Within the national primary school curriculum in Kenya, music education is an optional subject owing to a policy decision arrived at in 1999 to address overload of the curriculum. Two examples are Tanzania (Costa-Giomi & Msuya, 2018), and my native country, Kenya. This kind of scenario is typical of a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. However, in reality, this is not usually the case.Īssuming that music educators in formal settings have a greater influence over music in the school or institutional context than outside of it, what is their contribution in situations where there are few or no music programs in school, but music out of school (non-formal and informal music education) is so pervasive that it is taken for granted by society? I would like to think that in an ideal situation, formal, informal and non-formal music educations interact and positively influence each other. In some countries, community music activities may be an example of non-formal music education (though some might argue that community music and music education are two distinct concepts). Informal music education takes place in social interactions between family members, friends, colleagues and other groups, while non-formal music education is an organised, out-of-school education and training experience. It is conducted in schools, colleges and universities. I believe that as music educators, we would like to be suitably qualified, respected and recognised for our contribution (to draw from ISME’s core values), and that our contribution would include making an impact in music in society at all levels: formally, informally and non-formally, in the numerous ways that this might happen.įormal music education can be defined as that which is ‘very regular, systematic and orderly (Barhart et.al., 1992: 839 as cited in Miya, 2005), executed according to set rules and predictable order. What would be your definition of an effective music education?
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