An Obligatory Poetry Course: Benefits, Challenges and Way Forward: A Survey of Some Secondary Schools in Rwanda

Poetry as a literary genre is part and parcel of human domains and daily practices. Most scholars have indeed acknowledged the universality of poetry as a boundless form of communication. Although it predates formal education, poetry is unfairly subordinated to other genres of Literature. At school, poetry is not accorded ample space in the curriculum and teaching time-table. Worse still, both learners and teachers seem to dread it, thus a grossly sidelined discipline. Using the available and pertinent secondary data, this paper analyzes the utility of compulsorily teaching poetry to all students. It has been recommended that poetry should be accorded a compulsory status from Primary through to the end of Ordinary school level. The last section of this article suggests several approaches to the learning and teaching of poetry.