Arts in education: framing the case
Can arts in education play a role to save students who are disappearing into the cracks of our classrooms?
Pakistan’s current education system at the primary and secondary levels faces many roadblocks that include poor management capacity, a lack of physical infrastructure, insufficient funds and above all, the most recently discussed issue of archaic education policy and outdated curriculum. The ministry of education has recently issued a white paper to review, debate and finalise the national education policy.
It seems a serious effort to not only assess the content of the textbooks-what is being offered and the delivery system in the classroom-but also an attempt to read between the lines to erase hate and fallacy. It is just one battlefront in the massive war to improve the country’s overall education system; a system that still needs to understand how to sustain students in the classrooms.
Figures from the Ministry of Education show that out of 100 students enrolled at the primary level, only 19 remain enrolled when they reach high school. This horrific enrollment and longevity figure is based on both the rural and urban areas of Pakistan.
The ratio of students who are promoted from primary level to higher secondary school is even more interesting. Only one student remains enrolled out of 130. What happened to the other 129 students during the 12 years of primary to higher secondary education? How and where did they disappear and more interestingly, why can’t we see them? In trying to find out answers for these questions, an intriguing maze appears.
Steve Ryan, director Ali Institute of Education, Lahore, comments on the above situation of drastic dropout rates. “There are socio-economic reasons which demand that people, as young as they might be, start to work and earn an income.” He adds, “higher education will tend to be only for the top percentage of students from families that are higher income earners.”
As the majority of the school students in Pakistan are disappearing into the classroom-cracks, additional reasons are being examined. These analyses range from policy and syllabus issues to physical infrastructure and limited resources. Ryan thinks “the key challenges in Pakistani education are moving the education system towards ‘learning’ and ‘learning how to learn’ rather than memorisation of information.”
In the current form, the education system delivers information to the students in one-way; it does not let them participate by expressing themselves. This practicing pedagogy unbalances the equation of the whole learning process. For an average student, the experience of being in an alien world called school is enough reason not to come the next day.
The methods of instruction and the official language used to deliver these methods is also considered a serious issue in Pakistani education. Sindhi and Pashto are the only indigenous languages used as the official languages of primary education. Punjabi, which is the mother language of more then 48 per cent of population is not the language used in any method of instruction at any level.
The education system has numerous jumbled issues in Pakistan, and the state of the arts in the society is also quite dismal. During the 1980s, general Zia-ul-Haq banned all cultural activities in Pakistan to make it an “Islamic” state. This brutal process of Islamisation left a deep impact on ordinary people. In today’s Pakistan, a majority of citizens do not recognise the arts as an important part of one’s social life. Hence, there is virtually no social support available to art forms at any level. In such a barren environment, there is a need to connect arts in relatively more accepted mediums like education.
“Arts are the reflection of its culture,” said Darrell M. Ayers, the vice president for education at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. “It allows you to convey the spirituality and to convey your cultures of who you are. With arts education, one is educating the whole child.”
Integrating the arts into the learning process can put colour in the drab picture of education in Pakistan. Out of the total number of students enrolled in the schools very few experience “arts” in their school life. It is not taught as a minor or major subject in schools. School teachers are unaware of using arts in regular education classes as a natural companion and the majority of school administrations are not convinced that it’s important at all. The sum of the equation remains near to zero even when schools are categorised into government and private sector or urban and rural areas.
“Arts are neglected and not considered as an efficient, interesting, exciting and innovative vehicle for learning through activity,” says Ryan.
The issues in education and the situation of the arts connects well at the pinnacle of arts education, and raise such questions as; can we make education interactive, infuse the arts into education to make it a commonly used and natural connection for kids – and invest in future generations who will understand the importance of arts in the overall social thread in Pakistani society?
Arts education, if being used as separate subject or as integration with other formal subjects brings multiple benefits to students. It is useful for all children because of its interdisciplinary nature; it illuminates other subject areas and makes them understandable. If it’s being used in the right cultural context, arts education brings the community’s cultural resources into the classroom, hence connecting learning experiences to practical social life.
In many countries, two modes of instruction are practiced in bringing the arts to the student body. The first model is “arts for arts’ sake”; it is generally the use and study of the individual disciplines like music, theater, film, visual arts, creative writing, theater, etc., on their own. The second model is “connecting the arts with other disciplines”; in this model arts concepts and ideas are integrated into the study of other disciplines and subjects where the primary focus are subjects like literature, social studies, science and even mathematics.
For a child, home is his entire world before he joins school. He learns the first lessons of social interaction at home. Eventually school becomes the second place to go, explore and learn. At the primary level, the division of two separate physical places, home and school, and the relationships of and between each remains very distinct to children. They always try to find a rationale for being in two very different places. Arts education plays a role of social catalyst while bringing students, teachers and parents out into the community. It blurs the line between school and home for students. This occurs while being engaged in activities that through the venue of arts involve his “known community” of teachers, friends and parents.
“Working together is the message as to how to function in a society,” says Kim Peter Kovac, the president of the United States Chapter of International Association of Theater for Children and Young People (ASSITEJ), a volunteer organisation with centres in 80 different countries all over the world. “Being in a play is a wonderful thing for children because they learn how to work in a team, and you know,” adds Kovac.
Creating theater for kids is also as important as teaching theater or teaching through theater. Seeing a performance and acting in it, gives children a sense of reaching for a goal with the arts. On the question of why theater should be produced for kids, Kovac said: “I think because there is a child sensibility, because then they see themselves on stage.”
Arts education also serves students with disabilities. In Pakistan, there is no organised structure for such students. Most schools have no such focus and do not address this issue due to a number of reasons. In most communities, students with disabilities are in the regular classrooms and, therefore, education materials and the syllabus are just expected to work for all students. Using arts in education can include these special students in the learning process, while using alternative learning approaches.
“Depending on the student’s disability, whether it’s physical, cognitive or intellectual; they need alternative learning strategies, and through arts education they get that,” says Soula Antoniou, president of VSA Arts that works for people with disabilities helping them to learn.
Arts is liberal by nature, it makes people think and inspires them to respond creatively. It provides a means and a common ground to break down stereotypes and find human rationales. It trains people to discuss and comment, rather then being argumentative, violent and fanatic. The very core nature of arts education plays the same role to form its student’s psychological makeup in the classroom. It breaks down their personal barriers and inhibitions, while educating them on how to raise a question. Beginning to learn and develop these skills as a child makes them understand prejudice and avoid it. It also enlightens them on how to “find” the truth rather then “believe unconditionally”.
“If you are missing the arts; you are missing an important part of a human being,” said Darrell Ayers on the importance of arts education, “being involved in the arts helps develop the creative process, to think creatively and to develop problem solving skills.”
Once the realisation of the importance of Arts Education takes hold it will start to multiply by itself “The students are going to go out of the classroom, and use these skills in their everyday life. Whether they realise it or not, it becomes an integral part of them and their interaction with their fellow students, their family and society in general.” says Nancy DePlatchett, an adjunct professor who teaches integrated arts to education majors at Montgomery College in Rockville Maryland.
The multifaceted benefits of integrating the arts into the educational curriculum are not just focusing on improving students’ experiences in the classroom, it also provides the impetus and the content for positive changes in teaching, and is responsible for comprehensive school-wise improvement. In America, Arts Education Partnership (AEP) has published several studies that show the statistical changes in testing and other various categories made by schools that are using arts education methods and curriculum connections in their schools.
Amy Duma is the director of Professional Development Opportunities for Teachers (PDOT) programme at The Kennedy Centre. She describes her experience, “looking at experienced teachers, we see that many of them are searching for ways to revitalize their teaching. They were taught certain instructional strategies and most likely they have been using those for years, but when they find out the power of the arts, they realize that they can be much more invigorated and inventive in their own teaching.”
Arts education also transforms communities, even beyond school vicinity. The students who are exposed to arts at early age develop an appreciation for arts and give it an essential position in their social life.
“After being in our centre in their childhood, but they start to see life more creatively and understand the importance of arts on human life,” says Sylvia Zwi, who teaches zero to five year old kids through arts at the Sitar Centre; a community arts organisation in D.C.’s relatively low income population area.
“Children excel in different ways,” says Ayers, “some children may be great mathematicians, some students may have a predisposition to science, but there are also children who have a strength and talent in singing, or dancing or acting and if you are not allowing for those opportunities, you are missing a large percentage of your population.”
Though Pakistan has no institutions that produce art teachers, or organisations to train artists to become teachers, the existing teacher training institutes should take the responsibility to focus on arts education. They should train teachers to integrate the arts into the regular academic curriculum using natural connections. These trained teachers would then go out into society and with the training, knowledge and enthusiasm needed to make this programme flourish. This would not only have an impact on education but also could reinstate the status of arts in the country. Arts education not only makes education an interesting learning process for children of all ages, but also it helps change the overall school environment. It trains teachers to become more flexible in teaching and even turns the schools physical building into a real-time child friendly space. All these factors ultimately increase the child’s interest in education.
Considering Pakistan’s desolate cultural scene, inspiring youth and children to understand the need of arts in the social fibre and care about it is greatly needed. Bringing arts education into the schools can start making a noticeable difference in education and arts in Pakistan.
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Unfortunately, when budgets get tight, formal arts programs are always the first to be cut. But the benefits that you write about can be included informally in many areas of the curriculum. I have experienced the miracle of non-responsive students coming alive when given the opportunity to respond through drama or music. How many “bored” students have you noticed doodling or drawing cartoons during lesson presentations? These students can be captured by actually assigning them an art task related to the subject being taught. We need to work into the interests and enthusiasms of the children in order to be successful in keeping them in school.