The insistence that all competitive items be authored by students is not only timely, but necessary. It is a call to restore the soul of a platform that was originally conceived as an educational space for nurturing creativity, originality, and authentic student voice. Without this shift, the festival risks becoming an arena where adult brilliance is paraded through borrowed youthful voices, defeating its very purpose.
At its core, drama and film in schools are not merely about performance. They are about process. They are about the intellectual and emotional journey of a learner – conceptualizing ideas, structuring narratives, experimenting with language and ultimately presenting a piece that reflects their understanding of the world. When students are sidelined in authorship, this process is disrupted. What remains is performance without ownership, expression without authenticity.
Across many stages today, one cannot ignore the unmistakable imprint of adult authorship. The themes are often too layered, the language too refined, and the ideological positions too sophisticated to genuinely belong to the learners performing them. While this may produce award-winning pieces, it raises a fundamental question: whose voice are we really celebrating? When a student delivers lines crafted by an adult, they are not expressing their own reality; they are echoing borrowed thoughts. This reduces the learner to a vessel rather than a creator.
The consequences of this practice are far-reaching. First, it undermines the development of critical competencies. Creativity cannot be taught through substitution. Writing skills cannot be developed through imitation alone. When teachers or external scriptwriters take over the authorship process, learners are denied the opportunity to struggle, to think, to draft, to fail and to improve. These are the very experiences that build intellectual resilience and artistic confidence.
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Second, it creates an uneven playing field. Schools with access to highly skilled adult writers inevitably produce more polished pieces, overshadowing institutions that attempt to remain faithful to student authorship. The competition then shifts from a test of student creativity to a contest of adult expertise. This not only demoralizes genuine student effort but also entrenches a culture of dependency.
Third, and perhaps most critically, it distorts the purpose of education itself. Education is not about perfection; it is about growth. A flawed but authentic student-written script carries far more educational value than a flawless piece authored by an adult. The former reflects learning in progress; the latter reflects learning outsourced.
Yet, advocating for student authorship does not imply the exclusion of teachers. On the contrary, the role of the teacher becomes even more significant—but in a different capacity. Teachers must transition from being scriptwriters to facilitators of creativity. They must guide learners in idea generation, help them structure their narratives, refine their language, and provide constructive feedback. This is the essence of effective pedagogy: supporting without overshadowing, guiding without dictating.
My own experience as a student reinforces this belief. While in Form Two, I authored a Kiswahili shairi. It was not perfect, but it was mine. It reflected my thoughts, my linguistic ability and my interpretation of the themes I had engaged with. With guidance from my teachers, I was able to refine it and present it with confidence. That experience was transformative. It was not just about performing a poem; it was about discovering that my voice mattered. That is the kind of empowerment the festival should seek to cultivate in every learner.
For the policy by the to succeed, however, it must be backed by practical enforcement mechanisms. It is not enough to declare that items should be student-authored; there must be structures to verify and support this requirement. Schools could be required to submit drafts showing the evolution of the script, from initial concept to final product. Learners could be asked to defend their work before adjudicators, explaining their creative choices and thematic intentions. Such measures would not only ensure authenticity but also deepen the learning experience.
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Additionally, training workshops for teachers should be prioritized. Many educators may default to writing scripts themselves not out of malice, but due to a lack of strategies for facilitating student writing. Equipping teachers with the skills to mentor young writers will bridge this gap and align practice with policy.
Ultimately, the debate is not about denying students access to quality scripts. It is about redefining what quality means within an educational context. True quality lies not in linguistic perfection or dramatic complexity, but in authenticity, originality and learner growth. A student-written piece may lack the polish of an adult-authored script, but it carries something far more valuable: the imprint of a young mind in the process of becoming.
If the remains committed to its educational mandate, then it must be bold enough to prioritize authenticity over spectacle. It must create an environment where learners are not just performers, but creators – where their voices are not borrowed, but owned.
Let students write. Let them stumble through drafts, wrestle with ideas and discover the power of expression. In doing so, we will not only preserve the integrity of the festival but also fulfill the deeper purpose of education: to nurture thinkers, creators and confident individuals ready to engage with the world in their own voice.
By Ashford Kimani
Ashford teaches English and Literature in Gatundu North Sub-county and serves as Dean of Studies.
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