l At the DCMA l School's Program l Children Songbook l
To fulfill its objective to provide music education for children, DCMA is running a schools program.
This basic music education program for school children featuring teaching basic music theory, songs & dance as well as fun games is sponsored by UNESCO. In the course of one year children, mostly in nursery or lower primary levels, are led through this musical journey with the aim of stimulating their young minds while at the same time opening up opportunities for some of them who will become interested to take up music training at the Academy.
Weekly music lessons are currently taking place at 5 private schools in Zanzibar, reaching about 60 children.
For the public schools, due to lack of time within the government curriculum, continuous lessons in music could not be set up. Instead, DCMA does educational concerts there designed to introduce the idea of music education as well as cultural awareness. DCMA attempts to do at least four educational concerts per semester.
And at the end of each semester DCMA organizes an Open Day at the Old Customs House. On that occasion up to 200 students from various primary and secondary schools visit the school, experiencing music lessons and educational concerts.
The specific objectives of the program in schools are:-
· To provide children with an opportunity to receive basic music training
· To increase awareness of cultural background in relation to African music
· To foster a sense of cultural identity and belonging