Every child, woman and man has an innate musical ability. This latent potential can be developed and nurtured for healthier and more enriching lifestyles.
Research shows that a good music education stimulates creativity, builds confidence and enhances a child’s all-round development. As adults they enjoy enhanced social recognition because of their ability to listen, read, play and express their feelings through music.
Based on this concept, the country’s Education Ministry in 1983 introduced music as a compulsory subject in primary schools with the rationale that music education bestows many benefits on a child’s performance in school.
To study music is to study the basics. Music is a comprehensive art – within its study students come into contact with other basic areas of the curriculum: math, science, social studies, languages and physical education.
While music is a subject with its own body of knowledge, and is inherently worth knowing, its comprehensive nature serves as a foundation for a unified and comprehensive educational setting. At least that’s what idealists propagate. What really happens is a different matter.
Over the years there have been changes in the curriculum with music being a component of arts education, taking only 30 minutes of one-hour slots in primary schools.
One school in Kota Samarahan, according to the headmaster who is a friend of mine and music enthusiast, offers music similarly to its counterparts elsewhere, for only 60 minutes per week (two periods) per class.
When asked on what musical instruments are being used or taught he said “not many” without specifying. Most of the time the lesson is used to deal with music theory, he pointed out adding that all of the teachers are trained in other disciplines except music.
Isn’t it too early to teach the academics of music to these pupils, I wanted to ask but his opinion and mine perhaps concurred with each other and is of no bearing on the policy. My assumption is the syllabus must have been properly planned by the experts.
For Kuching secondary schools, the cream of teachers with music education and music background are pooled at Sekolah Seni Malaysia Sarawak also known as Sekolah Seni Kuching at Jalan Sultan Tengah in Petra Jaya. Two of my friends, both degree holders in music education, are teaching there.
Both of them also play regularly with respective bands and have been featured at Dayak Artistes and Musicians Association (Dama) functions in the past. Other schools are not lucky to have such talents and therefore do not offer music lessons in its timetable. Fair enough.
According to a questionnaire made in 1999, distributed over 136 preschools in various districts in Selangor, from which 96 valid responses were gathered, it was revealed that the music activities carried out in preschool, from the order of the most frequently conducted, are group singing, music and movement, listening, sound exploration, and instrument playing. It shows that 95.8 percent of the respondents conducted group singing daily, and only 28.1 percent conducted music and movement daily.
More than 70 percent seldom or had never conducted sound exploration activities. Majority of the respondents perceived that music plays a role in personal and social development, music skills and knowledge development, classroom management, and other benefits.
Most of the respondents professed that music plays a role in personal and social development, not to mention music skills and development in knowledge, management of classrooms and some other benefits.
Nevertheless, not all of them agreed on certain aspects such as the significance and role of music in children’s development.
Another shocking aspect of the finding was that about one-third of the respondents did not have the confidence to conduct music activities in school. In other words they were nervous about teaching music.
Of course, it was not surprising that over 30 percent of them were untrained in preschool education and 92 percent did not possess any relevant qualification for instrumental proficiency.
This same trend was similarly reflected in most Sarawak schools from the beginning when music education was introduced.
Most teachers tasked to teach music in primary schools neither possessed proper training nor the required music skills. It was almost like the case of “the blind leading the blind”.
It is this predicament of “blind leadership” that has caused such a big failure in Malaysian model of music education.
It was revealed in the findings that more than 50 percent of teacher trainees did not have any formal education in instrumental skills prior to their entry into the teacher training programme.
In a survey made in 2000 on music teaching in primary school, it was found that teaching competency was one of the shortcomings in the curriculum implementation, besides the lack of teaching resources and other concerns.
For this reason there is a need to train more music educators for the nation’s schools as the subject is not drawing sufficient intrerest from aspiring teachers.
As there aren’t enough music teachers in national schools, other subject teachers much to their chagrin, are being instructed to teach the subject.
And the local teachers union has quickly reacted to this by saying that it is not right to expect other non-music teachers to fill in especially when they aren’t properly trained in the subject.
Therefore this is one area that Education Ministry must focus on because schools nationwide must have enough teachers who are suitably qualified because it is an important subject as music is believed to be able to motivate students to go to school, which can lead to an overall improvement in the other subjects.
In countries like the Philippines and Indonesia, music education has been implemented with success and has been found to reinforce learning though this has not been the case with Malaysia.
Our immediate neighbour Indonesia, which offers music education at secondary school level and even at tertiary institutions, employs expatriates to teach music, even in secondary classes.
This gives exposure to the locals that could help widen their experience and by teaching together in some kind of “on the job training”, these local teachers benefit greatly from their foreign colleagues, a kind of model Malaysia could emulate.
Music education in the Philippines dates back to their days under Spanish colonialisers in the 1500’s who brought with them missionaries who established churches, convents and schools in different parts of the islands.
Later the American colonial government established public schools all over the islands. The first teachers were American soldiers who were later replaced by the Thomasites. Curricula of these schools included music in the elementary level.
Music instruction concentrated based on the Progressive Music Series, a graded foreign collection of songs, and a Philippine edition of the same series.
These two countries are fortunate not to suffer the acute lack of teachers anymore or they were never faced with such quandary and as a result their music education has thrived well since a long time ago.
Perhaps Malaysia should look at their music education history and review our music education situation, including music teachers.
