Using Arts to Develop Children’s Potentials

In a small town in Jahorina Area Development Program in Bosnia and Herzegovina, World Vision uses art to help children develop their full potential.

“We believe that art classes in formal education have been neglected,” explains Jasmina Djana, a teacher in a local primary school. “Most people think that the aim of the art classes is ‘to draw something,’ but art education is much more than that. Its true aim is to develop creativity and problem solving skills,” she continues.  Jasmina is the president of the “Friends of School” association that conducts the “Developing Creative thinking” project, supported by World Vision.

The idea for the project came as teachers saw that the results that primary school students from Bosnia and Herzegovina achieve on international tests were below average. Different research studies also imply that students in Bosnia and Herzegovina gain mostly non-functional, non-applicable knowledge during their formal education.  This means that students who are able to finish school, might not be successful in the labour market later in life.

In 2010, UNICEF completed an education profile in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The profile shows that, the government spends nearly 80 per cent of its education budget on a highly complex administrative system, leaving little to spend on learning materials. Schools are often lack or have poor quality and outdated textbooks. Eighty per cent of companies surveyed for the above report mentioned that the education system does not prepare youth for the current labour market.

And so, the idea for the creativity project was born.

The Developing Creative Thinking project involves 15 primary school teachers and 145 students from first through ninth grade. The students are divided into nine groups. Each group of students attends five art workshops, where they are introduced to new art techniques and materials, many of which they had never used before. “We have enough materials and children don’t have to worry, for example, that, certain colours would be spent before they get to use it,” says Jasmina, happily.

“It was very interesting. We learned a lot and did things we had never done before,” says 14-year-old Ermin, of workshops. Besides individual art projects, children also make group pieces, for which they had to refer to and help each other. Ermin fondly remembers how his group had to jointly draw one animal and how each member of the group drew a different part of the animal.

Teachers involved in project participated in workshops cantered around the topics of: the importance of student’s creativity; ways to develop creativity, and how to apply this knowledge in practice.

As the workshops came to an end, a special exhibition of the student’s works was organized in the hallways of a primary school. Many colourful creations were hung on the wall and children proudly pointed fingers at their works.

The art show and the art program highlighted the students’ creativity and broadened their horizons. By showing them new ways of looking at the world around them, World Vision hopes that children will be better prepared for challenges that wait for them in the future, as well as the labour market.