Mr Ekow Micah, President of National Music Council of Ghana (NMCG), has called on the Ministry of Education (MoE) and Ghana Education Service (GES) to restore the teaching of music in Ghana’s educational curriculum.

He said music was a compulsory subject in the curriculum which provided students the opportunity to display their talents and directed their future professional careers, adding, “Students could choose music as their... profession”.

Mr Micah made the call at a meeting with officials of the MoE and NMCG in Accra.

He said the target of NMCG was to decentralise music and its related technologies and administration by encouraging government, individuals, musicians and backing instrumentalist, promoters, song writers and all stakeholders in the music industry to initiate, implement and direct projects and programmes themselves from the grassroots to the national and international levels.

Mr Micah noted that, this would promote Ghana’s national socio-cultural equilibrium, based on the recognition that art was freedom and creating it was sacred.

He said creating a conducive environment for musicians, programmers, engineers, promoters, Disk Jockey’s, sponsors and stakeholders in the music industry to practice their arts in their localities as one entity, would contribute to the national cultural wholeness and consciousness.

Mr Micah said NMCG would organise a Music Election Education Dance (MEED), aimed at educating Ghanaians on the need for peace and stability in the up-coming elections.

He said the Council would produce a unity song and distribute them to all radio and television stations to keep reminding Ghanaians of the need for peace

Major Mahama S. Tara (rtd), Chief Director of the MoE said the issue of restoring music in the educational curriculum would be forwarded to the Ministry’s Council for deliberation, since it is the body responsible for the management of the sector.

He said all constructive innovations to transform the educational sector was welcomed.

“We are ready to listen and take the appropriate actions to transform the educational sector in the country,” he stressed.

Major Tara lauded NMCG for plans to organise MEED to educate Ghanaians on the need for peace and stability and expressed the Ministry’s appreciation for the commitment.

The NMCG is governed by an executive committee headed by the President, democratically elected by delegates from the regional executive committees and a member of the International Music Council in the category of the “national music councils”. **