Music education in schools in Nepal 8

Music has long been included as part of the compulsory subject Social Studies in the Nepali primary school curriculum (grades 1-5, ages six to eleven) under “Creative and Performance Arts”. Already in 1983, Amatya described how the New National Education Plan introduced in 1971 included objectives for developing, preserving and publicizing the national language, culture, literature and art. Thus, training in the performing arts was compulsory at the primary level, and folk music and dance were included in physical education in lower and secondary education. Folk music and dance were also to be included in extra-curricular activities, and schools were required to participate in interschool competitions and organize an annual “cultural manifestation” (Amatya, 1983, p. 22), such as Parents’ Day (see also Articles I and II;

Grandin, 2005).

๓ I am grateful to Iman Bikram Shah, principal of the Nepal Music Center, for his ongoing assistance verifying the current state of music education in Nepal.

Currently the Primary Education Curriculum for grades 1 to 3 (Government of Nepal, 2008) combines Social Studies and Creative Arts, while the grades 4 to 5 curriculum (Government of Nepal, 2009) lists them separately. In both cases “The main objective of [the subject Creative Arts] is to make children able to express their feelings, experience and creativity freely and spontaneously” (Government of Nepal, 2008, p. 26; 2009, p. 27). The subject is further broken down into Visual Art and Music, with music encompassing singing, playing instruments, dancing, and acting and including a 20 per cent local provision (Government of Nepal, 2007; 2008; 2009).

The local provision allows each school to include local content, such as music from the area. Teacher training, including in music, for the subject Creative Arts is conducted by the National Centre for Educational Development (NCED), and the NCED has also developed some songs for grades 1 to 5 to support teachers in their teaching of the subject. Moreover, the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) has also selected songs, most of which are patriotic songs, to be sung by students in grades 1 to 8 (see also Grandin, 2005). Despite the inclusion of music as part of the Social Studies curriculum, however, none of the administrators or musician-teachers involved in this research project referred to this curriculum during our interactions. Interviewees did, however, mention the existence of government organised music competitions in which government schools also participate.

In 2010, after being lobbied by the Nepal Music Center (NMC), the Ministry of Education adopted music into the lower secondary and secondary school curricula.

NMC then developed music curricula for lower secondary (grades 6–8, students twelve to fourteen years old) as the second of two possible optional subjects (meaning that the school selects the subject from a group of possible subjects and it is then taken by all students), and IRUVHFRQGDU\VFKRROJUDGHVVWXGHQWV¿IWHHQWRHLJKWHHQ\HDUVROG as an elective implemented in the Technical and Vocational Stream of Education. At the same time, NMC developed a curriculum for grades 1-5 as a local subject (meaning the one subject for which the school may develop its own curriculum), however, there are currently no schools teaching this curriculum. While the lower secondary and secondary school music curricula have been prepared and approved for implementation since 2011, currently there are also no schools teaching them, partly because music is just one of many subjects from which the school can choose only one to be taken by all students. For example, as stated above, the only mention of music in the National Curriculum Framework is in the appendices where the list of “Elective Subjects Group: A” includes “Nepali, English, Sanskrit, Awadhi, Newari, Latin, History, Extra Mathematics, Industrial Education, Food Science, Agriculture Education, Music and

Musical Instrument, Veda, Byakaran, Electricity, Horticulture, Hotel Management”

(Government of Nepal, 2007, p. 77). It is also uncertain how widely information about these music curricula have been disseminated. An elective music curriculum for grades 11 to 12 has also been approved and adopted but not widely implemented. Sirjana

&ROOHJHRI)LQH$UWVDSULYDWHFROOHJHD൶OLDWHGZLWK7ULEKXYDQ8QLYHUVLW\KRZHYHU GRHVR൵HUVSURJUDPPHDQLQJJUDGHVDQG0XVLFWKHUHIRUHUHPDLQVDVXEMHFW primarily taught in private schools and music institutes, and by private individuals.

At the tertiary level⁹1HSDOR൵HUVVRPHSRVVLELOLWLHVWRVWXG\PXVLF'XHWRWKH lack of formal music education in schools, however, the majority of students entering such programs are beginners (Regmi, 2019). Eastern classical vocal and instrumental music can be studied at various campuses of Tribhuvan University (TU), where Bachelor level studies began already in 1963, Masters level in 2011 and PhD level in 5HJPL&XUUHQWO\PXVLFVWXGLHVDUHR൵HUHGDWIRXU78FDPSXVHVDQG the Central Department of Fine Arts (Regmi, 2019). Lalit Kala Campus (https://factu.

edu.np) and Sirjana College of Fine Arts (https://sirjanacollege.edu.npERWKR൵HUD four-year Bachelor of Fine Arts, while Padma Kanya Multiple Campus and Nepal

$UWV&DPSXVLQ.DWKPDQGXR൵HUPXVLFDVDQRSWLRQDOVXEMHFWDVSDUWRIDWKUHH\HDU Bachelor degree. These tertiary programs were developed drawing from programs in India based on Hindustani Classical music (Regmi, 2019). Although Nepali folk PXVLFVZHUHLQWURGXFHG¿UVWDVH[WUDFXUULFXODUDFWLYLWLHVDQGODWHULQFOXGHGDVSDUWRI the main curriculum, the focus of studies generally remains classical and folk vocal music, and classical instrumental music including sitar, tabla, and bansuri (a transverse EDPERRÀXWH(WKQRPXVLFRORJ\FDQEHVWXGLHGDW.DWKPDQGX8QLYHUVLW\'HSDUWPHQW of Music through a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music¹⁰.

There is currently no government recognized music teacher education in Nepal, DOWKRXJKVRPHLQVWLWXWLRQVKDYHPDGHH൵RUWVDWR൵HULQJWKHLURZQPXVLFWHDFKHU education. The Nepal Music Educators’ Society, for example, in partnership with the 'DQLVK(PEDVV\R൵HUHGDWHDFKLQJWUDLQLQJFRXUVHIURP1RYHPEHUWR-XO\

As part of the Global Visions project, four Nepal Music Center teachers completed SHGDJRJLFDOVWXGLHVDFFRUGLQJWR)LQQLVKUHTXLUHPHQWVEXWZLWKFRQWH[WVSHFL¿F content and this has also contributed to the initiation of research-based music education in the country (see e.g. Karki, 2018; Shah 2018; Shrestha, 2018; Tuladhar, 2018).

๔ I am grateful to Professor Dhrubesh Chandra Regmi from the Music Department, Padma Kanya Multiple Campus, Tribhuvan University, for his assistance verifying the current state of tertiary music education Nepal.

์๋ The Department of Music at Kathmandu University was established in 1996 by Gert-Matthias Wegner.

Also in relation to the Global Visions project and music education in the country, two international music education conferences have recently been organised in Kathmandu, the 2017 Cultural Diversity in Music Education conference (CDIME) (https://www.

nepalmusiccenter.com/generalinfo.html#home) and the second International Society of Music Education (ISME) South Asia regional conference in 2019 (https://www.isme-conferences.org/programme-south-asia-2019.html).