An evaluation of music education in Northern Cyprus based on teacher opinions and documents

Abstract

This study is a qualitative and descriptive research which was conducted using scanning model with the purpose of displaying music education in Northern Cyprus in the light of documents and determining the opinions of teachers on the music education in the country. In this study, the general objective of education in Northern Cyprus, the general structure of education system, Ministry of National Education Council minutes, government programmes and activity reports of Ministry of National Education since 1982 were examined and were displayed by relating them with teacher opinions on the current music education in Northern Cyprus and music education curricula. Among the four councils which were held since 1982, no documents were obtained on the council held in 1985; therefore the study was limited with 1995–2015 period. As regards the obtained findings, the decisions on music, music education and the concepts of art and culture were grouped separately, and Ministry of National Education activity reports and council decisions were related with the opinions of teachers on music education. As a result, it is observed that in the education councils organized in 1995 and 2005 in Northern Cyprus, no expression are found as regards music, music classes, culture and arts; on the other hand, in the council organized in 2014, more comprehensive topics were discussed and decisions were taken. It is seen that although there are projected items as regards music in Ministry of National Education activity reports, most of them are not put into implementation and/or are not sufficient. When related to the opinions obtained from teachers, it can be seen that teaching programmes are not organized according to the physical conditions of schools but still most teachers provide education according to the curriculum prepared by MEB but MEBD did not direct teachers to on-the-job training activities and monitor them.