decent employment to millions of people. We have numerous examples in East Africa, like Jose Chameleone, Eddy Kenzo, and Diamond Platnumz, among others, who are making their living through music," said Mulindwa.

A delegation of Kenyan officials, led by Dr. Elyas Abdi, affirmed Kenya’s commitment to supporting arts and cultural heritage in the region.

"The government has funded these learners to take part in this activity as part of our Bottom-Up Economic Transformative Agenda (BETA), which identifies the performing arts as the next frontier for wealth creation," Dr. Abdi told Nile Post.

Jackline Kalule, the Head of MDD Programs in the Busoga sub-region, expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Education for fully facilitating the MDD program, praising the initiative as a significant boost for students' artistic growth.