Disparate Trajectories in Pre-Tertiary Music Education in Ghana: Implication for Holistic Education

Overview & Synopsis

This paper investigates an obvious paradox in the pre-tertiary music/aesthetic education of Ghana, which defies the pedagogical principles of continuity and progression. This paradox involves the simultaneous disappearance and growth of music/aesthetic education at the foundational basic schools and high schools respectively. Growth at the high schools is evinced by rising number of schools, students and teachers offering and teaching the subject, as well as registering for and writing the West African Examinations Council's West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examinations since 1990. The initial assumption, based on the logic of educational continuity and progression, is that private tuition and basic schools are responsible for the growing interest in music at the high schools since public schools have literally failed in that regard. This paper argues, based on fieldwork findings, that the assumption that lower levels of education must necessarily be responsible for future developments in a subject at higher levels of education is only partly true as far as balanced personality development is concerned. As far as examination-based measurement and attainment are concerned, there are other pedagogical, administrative and logistical factors that can mitigate any shortfall from the lower levels.