The Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Creative Arts Agency, Gyankroma Akufo-Addo, at her first meeting with the Creative Arts Education Committee on Thursday, April 14, 2022 tasked the committee to find ways of liaising with the Ministry of Education to make teaching and learning of creative Arts in schools more effective and practicable as part of laying a solid foundation for the arts in terms of education.
Speaking at the meeting, Ms. Gyankroma said there were plans to start the initiative from the teacher training colleges that’s because starting with them will ensure a firm footing for the project since teachers are the implementers of the curriculum.
“We’ve found that we don’t have the practitioners who are actually trained within the industry itself. But there are separate teachers and not really creative arts teachers,” she said.
According to her, the Minister of Education felt they needed to tackle teacher training first but also starting first with their own industry players.
She also noted that the challenge with the teaching and learning of creative arts in schools has been a result of the fact that teachers are not versed in the arts courses.
Arts education is one of the major concerns of the creative sector. Successive governments have been criticised for not making it more attractive.
Arts stakeholders have overly expressed worry over the fact that the educational system from the basic level is bereft of the right structures and incentives to make it more attractive and effective.
It has therefore been argued that to really experience higher gains in the arts sector, there needs to be a deliberate attempt to harness talents in schools from the cradle.
