By Johami Abdullah
The Education Ministry has just announced its plans for a reduction in the time allocated for Music Education in the primary school curriculum.
The Malaysian Association for Music Education (MAME) is strongly opposed to such a move.
Ever since its inception in 2002, MAME had always spoken up without fear or favour against views that run counter to the importance of music education in the curriculum.
It may surprise many that a holistic approach towards education is indeed the main intent and purpose of our National Education Philosophy (NEP), which was not intended to treat music as a foster child.
The NEP`s aim is to produce individuals who are well balanced physically, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually.
MAME has repeatedly expressed its disapproval of the practice in certain schools in which Music Education has been dropped or replaced.
This is in contravention to an Act of Parliament that has made music a compulsory subject in the primary school curriculum.
For some time now, some senior ministry officials have been conducting their affairs on Music Education very arbitrarily and unilaterally, with little or no consultation, discussion or feedback, from people who are “on the ground”.
A few junior officers from the various divisions within the ministry may have been called to represent music at internal discussions.
However, the woes and dissent of classroom teachers expressed officially at Education Ministry-sponsored workshops and meetings are seldom given much attention.
It must be said that some divisions within the ministry like the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) have been fair, but supervisors in charge of music (Penyelia Muzik) are outnumbered and outranked significantly by the other higher-ranking bureaucrats and as such, their voices are seldom entertained.
The situation at the Teacher Training Division as well as the Schools Division is no better.
The ministry used to have a Ketua Penyelia Muzik (Chief Music Supervisor) who was able to co-ordinate between the various divisions, but this post has been scrapped for some time now.
In January 2007, The National Education Blueprint 2006-2010 was launched by the then Prime Minister to lay the foundation for educational reform.
It identified six areas — developing human capital, nation-building, strengthening national schools, narrowing the education gap, improving the teaching profession and accelerating excellence at educational institutions.
Sadly, except for a mere mention of music in association with cluster schools, the role of Music Education is totally and significantly absent in all the six areas.
Memorandums have been sent to the ministry after international conferences and national conventions, such as the recent one organised by the local council of entertainment, arts and culture or Majlis Hiburan dan Seni Tanah Air (Mahkota) in Johor Baru, and Aswara (National Dance Culture and Heritage Academy).
As there is no one specific to resolve on issues pertaining to Music Education at the ministry, such memorandums have not seen any reaction or even acknowledgement.
It may be of interest to note that in developed countries like Germany and Japan, the government has mandated that students from Grades One to Nine receive 120 minutes of sequential music instructions from a music specialist every week.
Every school in Japan is well equipped with the instructional material and instruments needed to enable the teachers to do their job thoroughly.
Each school building has a room exclusively dedicated to music instruction.
This preoccupation with music as an essential part of a young person every schoolday, is not exclusive to Japan.
It exists in Germany too, where each student receives a minimum of 90 minutes per week for music from kindergarten through 12th grade.
So what does the association envisage for Music Education?
It would like to see the proposal seeking to reduce the time allocation for Music Education in schools dropped immediately, and that it reverts to status quo.
It would also like to see a quality Music Education programme in place in the curriculum.
This would have a positive impact in educating and developing children holistically irrespective of whether they are from the Arts or Science stream, or whether they are from urban or rural schools.
Not everyone is musically-inclined, but they can be trained to appreciate and treasure music.
As such, ancillary outcomes of a quality general Music Education programme must have school leavers who can among other things, sing with a reasonable sense of accuracy in rhythm and pitch; be selective in their taste of different kinds of music and styles; talk intelligently about music and know that there are a great variety of musical styles.
They should also use music as an essential tool during their leisure time and have some very basic understanding of different musical styles.
They should also aurally and visually recognize different ethnic, orchestral and modern musical instruments and understand that several music notational systems exist in this world.
Back in 1983, the government agreed and thought it necessary to have Music Education as an integral part of the school curriculum.
There is no valid reason for a change or departure from this innovation now, or in the future, if Malaysia is to become a truly developed nation in line with Vision 2020.
Clearly, the subject provides the young child with yet another strong avenue for true overall success in the multi-faceted education process.
The impact of Music Education in the curriculum can only be strong if there is real teaching and learning taking place.
Admittedly there are weaknesses that have surfaced from time to time, especially in relation to teacher competencies or rather lack of it.
But this is also true of other subjects as well.
MAME would like to see these weaknesses in Music Education implementation corrected, but strongly disagrees with any time reduction for music which may lead to the eventual demise of the subject from the curriculum.
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Johami Abdullah
President, Malaysian Association for Music Education.
Source: http://thestar.com.my