Civics Form Four Topic Two | Cultural Values and Life Skills
Importance of promoting and preserving cultural values
1. They constitute people identity
Losing one’s cultural values is the same as losing one’s own identity which is unhealthy to the society.
2. They are the foundation of the society
Cultural values promote unity, a society that disregards its cultural values is most likely to lose its unity and cohesion and fail to function as a social unity.
3. They are the basis of what is right and wrong
A society which promote its cultural values may get criteria to determine what is right and wrong or good and bad.
4. They minimize or eliminate segregation
Principles such as equality, justice, and compassion contribute to unity and discourage segregation in the society.
The role of institutions and other groups in promoting and preserving cultural values in Tanzania
1. The family
The family is the basic social institutions where children learn for the first time how to function properly in the culture in which they are born. Parents teach their children the idea of peace, gender equality, sharing, cooperation, justice and so on.
2. Education institutions
Education institutions include schools, colleges and universities. They inculcate into young people values, ideologies and skills that are relevant for young people to cope with the society to which they belong. Teachers and instructors in these institutions are thus responsible to pass on the values of our society.
3. Work place
Leaders in workplaces ensures that the employees are honest, hardworking, with the spirit of self-reliance, and there is no any kind of gender discrimination.
4. The government
Government plays a significant role in promotion and preservation of African cultural values by making policies and enacts laws that are in line with African values.
5. Peer groups
These groups have a very important role to play in the preservation and promotion of cultural values. They too help their members to adhere to African cultural values.
6. Mass media
Mass media have programmes that demonstrate how people live, share information, display their hospitality, unity and how they cooperate with others in accomplishing different tasks in communities, and so on.
Challenges facing promotion and preservation of cultural values in Tanzania
1. Colonial legacy
colonialism make African believe that they have no values, and that they only values that matter were those brought by the colonial masters.
2. Globalisation
exposure to western culture and values has affected development and growth of African science and technical skills. This is because many young people spend their time trying to learn and practice western skills rather than African skills.
3. Lack of awareness
many young African people are not well informed about their cultural values. They think that western values are the same as African values and that in a globalised world all cultural values are the same.
4. Shortage of financial resources
promotion and preservation of cultural values is expensive. Financial resources are needed for paying experts, buying modern storage facilities and timely repairment. Such resources sometimes become too scarce to sufficiently promote and preserve our cultural values.
Ways of mitigating the challenges facing the process of promoting and preserving African cultural values
1. Education so as to decolonise African mind.
2. Africanise the learning content: mot of the content should be African.
3. Restore self-confidence among the African youths by taking pride in African life styles, skin colour and cultural values.
4. Reject values that globalisation brings that are destroying our cultural values.
5. Enact policies and plans to promote African cultural values.
Exercise
1. Outline the institutions responsible for preservation and promotion of cultural values in Tanzania. What roles each of these institutions play?
2. Examine the challenges that hinder preservation and promotion of cultural values in Tanzania.
3. Suggest measures to improve the effectiveness in preserving and promoting cultural values in Tanzania.
4. Propose five ways of enabling Tanzanian youths to love and respect their cultural values.
5. Describe any five effects of globalisation in promotion and preservation of African cultural values.
Activity
In a group, prepare a project to demonstrate that African cultural values are not primitive but are relevant and can be used for the development of Africa. Present your project in class.
Culture of caring and maintenance of personal and public property
The culture of caring and maintenance of personal public property mans the process and system of planning, maintaining, and monitoring social and cultural arrangements in the community in order to maintain and preserve personal public property. This process include: inspection, repairing and restructuring of property to ensure their sustainability.
Creating a culture of caring of personal and public property enables the wellbeing of the whole society.
Importance of culture of caring and maintenance of personal and public properties
1. It ensures safety and protection of properties
Regular maintenance of property protects them from unnecessary wear, tear and accidents that may result from a collapse of a building, bridge or anything that is improperly maintained.
2. It reduce the cost of major repairs
It saves money for other expenses that could have been used for the purchase of other new properties.
3. It promote tourism
Maintained property remains in good condition, thus attracts local and foreign tourists. For example, the historical ruins in Zanzibar, Kilwa and Bagamoyo attract many tourts because they have been properly maintained.
4. It restores the damaged property
This ensures the continues use of the property while experiencing similar level of efficiency as the new one.
5. It helps to promote environmental conservation
This is due to timely repair and general cleanliness of properties such as buildings and other infrastructures.
Consequences of neglecting timely repair and maintenance of property
1. Property damage
Neglecting timely maintenance of properties such as buildings, infrastructures and machines can lead to damage of these properties.
2. Low productivity
Unrepaired machines cannot work efficiently leading to low productivity.
3. Accidents, injuries and deaths
For example, car may overturn and building may collapse if they are not well maintained.
4. Negative cultural impression
property such as buildings, roads, bridges, monuments or machines that are not properly maintained create a negative cultural impression to the people from othre societies.
5. Dissapearance of important historial sites and structures
When historical structures are not properly maintained,. they may collapse and dissapear.
Promotion of life skills
life skills is a set of basic skills acquired through learning and direct life experience that enable and individuals and groups to effectively handle issues and problems encountered in daily life. Life skills enable you to live in peace and harmony with your fellow community members.
Life skills include: creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, the ability to communicate and collaborate as well as personal and social responsibilities that contribute to good citizenship.
Categories of life skills
1. Cognitive skills
These are mental skills that include problem solving, decision making and critical thinking. They focus on enabling people to evaluate the present and future consequences of their actions and those around them. This skills also enable a person to organise and analyse data and information.
2. Intrapersonal skills (self-management skills)
These are skills that aim to increase the internal control so that the individuals believes that they can make or influence changes.
Self-management skills include self-esteem, self-awareness, self-evaluation and ability to set goals. They determine the potential of the individuals ability to handle emotions, stress sorrow and anxiety.
3. Interpersonal skills
These skills that enable a person to live with others peacefully.
Interpersonal skills include: empathy, effective communication, the ability to negotiate, to overcome negative peer pressure and express feeling or opinions.
Application of life skills
Application of life skills is the use of mental capacity to achieve successful individual life and the ability to self-control and live in harmony with others. It includes methods used by a person to understand, control or solve different social, political, economic and cultural problems.
Revision exercise
1. Match the description of roles listed in column A with the correct group responsible in promotion and preservation of cultural values in Tanzania listed in column B by writing the letter of the corresponding response against the item number.
Column A | Column B |
I. Basic social institutions where the children learn for the firt time how to function properly in the community where they are born II. Insititutions responsible for passing on the values or our socieity and skills needed in such a particular society III. Values and skills inculcated into young people during their school days are practiced. IV. Formulates policies and enacts laws that are in line with African values V. Teach each other how to protect life, how to maintain peace, how to maintain their freedom and the freedom of the nation | A. Workplaces B. The government C. Formal education institutions D. Peer groups E. Mass media F. Family G. Non-governmental organisations |
2. Describe the relationships between the following pairs of concepts:
i. Cultural values and national development
ii. Life skills and peer groups
iii. Cultural values and national identity
3. With examples, define the following terms:
i. Self-management skills
ii. Interpersonal skills
iii. Cognitive skills
4. Differentiate the following pair of concepts:
i. Traditional beliefs and traditional dances
ii. Culture of caring of personal property and culture of caring of public property
5. Explain why is it important for the youth to demonstrate high levels of life skills.
6. Explain the importance of protecting and preserving cultural values.
7. Explain how preservation of cultural values can be enhanced in secondary schools.
8. Explain the meaning of culture of caring and maintenance and elaborate how they can be developed in home environment.
9. “Mass media can promote or destroy the cultural values of a nation.” Discuss.
10. Discuss the role of science and technology in the promotion and preservation of cultural values.
