Music Education in Malaysia

An article in the Star newspaper Education pullout section (Let's face the music) by Johami Abdullah perked my interest on a warm Sunday afternoon. This article touches on what I wasn' t aware of but it's certainly something we should be concerned about. 

Major issues highlighted in the article:
  • The Education Ministry announced plans to REDUCE the time allocated for Music Education in the primary school curriculum.
  • Certain schools drop or replace the Music Education subject: contradicting a Parliamentary Act which states that the subject is compulsory in the primary school curriculum.
  • Memorandums sent to the ministry have been ignored.
  • Lack of representation at higher divisions.
I see 1 major problem with the ministry: they fail to RECOGNIZE the importance of implementing Music Education for our children. They are IGNORANT to that importance. Nowadays parents need to have their own initiative (not to mention $ in their pocket) to develop their children's musical skills. 

As mentioned in the article, other countries like Japan & Germany (which we term as advanced & aspire to be) mandated their students be given music education & special rooms are provided for this purpose, fully equipped with instruments & related materials.

What is our ministry doing to fulfill their responsibility to uphold Music Education as a vital part of our education?

The only times students receive music education from the government is via school bands or schools that actually STILL teach Music Education. 

This site discussed the positive impacts of music education:
1. Skills gained while learning music is transferred to studying at school. 
2.  Learning music improves brain development
3. Develop ability of careful observation, pattern recognition & qualitative judgement among other skills.
4. Music education is enriching & mobilizes the glory of being human.

There are many benefits to teaching Music Education & being an individual with a strong love for music, I feel the ministry mustn't ignore the potential of developing this subject in our education system. 

It's bad enough that y'all teaching Science & Math in English, there's no reason to endanger the status of Music Education as a platform for developing a more mature & advanced Malaysian generation.

Comments

Albrecht said…
Hm... well this is a "democratic" country as they say..
Rowan said…
Not as "democratic" as it should be :(

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