By Kefiloe Kajane
Many schools in Lesotho do not teach art as a subject. This prompted Montoeli Mothongoa – an artist from Maseru – to come up with the idea to teach art to interested children and adults.
Mothongoa teaches fine art, landscape painting and many other types of painting. He says art has been his passion since he was young, and he knew that eventually he wanted to make it his career.
He described art as ‘very important’ but regretted that the country does not consider it as something that could be a source of income.
“Ever since I have started this art classes, I have realised that we have the potential to unearth many artists in the country. Our young children have talent and all we need is to instill this in them when they are still young.
“It would be a great idea if it could be introduced as a subject so that we take it from there. People in Lesotho are interested in art, but they do not support it. One will think maybe it is because they do not understand it,” he said.
He also indicated that though he started his art classes during the nationwide lockdown as something that he wanted to use to keep children busy as schools are still closed, and he would like to pursue it and have a school of art.
He further indicated that it is important for people to learn more about art as it is a good way to reveal their inner intelligence.
“I take children in from the age of six but as for adults, I just take people who are interested in art despite their age or gender. We provide them with all the material and they just come for lessons after they paid,” Mothongoa explained.
According to a study done in Nigeria, the significance of art in the development of a child cannot be underestimated. It is through art that a child is able to understand and clearly arrive at meanings of their surroundings.
In a study on the importance of visuals in primary and secondary schools in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria, scholars concluded that students performed better using visuals and illustrations to learn than those who learned without them.
In addition to enabling students to understand better, art education also stimulates children to discover their talents through such exposure.
