The President of the Musicians Union of Ghana, Bessa Simons, has called on the government to re-introduce music education in basic schools.

According to him, this will give children foundational knowledge in music and further sharpen the skills of those who intend to venture into music later in life.

Bessa Simons made this call during his presentation at Joy FM’s Creative Industry Manifesto series on Showbiz A-Z last Saturday.

“We need to have a re-introduction of music education at the basic school level. Because with music if you catch them early, it’s better. And if you look at the diatonic scale, that is the mother of every melody. Whether you come from China or elsewhere, everybody uses the same scale and everything is built in that.

“So, as they are growing up, they understand the rudiments of music and they build melodies in their minds. Because from there, whatever you do, you have the melodies already,” he said.

Bessa Simons said that by so doing, it would also expose them to the Ghanaian culture.

“..as our children are growing up, they know our local songs and our culture, and this is what makes us unique,” he added.

This call comes a week after the President of the Ghana Music Alliance, Seven Xavier, also made a similar suggestion.

On April 14, 2022, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Creative Arts Agency, Gyankroma Akufo-Addo, held her first meeting with the Creative Arts Education Committee.

At the meeting comprising stakeholders in the creative arts industry gleaned from the mainstream arts and entertainment sector, the media and academia, Gyankroma charged the committee to expedite action on its mandate, so they could present a proposed bill to Parliament.

“I’m hoping that we have some sort of proposed bill before the end of the year to be implemented,” she said.

As part of laying a solid foundation for the arts in terms of education, the committee has been tasked to find ways of liaising with the Ministry of Education to make teaching and learning in schools more effective and practicable.

Speaking at the meeting, Ms Gyankroma said there were plans to start the initiative from the teacher training colleges.

According to her, starting with them will ensure there is a firm footing for the project since teachers are the implementers of the curriculum.

“We’ve found that we don’t have the practitioners who are actually trained within the industry itself. But there are separate teachers and not really creative arts teachers,” she said.

“I spoke to the Minister of Education, and he felt we need to tackle teacher training first but also starting first with our industry players,” Gyankroma added.

She also noted that the challenge with the teaching and learning of creative arts in schools has been a result of the fact that teachers are not versed in the arts courses.