Wow, it finally happened! Our first ever creative writing competition for children in primary schools in Kenya took place between May and July this year. It is organized by The MINT Initiatives, which operates under the umbrella of ABCA Africa. The theme for this year’s competition was Celebrating the Gift of Creative Writing.
The competition was divided into two categories: grades 4 – 6 (Junior) and grades 7 – 10 (Senior). Participating schools were allowed to register as many learners as they could in both categories. They were to compete for the top three positions, which would be given awards.
A total of 35 schools across 20 counties registered to participate in the competition. However, only 9 schools submitted their learners’ essays, a much lower number than we had expected. We are grateful, though, for the ones who put in the effort, both teachers and learners, to participate in the competition. We also had a team of four professional judges to help us evaluate the essays – two ladies and two gentlemen drawn from different fields who did quite a wonderful and commendable job. A big ‘thank you’ to Chrisphine Okoth, Phoebe Achieng’, Charity Akomo and Victor Ogot for your wise contributions to the judging process.
Summary of the judges’ Comments
- A key concern was the use of AI by a few of the learners, which spoke of the possibility that they were not willing to do their own writing. This begs the question, how can we make creative writing more fun or interesting for children?
- Some essays exhibited very little creativity, a parameter that carried the highest marks in the marking scheme. How then do we nurture the creativity and imagination of children?
- Some of the learners were really creative and used various literary tools like similes, analogies and even crafting a story within a story. I still remember how some of the essays painted a picture of the learner’s dream as an adult writer – very descriptive, very ambitious in nature. They exhibited real potential for becoming great writers in future!
Congratulations to the learners who attained the top 3 positions in this competition! You can view the top winners here.
Next Competition (2027)
In 2027 the competition will run from May to August, culminating in an award ceremony during the holidays. We are really looking forward to more participation next year. If you did not get a chance to participate, make sure you are not left out in 2027.
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Edna