One of the main reasons I came to Ghana this time was to visit public school music classrooms. Through conversations about music education and my experiences in the UK, as well as reflecting on what I learned while in Ghana the first time, John-Doe and I have furthered our friendship and become even closer professional colleagues over the course of this past semester. Through these conversations, he had the idea that I should come back and learn more about music education in Ghanaian public schools, since I didn’t get a chance to do that during my first visit.
While I was in Ghana this time, I got to visit four different secondary schools and talk to the music teachers there. These experiences and conversations have given me so much new knowledge to think about. The way that music education is run in Ghana is very much a question mark to me. I was able to have so many interesting philosophical conversations with the music teachers about what they teach. Not only was it important to see how and what is being taught but it was maybe even more important to have these conversations. Most of the music education in Ghana seems focused on the teaching of Western music, including music theory, music history, dictation, and performance. Those are the four main sections of essentially what is the high school final exit exam for music called the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). There is a nod to African music with a few questions related to instruments and composers of African music. But the vast majority, I would say about 80%, from what I have heard and seen, is focused on Western classical music. So, that is what is taught in the music elective courses during the school day. Students choose electives in senior high school (SHS), of which music is one option. They can also choose other things too, but it is a complicated system. To learn more about the exam as well as track options student can take in SHS, you can visit the WASSCE website.
In addition to the music elective classes, some of the schools with the more solid music programs in Cape Coast have what they call co-curricular ensembles that meet outside the school day. These include choir, regimental band, and at some schools during certain times, African ensemble. The students who elect to take the music elective don’t have to be in any ensembles, though the music teachers encourage them to be, as it supplements their learning. And many of them are in the ensembles. However, some of them are not, which perplexes me. In addition, a lot of the students who are in the bands and choirs are also not in the music elective; they just enjoy playing or singing so they choose to do that. From what I have heard and what I experienced, playing or singing in the band or choir are all hands-on doing activities where they don’t focus on learning to read music or doing anything related to music theory. At the same time, it seems there is very little music-making being done in the music electives, which tends to turn some students off who would rather just play their instruments or sing. I think there could be a much better balance between the two ways of approaching teaching music within both all areas of the music offerings – both curricular and co-curricular. As you might imagine, I have a lot of thoughts on these things; some I’ll share here, but some I won’t.
Most of the music teachers I talked to believe that there should be more of a focus on African music in the curriculum, and of course I agree. I can tell that many of them are not super excited about teaching five-line staff notation, but that’s what they do because that’s what’s required in a large portion of the curriculum. At some schools they have African ensemble after school though what I learned is that those only meet when there is something like a school program that needs them to perform, so they’re not really designed for educational purposes from what I understand. It seems that there’s a lack of funding as well as administrative support in a lot of schools for music and the arts, which is just so depressing and short-sighted to me.
One interesting thing that is both a positive and the negative is that in 2017, the current president, President Nana Akuffo-Addo decreed that all senior high school students could have free high school. This is an overview of what this is and why from Wikipedia:
"The Free Senior High School (Free SHS) education policy in Ghana was a government initiative introduced in the 2017 September Presidential administration of Nana Akufo-Addo.[1] The policy's origination began as part of the President's presidential campaign during Ghana's 2016 election period, and has become an essential part of Ghana's educational system.[2] The policy's core themes of access, equity and equality fulfil the United Nations modified Sustainable Development Goals, where member countries amalgamate those themes in their educational systems to certify adequate learning experiences for students.[3] Respective politicians and social workers have been allocated the duty to ensure the policy's efficiency, productivity and further development. These leaders span from varying governmental departments including Ghana's Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and Ghana Education Service and Ghana's Ministry of Education.[2]"
But to learn more, I think this blog is quite useful, and it comes with additional empirical studies about free senior high school education in Sub-Saharan African countries. Suffice it to say, it’s a good idea in theory, but in application, it is fraught with tons of unforeseen problems, at least the way it has been rolled out in Ghana.
It seems that the Ghanaian government was not prepared for the number of students who took advantage of free SHS. Currently, there are too many students in almost all of the schools to accommodate them all at the same time. And not to mention, lots of the schools are boarding schools where student live and eat, and all of that is free as well! Sounds great, in theory, right?
What they have done to accommodate these students is not build more buildings or hire more personnel. The schools have had to create alternative scheduling to accommodate everyone. From what I can gather, it seems that Form one and Form three (first- and last-year students) students attend school at the same time for a term, say about 8 weeks, I think. And the Form two (middle-year) students are at home during that time. Then the Form two students come for a term, while Form one and Three are on break. This sounds great, and it probably is for some people. Except for the problem is that the teachers who teach all Forms (including music teachers), are now teaching year-round, and have no break. AND THEY ARE NOT GETTING PAID ANY MORE MONEY!! So essentially from what I gather, they are teaching more hours than they were before, with no additional compensation. In addition, they have never gotten paid for doing the co-curricular activities after school; i.e. the band, choir, or African ensembles. It’s expected that they just do them, I guess. Although I learned that not all of the music teachers teach the band and choir. Sometimes they hire out other people to do that, which is a complete waste of money, but that’s another story. Why don't they pay the music teachers they have an additional stipend to run these extra programs? I don't get it. Except that the fact is that there is not enough money for anything. And the people who suffer are the teachers and students.
I am all for everybody getting free education, don’t get me wrong. But if you’re going to implement something like that, you absolutely must have a plan in place and the money ready to pour into it. But it seems that if anything has been put into the plan, it’s woefully inadequate. No school that I visited was under construction for more buildings or more dorms. It makes my brain hurt to try to understand how this is happening. It’s not a sustainable model, and I can tell that the teachers are getting burned out from being already overwhelmed and underpaid and underappreciated. I think these teachers are wonderful people that need encouragement from administrators and parents at the bare minimum. And truthfully, they do need to be paid more since they are now working more. I cannot believe this is not happening.
However, let me share some good things I saw when I was in the schools. The students…there are NO BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS! Students are very respectful of teachers and authority figures. What a welcome change to be able to see that. The teachers I talked to and observed care a great deal about the students and want the best for them. They work hard to teach what they think is best and the way they think is best to help their students, and to prepare them for passing the WASSCE exams.
When I was there, I was invited to lead every class that I observed in an activity. Of course I was there primarily to observe music teaching in the schools, and I did get to see a great deal of that. But it was such a pleasure to be able to work with these students. I led them in different activities, but I always made sure to teach the students useful and relevant content in an engaging way, as well as working to intentionally let them and the teachers know why I am teaching like this and in this way. The teachers seemed to enjoy watching what I taught and some of them wanted to talk to me further about my activities. It seems to me that they would be open to professional development opportunities, because from what I can understand, there are not a lot of those opportunities around, or even a culture of that in the schools. It’s disheartening to see that because I know that with a bit of PD many of these teachers would get even more inspired and inspiring ideas for ways to teach their students. They know what they are doing; but due to lots of problems and issues beyond their control, it seems many of them are disheartened and somewhat secluded in their own world. You know, when you see other people teach and are able to have interesting conversations with others, you get ideas that get you excited to teach new and different things. That’s what I would love to see for these teachers!
These are just a few pics of some of the classrooms I visited. I didn't get pics of all of them, but you get a sense of what some of the music classrooms look like.
John-Doe and I talked about all of my observations in my conversations and we cooked up several different ideas for research as well as some practical ideas to help improve music education. So, I’m sure we will continue to do some more collaborations together in the future. I enjoy working with him and talking about ideas for music education because we’re on the same page about a lot of things. And I think the conversations we are having are giving both him and me fresh ideas I’m thinking about the issues that already exist in our own countries. He has become a dear colleague and friend, and I am again so very grateful to have met him this school year.
In addition to going to the public schools, I was also able to teach John-Doe’s senior-level class a couple of times at UCC. We talked about music education philosophy, useful pedagogical strategies, and issues of social justice and diversity education. They were a pleasure to talk with. They had really interesting conversations and thoughts to bring to the table on these topics. I’m humbled that Dr. John-Doe invited me to be a guest lecturer, and I’m even more humbled that the students engaged fully in the content I brought to them. What a great few days with the undergrads at UCC!
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