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Arts and music in education Curricula? YES

Diverse talent

 increased cognitive and thinking skills (ability to read notes)

 increased social skills
 Increased experience and livelihood
 An option of pursue out of the ordinary
 Better and more confident as a person

How to implement?

 Reimplement and re-enhance music classes which are compulsory to primary and
secondary school students
 Enhance and invest in arts and music related competitions (Ie NATCOMP)
 Offer extra-curricular in arts and music with advanced tutors
 Provide opportunities for students to showcase their talents
 Title : Diversity in One. Arts and Music Changes our Future.

Introduction

Ever thought about how things may be today if all of us started education with a hint of
musical and artistic skills rather than what was always shoved to us on the books? It is
undeniable that the education stream in Malaysia today (Malaysia S. , 2015) focuses too
much on academic studies, such as the knowledge on sciences, mathematics, geography,
history and literatures. Other non-academic education also exists which involves art classes
and music lessons. However, it is uncommon that government schools today which are under
the management of the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) implement and weigh these
arts classes the same as the other academic subjects.

Music and arts bring many perks to the life of any person. An early exposure of children
towards arts and music provides better results in terms of a person’s cognitive abilities and
also interpersonal skills. Music would never happen without the brain. Creation of art is
enabled by the power of the brain’. The process or creating art and music comes solely from a
person’s brain, working together to form a symphony or rush of ideas and imagination to
produce a perfect masterpiece. Up to date scientific evidences are pouring everywhere,
proving the relativity of music and arts towards improving brain activity. As the core purpose
of education is to prepare children for the modern world, schools should have art and music
in their curricula so that children can be diverse in their talents. Many techniques and
procedures of counter measures can also be proposed to improve the current education
syllabus, in hopes that it would one day create a generation that brings more than what meets
the eye in modern Malaysia.
1.0 The Benefits

1.1 Increased Cognitive, Auditory and Thinking Skills

One well known benefit of arts and music are the increase in one’s ability to read, reason,
memorise, plan and action. An improved attention span can also be noticed in someone with
a music or arts background. The involvement of active neuron transition across parts of the
brain occurs when one is practicing music. It is not a surprise that playing a musical
instrument requires such integration of our brain’s auditory, visual, and motor regions
(Stoklosa, 2016). Furthermore, children have better abilities to pick up music and arts, given
the best proposed conditions to expand their knowledge. Practicing arts and music for long
periods of time in an absorbed way not only improves one’s skills, but also produce stronger
and more attention networks in the brain. Auditory skills also improve through leaning music
causing one to be able to focus, perceive and interpret sound information received in a more
prepared and proficient manner. This in return, brings relation to their academic studies
whereby it helps them to understand and learn better compared to others. Studies were also
conducted to find that these statements are true (Melissa Menzer, 2015). Although it is hard
to prove how IQ levels transfer from one to another, the findings to date tells us there is
significant improvements of cognitive abilities until an unknown extent.

1.2 Increased social skills

Art is creative work expressing the history, culture and spirit of individuals. It is a part of
communication and creativity (Yazıcı, 2017). Millennials today faces the challenges of
socialising with people. Many factors contribute to this such as the consistent upgrades in
communication technology whereby smartphones replace their day to day verbal socialising.
Aside from that, less exposure towards public speaking, in-class tutoring, and also occasional
show-and-tell in school reduces the chances for students to not only train how to speak in
public, but also how to manage and deal with people. In many branches of arts and music,
musical arts comprises activities such as singing, playing an instrument, listening to music,
making music, and even the history of music. In rehearsals of music for a performance or
even just occasional practice involves students to learn how to work together, evaluate and
make comments on the musical applications with fellow musicians. It allows direct verbal
communication, tolerance and even self-guiding to occur between two or more musicians,
thus providing a platform for strong and productive communication. Children also discusses
their views and recommendations for improvement from one to another, allowing more
discoveries towards the growth of their artistic skills. Studies also shows and proved that
children who undergoes planned music or arts educations showed significant results of
improvement in social skills (Yazıcı, 2017). A batch of students who did not score well in a
pre-test session showed major improvement in socials skills when their post test results
showed increase in test scores after receiving a planned musical education. This shows that
implementing arts and music education towards the young creates a social pathway for them
to communicate more effectively, from a tender age.

1.3 Confidence to pursue out of the ordinary

Confidence is key towards success. Nothing defeats one other than the sense of self-doubt in
a person’s mind. Early education in arts and music provides and alternative to children when
they grow up. A sense of confidence is built up within to go beyond the norm (Palavan,
2017). For example, one who has been taking consistent ballet lessons since young can have
a better option in the future of choosing careers. Rather than being fixated on what their
academic studies were, they have the opportunities to pursue a career in arts. As mainstream
education brings up children to opt for similar courses in different universities, children with
strong arts and music bases can opt for specialised universities for arts such as the Yale
University of Arts in the United States and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in
Hong Kong. Without any base in music or arts, no student can attend these specialised
institutions. Thus, a strong knowledge in music and arts provides a bonus of options for a
future career in their lives. This not only expands the horizons of what Malaysia can offer as
education, yet also a possibility to expand economically with the increase of professionals
who major and master in music and arts. More specialised institutions can be introduced
following an uprising of demand and talents in young Malaysians, providing wide option and
opportunities for all of them working in various sectors to help improve the nation as a multi-
talented country which not only produces engineers, economists and doctors, but also
produces the best artists.
2.0 The Implementation

Change can be evaluated as good or bad. A good change is a well-planned and prepared
change with phases and action plans to complete based on a structured time frame. Although
Malaysians seem to be comfortable with the education syllabus offered today, there are still
many who did not voice out or are unable to voice their opinions for a more artistic Malaysia.
Many musicians and artists are suffering today due to lack of support from their own country.
However, this can be changed. There are many ways Malaysia can implement change
towards the arts and music industry through changing the education profile which are;

2.1 Re-implement and re-enhance art and music classes which are compulsory to primary
and secondary school students

Music and arts classes in Malaysian schools commonly gets a less than two-hour a week
session. In their standard curricula for music class, students are only instructed to sing and
learn how to play a recorder. The course plans for music and arts classes in Malaysian
schools should be revised more thoroughly in order to make full use of the two-hour session.
Aside from that, it is found that when students are able to voice their opinions on the syllabus
towards the institution and vice versa, a more suitable form of education syllabus can be
created. Syllabus written in a friendly, rather than unfriendly, tone evoked perceptions of the
instructor being warm, more approachable, and motivated to teach the course (Bautista, Tan,
& Letchmi Devi Ponnusamy, 2015) . Music classes which involves the study of how to read
and write musical notes and also how to play various musical instruments can be
implemented to expand the interests of students towards taking up music as a hobby or even
future career. Aside from that, art classes in schools should also implement various other
techniques of creating arts rather than using colour pencils, markers, stencils, coloured paper,
and paint, to other more hands-on challenging skills such as carving, building, sculpting,
designing and even carpentry. The ability to provide hands-on learning and experimenting are
part of ‘active implementation’, one of the four ways one may learn about the world, which
also includes reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and concrete experience
(Dhanapal & Shan, 2014). Providing the opportunities for young Malaysians to try out new
things and experiment would certainly expand their cognitive and social skills in their day to
day life, enabling not only expansion of knowledge and passion in arts and music, but also
improvement in academic studies.
2.2 Offer extra-curricular programs in arts and music with professional tutors, setting up
‘sharing communities’ provide opportunities for students to showcase their talents

Another method to enhance arts and music education in schools can be done by offering
extra-curricular classes in arts and music (Winter, Chapman, & Treasure, 2014). Schools
should invest in good tutors and instrumentation in order to bring out the best in every
student. Although the starting costs may be high, these instrument and equipment can be used
for a long period of time, training and producing more artists along the way. Moreover, not
all parents are able to provide the best for their children, yet talents in younger generations
should not go to waste thanks to the absence of opportunities. Providing professional help
and guidance by hiring music and arts tutors for students in a consistent way ensures that the
talent of students can be harnessed completely and also bring more passion into their
childhood.

Aside from that, sharing communities can be built and managed by schools whereby local
artists and musicians can get along with the students whom have passion towards the
respected arts (Chong, 2018). Not only it helps expand and sharpen their skillset, these people
can also help expand the student’s horizon in aiming for what they can pursue in the future as
artists. Sharing their experiences and methods helps the students to plan ahead and get a
better picture of their future (Taylor & Parsons, 2015). In addition, many activities and
programs can also be held in small scales with the local sharing community. Organising
events and programs not only enables them to showcase their talents, students can also learn
the management and organisation background works and tasks of being an artist (Dzul,
2018).

2.3 Enhance and invest in arts and music related competitions

In Malaysia, many arts and music competitions often get washed out with time. Why does
this happen? Main reason is due to lack of talents, contribution of the younger generation,
and also lack of investors towards a certain project. One example which we can view is the
cessation in the organisation of Malaysia National Band Competition, known as NATCOMP
by marching band peers (Yap, 2011). NATCOMP is an annual competition whereby
marching bands from schools across the nation compete in regional states and then advance
in national finals. Successful national winners would also be given the chance to represent the
country (Malaysia U. , 28) . It provided an opportunity for schools to showcase and upgrade
their marching bands in order to fight for success of their respective institutions. It was the
reign and glory of music to many schools nationwide during that time (2009-2013), which
majority of the schools actively worked hard to benefit and learn from the competition.
However, over the years from 2013 till today, the organisers of NATCOMP has opt to
organise smaller competitions namely the Kuala Lumpur International Youth Marching Band
Competition [KLIYMBC] which only involves a smaller range of qualification and
participation, commonly higher-end performing schools, causing other schools lose interest
and thus invest less time and money in enhancing their musical strength through their extra
co-curricular activities (David, 2015). This in return, reduced the amount of investment of an
institution towards upgrading and maintaining their musical instruments. The impact then
goes to the students. A passion in achieving something together becomes unsupported by
their alma mater. What was once the glory of an institution, now became history. Thus, the
Ministry of Education, MOE with collaboration with suitable NGO’s such as the Music
Council of Malaysia and Yayasan Sime Darby’s sponsorship can help by pitching in towards
making these competitions rejoice by providing supporting funds and ideas to the organisers.
This not only improves and drives the spirit of competition between students, yet also
provides a platform for them to showcase their talents to their home country and to the world
(Teresa, Wataru, & Thomas, 2013).

2.4 Integrating arts and music in class

Real learning doesn’t really occur in one-time events. It the constant act of repetition which
enables one to master a skill or a knowledge. Just like mathematics, one who gets it right at
the first time, may not get it right during the second. Thus, the process of practicing and
repetition occurs. In learning arts and music in schools, short sessions of music or art creation
can be integrated in class. As a study says, music improves one’s ability in academic studies
(O’Connell). Some studies also shown that music not only helps in memorisation, yet it also
creates a positive mood, which indirectly boosts memory formation in the human brain
(Davis). The integration of music into class syllabus increases attention of students as well as
improve their memory towards a certain topic, while also providing a better overall class
environment. (DiDomenico, 2017). One example we may take is the use of music to
memorise the periodic table, which is a table of chemical elements found on earth, commonly
used in the studies of Chemistry. Integrating music into academic materials improves the
abilities of students to memorise and understand, as the notes, pauses, and rhythm helps them
capture and store what is being thought in class. Aside from that, integrating arts and crafts
skills in classes can be done by building models of case studies for certain subjects (Cleaver,
2019). For example, teachers can instruct their students to build a set size model of a
microorganism such as the cell of a plant. These not only involves and tests student’s creative
skills to use various materials and colours to create the model, yet also ensures the students
have thorough understanding of the microorganism itself. Inserting art and music in their
daily classes polishes their ability in arts, while improving their studies in compulsory
education.

Conclusion

Overall, music and arts education should and must be upgraded and implemented in all
schools across Malaysia. It is undeniable that humans are multi-talented self-developing
species, and what we are capable never reaches a plateau. The diverse exploration of what we
can do is never ending. Though we can never reject accepting base knowledge in science and
mathematics as our core education, but we can be selective in what we can and want to learn.
We can have opportunities to take up what was a passionate hobby into a career. Taking in
music and arts education from a young age nurtures our children to have better
understanding, cognitive, learning, thinking and auditory skills. Young Malaysians today
should be backed up and prepared with such abilities to face and compete in the real world.
Their ability to speak, converse and debate would be a bigger reward from having base
studies in arts whereby socialising to them would be a piece of cake. Being able to converse
and share their thoughts would also certainly ensure the younger generation can seize every
moment and opportunity withheld with confidence and dignity. That is what the Malaysian
generation should be. Intellectual, proud, confident, hardworking and having the spirit to
achieve. Efforts need to be rolled out not only by the ministry, yet also the voice and actions
of the younger generation should be considered. Schools re-enhancing music and arts classes,
increase support from schools and local community and also the arena of competition are
what can be done to assure a modern Malaysia well known for its arts and music. The young
of today are the future of tomorrow, should we listen to them and prepare them thoroughly,
they will one day bring Malaysia to heights none has ever achieved.

(approx. 2720 words)

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