Abstract
The Federal Government of Nigeria has realized that low educational quality has negative implications for sustainable national development, hence her commitment to develop national policies and national curriculum for teacher education to improve the quality of education (including music education). This article observes improvement in the preparation of musician-teachers as absolutely imperative to move modern music education as a field in the direction for continued growth. It traces out a historical past and explores present-day circumstances by analyzing and critiquing the National Commission for Colleges of Education’s document—Approved Minimum Academic Standards for Music. As the document is based on exogenous paradigms, it is argued that it cannot produce the change agent in the Nigerian musician-teacher. A reconceptualization of music teacher curriculum that is socioculturally sensitive is suggested for colleges of education in Nigeria as a way of moving it toward developing sound, effective, and creative musician-teachers.
Highlights
Many Nigerian music scholars have shown intense concern about the irrelevance of modern music education (MME) to the essential needs of Nigeria and Nigerians (New, 1980; Nzewi, 1988, 1997, 1998; Okafor, 2005; Omibiyi-Obidike, 1987)
The problem is, while the nation demands through her National Policy on Education (NPE; Federal Republic of Nigeria [FRN], 1977) and Cultural Policy for Nigeria (CPN; Federal Government of Nigeria [FGN], 1988) that MME be sensitive to the legitimate needs of the great masses of the Nigerian people, its theory and practice in schools and colleges remain exogenous and elitist
We suggest that there is under way the Nigerian music educational heritage, a part of a wider human heritage of music educational wisdom, knowledge, values, and skills, the Nigerian musician-teachers need to explore, come to understand, preserve, pass on, cross over, challenge, contribute to, and transform to enable a continuous development of Nigerian masses’ creativemusical abilities to the highest level possible
Summary
Many Nigerian music scholars have shown intense concern about the irrelevance of modern music education (MME) to the essential needs of Nigeria and Nigerians (New, 1980; Nzewi, 1988, 1997, 1998; Okafor, 2005; Omibiyi-Obidike, 1987). The problem is, while the nation demands through her National Policy on Education (NPE; Federal Republic of Nigeria [FRN], 1977) and Cultural Policy for Nigeria (CPN; Federal Government of Nigeria [FGN], 1988) that MME be sensitive to the legitimate needs of the great masses of the Nigerian people, its theory and practice in schools and colleges remain exogenous and elitist. To reorient MME to the needs of the nation, scholars have suggested enactment of music policy, improvement of physical facilities, increment in funding, and development of a culture-centered curriculum These counsels are apposite in moving Nigerian MME forward. An examination of Nigeria’s experience of MTE as well as an assessment of the present MTEC at COE level is crucial
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