| dc.description.abstract | This report presents findings and recommendations of a study on the State of Arts Education in Uganda. The aim of the study was to generate data to be used in promoting Arts education in Uganda, in accordance with the UNESCO Road Map to Arts Education (2006), which is aimed at promotion of a common understanding among all stakeholders of the importance of Arts Education and its essential role in improving the overall quality of education. The terms of reference that guided the study included establishing the constituent elements and the strategic importance of Arts education in Uganda, the existing Arts educational programmes in the formal academic institutions, the existing Arts Educational programmes in the communities, the existing policies/Acts underpinning Arts Education, the approaches to Arts Education, the dimensions of Arts Education, the ways and extent to which the arts interface with other educational and development aspects in the country, and the essential strategies for effective Arts Education. The study would finally come up with recommendations to Government and policy makers on the promotion of Arts education.
The study adopted a qualitative design approach and it involved different methods of data collection including: library, internet research, observation, focus group discussion, and face-to-face and telephone interviews with respondents who are directly involved in Arts Education at different levels both in the formal and non-formal training institutions in Uganda. A total of 40 respondents were interviewed including learners, art teachers in primary and secondary schools, university lecturers and researchers, administrators of non-government organizations, artists and artisans in the informal sector, as well as policy makers. A consultative meeting organized by UNATCOM in May 2011, and a dissemination workshop conducted in September 2012 also provided additional input to the study.
Among the key findings is the importance and contribution of arts education to the knowledge base and to the economy of Uganda has not yet been fully appreciated by Government and other stakeholders. The arts including; the visual arts, the literal arts, the performing arts, and all those traditional arts practiced by the diverse peoples of a given country are essential components of a comprehensive education leading to the full development of the individual. A child who is exposed to the arts in school has the potential to become a more creative, imaginative, expressive, confident, self-reliant or critically thinking individual. The study also noted that the various arts disciplines, individually or in combination, can be applied to the teaching of concepts in other academic subjects such as reading, numeracy and social studies at the basic level, and literature, science and mathematics at the secondary level. However, the study findings show that in Uganda, the use of Arts Education to support other learning activities is restricted to pre-primary education where teachers use the arts i.e. painting, drawing and music to enhance children's cognitive, social, and expressive skills. Beyond early childhood education, less attention is paid to the arts as most schools in Uganda do not have adequate resources (art materials, equipment trained human resource and financial support) required in arts education.
The study confirmed that Uganda subscribes to several international instruments that uphold education as a human right. The study clarified that the right to education, and for that matter, to Arts Education, is enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda (1995). There are national policies on education and culture which are pertinent to the study on Arts Education. The Uganda National Culture Policy, (2006) provides a framework for several actions leading to the promotion of cultural diversity. However, very few government structures are established in support of the arts. Consequently, most of the efforts are by independent cultural institutions, not-for-profit organisations and the private sector.
The study took note of the ccurriculum reforms initiated by the Ministry of Education and Sports to improve the quality of the education. Among these are the thematic curriculum and the Integrated Practical Skill (IPS) curriculum for primary education and the revised syllabus for O-Level and A-Level.
The study findings indicate that due to limited logistical support and shortage of trained arts teachers, the thematic curriculum has not yet been fully embraced by all primary schools in Uganda. Whereas art history has been made compulsory at O- Level in order to give the learner a broader perspective of the aesthetic and cultural heritage of societies, the restriction of subject combinations to three at A - Level since 2012 is very likely to cause a serious bottleneck to Arts Education at tertiary level, since many pupils offered Fine Art as a fourth principal subject. Above all, the revised curriculum still does not clearly stipulate how the creative and expressive arts can be used more to improve other aspects of education.
The study thus recommends that in order to successfully deploy arts education as a strategy for attaining quality education and also to be used as a bedrock of creativity and promotion of sustainable development , government needs to enact urgently a policy to direct the delivery of quality arts education at all levels of education. Special focus should be given to human resource development in the creative disciplines including the visual arts, performing arts, expressive arts and literal arts. | en_US |
