EMERGING ISSUES IN NIGERIAN MUSIC EDUCATION: THE SITUATION WITH POLICIES

Abstract

Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music. It occupies a prominent position in the building of a self-reliant nation through the building of a self-reliant individual. Building a self-reliant person means making one to be independent in the context of self-reliance, through selfemployment. Self-employment reduces the incidence of unemployment syndrome, which is a cankerworm that has eaten deep into the fabric of our society. This in part may account for the conclusion of music education in our school curriculum because it has the ability to satisfy the needs and aspirations of both the individual and the society at large. Musical development is part and parcel of total mental and material development of human society. Like every school subject, music seeks to develop the individual totally touching all the domains – Cognitive, Psycho – motor and Affective domains. The duality in function of school music-entertainment value on the one hand while academic knowledge on the other –gives it a unique position in the curriculum as well as in the life of the school community and, is recognized as an important feature by most teachers in Nigeria. Nigeria’s National Policy on Education (NPE) (1998, revised), has provided for music as a school subject at the various levels of schooling. The way the government’s position is interpreted and the level to which it has been implemented are part of the the reasons for this paper.