Music education in junior secondary schools in Botswana : the way forward

Abstract

The subject Music in junior secondary schools in Botswana exhibits areas of concern. While commendable efforts have been made in ensuring access to and equity in education, a corresponding commitment to the improvement and quality of education, by way of ensuring effective delivery in the classroom, has not been realised. The objectives of the Music syllabus are more inclined toward music literacy, at the expense of listening, movement, singing and instrumental playing. The syllabus design undermines the potential of music education to foster creativity, imaginative thinking and self-actualisation among the learners. Also, Western music receives more coverage than non-western musical genres. The following research question guided the study: <ul> <li> What are the problems regarding the teaching of Music in the junior secondary schools in Botswana, and what solutions can be recommended?</li> </ul> The following sub-questions received attention: <ul> <li> To what extent are the teaching methodologies used effective (or ineffective)?</li> <li> To what extent does the teaching of Music take into account a learner’s acquired skills, knowledge, attitudes and experiences?</li> <li> What is the amount and quality of professional support given to music teachers?</li> <li> To what extent are the assessment strategies used effective?</li> <li> To what extent are the available resources adequate (or inadequate)?</li> </ul> Thus, the aim of the study has been to determine the status quo, to make an analysis of the progress (or lack thereof) made in the development of music education, to identify the problems associated with teaching Music as a subject, and to come up with proposals for coping with and managing the situational constraints. Information was gathered from an intensive scrutiny of the Music curriculum and a literature study. To this was added information gleaned from questionnaires sent to selected Music teachers and school pupils. The study determined that: there are definite imbalances in the treatment of learning objectives and genre coverage, with an inclination towards music literacy, and unclear directions towards the development of creativity, imaginative thinking and self-actualisation; there is an over-emphasis on Western models and music; there is a prevailing feeling that the performance and listening aspects of Music are difficult to assess; the amount of professional support provided to music teachers and to schools is minimal with a lack of proper mentorship for less experienced teachers; and, there is insufficient allocation of facilities and resources. Thus the following recommendations have been suggested: more indigenous musical arts should be incorporated into the curriculum, with an increase in the Popular music content as a way of responding to the learners’ interests; capacity-building workshops should be conducted; methods of appraising teachers should be reviewed to make them more subject specific; supervisors of music education programmes in schools should be further equipped with the necessary skills to appropriately carry out supervision; the Department of Curriculum Development and Evaluation should involve South African experts in their Arts and Culture curriculum in order to make assessment more relevant and accurate; the Teaching Service Management and the Teacher Training and Development departments should take appropriate steps towards an across-the-board improvement of music education through subject Music.Copyright