Abstract:
The importance of providing learning experiences that enable the African child
to acquire knowledge and understanding of the traditional music, dance, and
drama of their environment and those of their neighbors‟ is now generally
recognized. However, for a while, without this preparation, they will not be
able to participate in the life of the communities to which they belong. This
study was conducted to look at the status of performing arts education in
public primary schools within the Sunyani Municipality. A descriptive survey
was used for this study. Observations, questionnaires, and private interviews
were accustomed to collect information from 40 (30 teachers and 10
headteachers) participants. The teachers and headteachers were selected using
convenience and purposive sampling techniques, respectively. Data obtained
was analyzed and the results were conferred in frequencies and percentages.
To determine whether or not the curriculum contains the desired content for
teaching, four of the participants akin to 66.7%, responded in the affirmative.
Most respondents indicated that they needed to stumble upon a subject within
the curriculum they may not teach because they had no data. This cluster
accounted for 83.3% representing 25 of the teachers involved in the study.
Most of the participants indicated the key challenges that affect the teaching
and learning of performing arts include: “the lack of teaching and learning
materials, scant time allocation for the teaching of arts strands, lack of
qualified academics, lack of in-service coaching and negative view of
academics towards the teaching of performing arts. It is therefore
recommended that the challenges hindering the effective teaching and learning
of the performing arts strands and the Creative Arts in the public basic schools
be addressed to elevate the status of arts education in the municipality.
