Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/286290
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 30 MARCH 2014 7 TEODOR RELJIC THE all-too-common grievance that art and culture is not being given due importance reared its ugly head once again earlier this week, as Education Minister Evarist Bartolo announced plans to integrate arts subjects in the early years of secondary school. Under the banner of 'Expressive Arts', it is being proposed that Form 1 and 2 students will get two 'taster' lessons in Art, Music and Drama each week, with the focus shifting on one of those three subjects rotating every three months of the scholastic year. Effectively, this will mean that stu- dents will receive 10 lessons in Art, Drama and Music throughout the year. Bartolo's proposal was instantly met with trepidation, as his Face- book wall was inundated with com- ments expressing concern over the proposal's implications – chiefly, that it would render the time allocated to each subject negligible since students wouldn't have enough time to absorb any of the three subjects falling under the 'Expressive Arts' banner in an ef- fective way. Speaking to MaltaToday, artist and lecturer Raphael Vella claimed that there was never enough time allocat- ed to the arts in state schools to be- gin with, and that "one possible side- effect" of this new proposal is that it would discourage children from pur- suing a subject in any depth in future years, since they would only be given a threadbare snapshot of what it may consist of. "Another problem is related to the quality of students' work at SEC level: in recent years we have seen a gradual but steady drop in quality. Students will now only start studying the subject seriously in Form 3," Vella added. Charmaine Zammit, Head of De- partment for Art within the Edu- cation Department compared the proposal to a similar – and, in her opinion – "failed" system. "The proposed 'Expressive Art' will simply repeat the failure of a system which was already tried and tested previously through the Art Litera- ture Music (ALM) system. The ALM system failed because the right condi- tions to provide a proper Art Educa- tion were not respected. Should the art educators passively conform in re- peating a system which already failed to offer proper art education in the past?" she said, while also expressing concern that art educators were not consulted before the new initiative was announced. Zammit emphasized that any re- form of the way the arts are taught locally needs to prioritise double les- sons, as opposed to scattered one- hour sessions throughout the week. That's because preparation time, which includes cleaning and storage of materials, is a crucial part of the lessons. Additionally, she also said more time should be allocated to each of the individual subjects under the Expressive Arts banner, while the curriculum should be structured in such a way so as to ensure that it's not only the 'end product' that's given emphasis, but also "the creative proc- ess which leads to the development of students' holistic education". Giving Bartolo's proposal the ben- efit of the doubt, Raphael Vella said that while he can "understand that the intention may have been a good one", "giving each child a 'taster' of each art form actually works against the subjects, not in their favour, because children get the impression that these are 'easy' subjects or that a superficial treatment of them is sufficient. "This perpetuates the age-old per- ception that art is a soft option," Vella said. In response, Evarist Bartolo said that he remains willing to discuss the way forward for this proposal. "Let's discuss the way forward. Why stick to a silo mentality? Why deprive students and then accuse them of not being interested in culture and the arts?" Bartolo said. "So far art was an option. My pro- posal was to have all students experi- ence art and culture. I think that cul- ture and art is an essential component for the development of the personal- ity of our students. I think we all agree on this objective. Let's discuss how we can make it happen. I'm suggesting that in the early years of all teenag- ers they are exposed in an interesting and hands-on way to art, dance, mu- sic, song, theatre. Later on, they will choose a specific area. "Last Monday I met secondary school students and they said they liked the idea and said that they should not have to choose a particular area at age 11 – they wanted a taster of all areas and then they choose." News Concern over 'Expressive Art' classes sparks teaching debate 'Why deprive students and then accuse them of not being interested in culture and the arts?' Evarist Bartolo 'Should art educators passively conform in repeating a system that has already failed?' Charmaine Zammit Art is being peddled as a soft option, says artist Raphael Vassallo (left), but education minister Evarist Bartolo says students should not be deprived from getting a taster of all the arts subjects A proposal for an 'integrated' version of the arts classes secondary students get has been met with trepidation by some teachers and artists alike