International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue VII, July 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

Music Administration in Ghana: Examining the Implications and Parameters for Delegating Authority

Gayheart Mawuli Mesiotso
University of Cape Coast, Ghana

Abstract: Contextually, this paper employed the principle of line and staff administrative structure by Henri Fayol and the bureaucratic management theory by Max Weber to critically examine communication flow in the administration of Cultural Education in the Ghana Education Service. Attention is also drawn to the parameters and implications for delegation of authority in the service. Discussions were by extension centered on: the organizational structure for Music Administration in the Ghana Education Service as well as the duties and responsibilities of the officers. An interview section with regional and district coordinators produced data for analysis. The study found that; 1. The Cultural Unit across the continuum is hierarchically structured with specific rules governing the exercising of authority at each level, and appointments to positions are grounded in absolute technical competence. 2. Power is vested in the official positions and not in the personalities in charge of these posts. 3. The activities of the Cultural Coordinators extend beyond the organization of cultural festivals for pre-tertiary schools to the monitoring of pedagogical practices in the first and second cycle schools. Culture solidarizes nations with diverse ethnic groups, it is an economic asset, and by extension offers a sense of responsibility that makes people feel connected to their communities. It is, therefore, necessary to have adequate attention paid to its generational transfer to ensure continuity.

Keywords: Music Education, Music Administration, Music Supervision, Music Administration Organogram, Delegation of Authority.

I. INTRODUCTION

The appellations from the traditional royal courts’ drums, rhythmic and poetic by nature, coupled with blending interdependent melodies of different tonal contours are resonating from a distance at Ho, the Volta Regional Capital in June 2016. The regalia of the various traditional royal courts in Ghana are also on display by a different group of people. Hypothetically, the event in town is a non-ritualistic ceremony by the indigenes of Ho – Asogli, but an Inter-schools Cultural Festival for Senior High Schools within the central Volta Region.

 Inter-school Cultural festivals are biannual traditions that every student/pupil anticipates in Ghana. For many people, it is an occasion to celebrate the Ghanaian cultural heterogeneity, as well as an opportunity to broaden their cultural sensitivity and conception of cultural treasures that exist beyond their proximate settings. 

    Music and the other Arts are considered impeccable in the intellectual refinement of academic protégés in the pursuance of scholarship, hence any conspicuous absence of these dignified essentials would be utterly divulging in the lives of the learner.  This, therefore, challenges Music Administrators at all levels of the national continuum to ensure that the standards set by the Ministry of Education are strictly clenched. Conceivably, the culture of every nation is the bedrock and panacea for her economic growth, development and prosperity, Akenoo, M. (2020, p. 6). Van Der Borg et al. (2005, p. 7) presume that a culture-oriented economic development integrates the symbolic and creative elements into any aspect of the urban economy, pursuing distinction, innovativeness, and a higher level of interaction between localized individual and social knowledge and globalizing markets. This suggests that culture is an economic asset, and considering the synergies between culture and economic development, it is reasonable and expedient for the society to demonstrate commitment in its transmission process, as well as preservation of its indispensable facets. It is on this premise that the organizers/administrators warrant commendation for putting together these sensational concerts in our schools.  

    It is worth noting that Cultural Education in Ghana comprises an amalgamation of the many disciplines in the Arts; thus, the Performing (Music, Dance, Drama) and the Visual Arts (Sculpture, Design etc.). Hence, cultural administration contextually is synonymous with music administration which this study seeks to explore. This paper interrogates communication flow in the administration of Cultural Education in Ghana, the parameters and the implications for delegating authority. 

II. Study Rationale

    Several scholarly works have shown the impeccable propensity of music in refining the cognitive and psychophysical development of learners, particularly among young children. For instance, Nyamful (2016, P. 63) opines that children involved in Music Education and Training have larger growth of neural activity than children without music training. Plato pointed out in Gojmerac (2018, p. 180) that Music is the best tool for education than any other. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA, 1999) cited in Dobrota (2014, p. 277) assumes that the study of Music enables children to define themselves concerning others, their friends, colleagues, social networks and the cultures in which they live. In furtherance, it is proposed that the teaching of music deepens and extends everyday experiences, providing new opportunities and forging important links between the home, the school and the outside world.

    It is hence axiomatic from the above postulations that effective administration to monitor the progress of schools within the regions and the districts across the country will ensure the stipulated goals as provided for in the national curricular for pre-tertiary schools are met.

The core mandate of administration in Music Education is to provide musical and educational leadership that spawns: organizing, managing as well as ensuring national educational objectives set for the music curricular is achieved within areas of jurisdiction that include; schools, districts, and regions. White (2021, p. 23) considers Music Administrators as individuals who collaborate with music teachers within schools by supporting the management, organizing and promotion of musical activities and performances, and implementing the music curriculum. 

    The National Commission on Culture (NCC) in representing the collective national identity of Ghana, as well as gleaning unity from Ghana’s heterogeneous cultural setting, concedes the need to connect the distinctive cultural emblems and traditional institutions of the over fifty ethnic groups in Ghana that is perceived to offer identity, self-respect and pride to the people of Ghana, NCC (2004, p. 7). NCC has the impression that the developmental agenda of Ghana must be driven by a strong cultural foundation. 

    Article thirty-nine (39); clause two (2), sub-section one (1) of the 1992 constitution (p. 24) stipulates that; 

The State shall take steps to encourage the integration

 of appropriate customary values into the fabric of 

national life through formal and informal education 

and the conscious introduction of cultural dimensions 

to relevant aspects of national, planning.

These cultural dimensions accordingly manifest in the aesthetic quality and humanistic dimension of the arts comprising of; Music, Dance, Drama, Carvings, Paintings etc. NCC (p. 9). This constitutional provision by implication suggests that the transmission of the cultural values and practices as well as their sustenance is dependent on the formal and informal education of citizens. It is on this premise that the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the National Commission on Culture is mandated to ensure cultural education is delivered to all citizens. 

    To achieve this mandate, Coe (2005) cited in Edusei (2019, p. 2) opines that, the Ministry of Education through its implementing agency, thus Ghana Education Service established Cultural Education Unit in the various regions and districts of Ghana to offer oversight responsibilities over pre-tertiary schools through teacher recruitment for the pedagogical delivery of curricular contents, along with the organization of cultural competitions among the First and Second cycle schools in the country.

    Culture is what individuates us as humans and portrays us as inhabitants of an identical society. It is an economic asset of nations that requires generational transfer to ensure continuity. Ultimately, it is within the ambient of the school through the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service that guarantees this constitutional provision. 

    Supervision is vital and pivotal in the enterprise of education including Music Education. There is always a lack of focus, loss of direction, eroding of interest, as well as languishing of programmes in the absence of proficient administration within an educational enterprise. Therefore, examination of the administrative structures that ensures the constitutional precepts are executed, the parameters and the implications for delegating authority in the mandated administration is a profound venture because an effective administration is achievement-oriented.

III. Data and Study Methods

    An interview granted by Mr. Daniel Sarpong and Mr. Isaac Komla Nutsuah respectively constitutes data for the present study. The first interview was granted by Mr Daniel Sarpong the Volta Regional Coordinator of Culture on the 6th of September, 2021 and the second interview was granted by Mr. Isaac Komla Nutsuah the Ho-West District Coordinator of culture on the 9th of September, 2021. These individuals were selected based on their vast experiences in the Ghana Education Service as Music teachers as well as their current positions as Cultural Coordinators at the regional and district levels respectively. Mr. Daniel Sarpong has twenty years of teaching experience in the GES, with eleven of these years spent as a cultural coordinator at the district and regional levels. Mr. Isaac Komla Nutsuah on the other hand has twenty-seven years of working experience in teaching music and three of these accumulated years working as a district-level cultural coordinator. 

    In the context of this paper, an organizational scheme usually referred to as line and staff administrative structure created by Henri Fayol cited in Hagnerud (2015, p. 8), and the bureaucratic management theory by Max Weber was used to critically examine communication flow in the administration of culture in the Ghana Education Service. Archibald (2017) views decision-making in the line and staff administration as decentralization of authority from a unified command to segmented control, and where work is carried out under specialized functions, as well as hierarchically exercising authority.

    Drucker (1998, p. 158) believes the concept of management does not seem straightforward, and in furtherance, nothing of the sort exists as the one right organization. This suggests that what pertains to one organization may not be a panacea for another. The Ghana Education Service has its unique system of communication channel and that affects all divisions as well as units under their administration.

    Bureaucratic management theory according to Kumar (2016, p. 213), is an organizational structure that is characterized by many rules, standardized processes, procedures and requirements, number of desks, meticulous division of labour and responsibility, clear hierarchies and professional, almost impersonal interactions between employees. 

One fundamental characteristic of a bureaucratic organization is that there is a social scale with regards to occupancy of positions in the organization where a coherent hierarchical tree that expounds positions and their interconnections to other dispositions in the social stratification is well articulated. To Gawade, each lower office is subject to control and supervision by a higher office, thus following the principle of hierarchy where various positions are ranked on descending scale from top to bottom of the organizational chart. 

IV. Analysis

    The administrative practices in GES resonate very well with Weber’s rational-legal authority system. Weber postulates that legitimate authority of an office ought to emanate from the approval of the appointee who should exercise that authority in line with the rules and procedures of the organization.  This legitimate authority is what Weber termed Rational-legal authority. 

Imperatively, offices from the national to the school level in GES are hierarchically structured with specific rules governing the exercising of authority at each rank; appointments to positions are grounded in absolute technical competence. Significantly, whoever is appointed to champion cultural education must at least exhibit competence in a single area, that is must be knowledgeable in the performing arts or any form of the arts to surmount the arduous responsibilities as well as technicalities involved. 

    A close examination of data suggests that the authority in GES is vested in the official positions and not in the personalities in charge of these posts. Thus, personnel do not exercise power in their own right, but rather, a command that represents the service. To Weber, obedience to an unprejudiced command is synonymous with obedience to a compulsory institutional norm regardless of the stature of the individual in command.

    Every institution has rules and regulations that constrain behaviour as well as impose discipline on employees and by extension, create a working environment that provides security and comfort for effective delivery. Weber (1947) cited in Hau & Chow (1998, p. 499) intimates that rules and standard operating procedures enable organizational activities to be performed in a predictable, routine manner, thus increasing their efficiency by formalizing and standardizing procedures. 

    The Ghana Education Service has clearly defined rules designed into code of ethics and code of conduct that assist professionals to conduct business honestly and with integrity. These rules are substantially documented and accordingly distributed to all employees including cultural administrative staff.

    Examination of data also reveals that administration of culture in the GES follows the line and staff traditional patterns of organization structure, where the national coordinator and the crew at the headquarters serve as the policymakers for the staff personnel at the regional, metropolitan/municipal/district, school level, Cowden & Klotman (1991, p. 23). 

    Imperatively, operations in GES are considered as a concerted effort by various divisions and units beneath them. This suggests that the cultural unit is not an autonomous body and hence cannot segregate its decisions. Their resolutions must receive laissez-passer from the divisional directors as well as the director-general before functioning. Official communiqué from the NCC by the protocol is channeled through the directors at the Regional, MMD, and Heads of schools to the officers in charge of culture within their jurisdictions. Exertion on culturally related communiqué is always dispatched by the directors / institutional heads to the coordinators at the various levels to act upon. 

    For instance, the NCC sends a notification through the Regional Directors of Education; the information is redirected by the RDEs to the RCCs for implementation. The RCCs through their RDEs communicate to the MMDCCs through the Metropolitan/Municipal/District Directors of Education, and then from the MMDCCs to the Music/Creative Arts Teachers in the schools through the Heads of the schools. It is therefore evident that information flow from the NCC to the Classroom Teacher has the endorsement of the GES imperium. In effect, authority in GES is exercised in a hierarchical protocol, and work is routinely carried out in consonance with an individual’s specific responsibilities.

Organizational Structure for Cultural Education Administration in the GES

    Cultural Education comprises an amalgamation of the many disciplines in the arts; thus, the Performing (Music, Dance, Drama) and the Visual Arts (Sculpture, Design etc.). Enquiries affirm that the Cultural Education Unit currently operates under the Schools and Instruction Division (Director for Culture) at the national level. The CEU is headed by the National Cultural Coordinator with a deputy at the head office of GES. The CEU has the arduous and responsibility of coordinating cultural educational activities at the pre-tertiary level across the nation. 

    The Regional Cultural Coordinator heads the Regional Cultural Administration, an office that operates directly under the Regional Director of Education. The Metropolitan/Municipal/District cultural administration functions under the office of the Assistant/ Deputy Director for Supervision and Management of Schools. The MMD Cultural Coordinator(s) supervises musical and cultural activities in schools within their districts.  Music Directors / Music Teachers follow in that sequence depending on the size of the school and the nature of the school music programme. In a school where staff strength exceeds one, there is always the lead who supervises others hence referred to as the Music Director, while the other staff members become Music Teachers. 

    In summary, the organogram for Music Administration presents the National Culture Coordinator as the National Chief, followed by the Regional Chiefs known as the Regional Culture Coordinators, the Metropolitan/Municipal/District Culture Coordinators, School Music Teachers follow in that administrative codification as well as the organization of instruction in Music Education at the first and second cycle schools.

The Conceptual Framework of Cultural Administration in GES (Designed by the author)

The Parameters of Delegating Authority

    Delegation of authority is a common phenomenon in every facet of life including education. Music and Cultural Administration is no exception; and since Culture Education at the pre-tertiary level in Ghana is an exclusive preserve of the Ghana Education Service, there ought to be effective monitoring of schools nationwide by the coordinators from the head office through the regions to the districts, and by extension to the schools to ensure the progress of work.

     The Cultural Unit headed by the National Coordinator by compliance is expected to chaperon the effectuation of the national cultural policies as they divulge in pedagogical practices within the pre-tertiary schools nationwide.  To reduce the excessive workload on the National Coordinator, it is necessary to delegate responsibilities to the administrators at the various regions and districts for effectual organization of events as well as effective supervision of schools. 

     Delegation of Authority is the segmentation and sub-allotting of powers to the subordinates to achieve effective results, Oviawe (2015, p. 2). Contextually, the delegation of authority within music/cultural administration in GES corresponds to the downward transfer of power as well as information stream from the National Coordinator through to the Classroom Music / Creative Arts Teacher in the continuum. References can be made to the appendices for images of the organogram. 

Duties and Responsibilities of Cultural Coordinators in GES

    Since the Cultural Education Unit is expected to imprint the Ghanaian culture into its stripling generation, the coordinators from the National to the MMDs by compliance are responsible for the coordination of pedagogical practices present in cultural education in the pre-tertiary schools. This among other things includes:

• Sojourning the Basic and Senior High Schools to monitor as well as to direct the teaching and learning of culturally related subjects such as the Performing Arts, Visual Arts, and Home Economics etc.
• Organizing capacity building workshops/seminars/in-service training for Teachers handling Cultural Education subjects in their jurisdiction to keep pace with trending contemporary pedagogical practices in their disciplines.  
• Assisting teachers in the interpretation of curriculum materials about cultural education subjects, etc.
• Encourage research on the various traditional dances, music, drama, etc. among teachers as well as promote the relevant aspects of the Ghanaian culture in schools. 

    It is significant to conceive the dexterous essentiality of cultural education in constructing National identity which sequentially promotes solidarity and by extension unite diverse ethnic groups in a country. Guibernau (2007) cited in Windari (2021, p. 82) presumes that national identity fosters closeness, empathy and solidarity among fellow nationals.  Drawing on the Theory of Social Identity by Tajfel & Turner (1979, 1985), Islam (2014, p. 1782) expounds that discrimination, prejudice, and intergroup conflict is minimized when people identify themselves as part of a wider community. 

    To do this, the Cultural Unit instills into Ghanaian children:

• The spirit of patriotism /national identity through community service
• A sense of responsibility that makes an individual feel connected to a communal entity, as well as has a strong sense of membership even without ineluctably knowing each community member. 

    Inter-school cultural festivals form part of the cultural transfer process to the learner in schools. Cultural festivals are occasions of exploring the traditions and cultures of the societies of pupils/students. This is organized from the school level to the national level. Amuah et al. (2002, p. 157) believe the focus of instituting the school cultural festival ‚is to expose pupils to the wide spectrum of music and other cultural practices found in Ghanaian society. Adjepong (2019, p. 103) in furtherance affirms that teaching students how to play rhythms on a traditional drum, sing an indigenous song, recite traditional poetry, and perform an indigenous dance or drama affords the learner the space to acquire skills and knowledge which enable them to actively take part in the cultures of their societies. 

    Disciplines that are performed during the occasion include; choral music usually performed in local languages, traditional dances and drama, folk poetry recital, traditional drum language, exhibition in the Visual Arts etc. It is the exclusive preserve of the Cultural Coordinators to spearhead these organizations in their Circuits, Zones, District, as well as prepare cultural troupes for Regional and National Festivals.

    At the school level of the administrative continuum, teachers are responsible for administering the Cultural Education Curriculum. Taking Music for instance into consideration, the Music Director/Teacher among other things as suggested by Cowden & Klotman (p. 25) are responsible for:

• Providing leadership and advice to the school regarding the organization and content of the music curriculum.
• Developing and coordinating a programme of instruction designed to carry out the aims and objectives of the music curriculum as well as identifying talents in children and encouraging them to develop such talents.
• Recommending an appropriate bridge for the total music programme equipment, suppliers, instruments, books, audiovisual materials, music, maintenance, etc.
• Maintaining proper evaluative procedures, to improve instruction and refine the school music programme including preparing candidates for exams.
• Raising Choirs and other Musical groups in their schools
• Organizing Nine Lessons and Carols in their schools

Personal and Professional Attributes of Cultural Coordinators

    There has been a broader recognition of teacher effectiveness being the fundamental parameter for promoting a higher standard of learning Music in schools. The educational setting, interpersonal communication, classroom control, subject proficiency, quality of planning, verbal interaction, and more diverse pedagogical practices, including learner-centered group work and interactive activity techniques which pupils find more attractive are very distinctive attributes that impute teacher effectiveness, (Hamann, Lineburgh, & Paul, 1998; Hendel, 1995; Madsen, Standley, Byo, & Cassidy, 1992; Kyriakides, & Button, 2010).

    Professional skills and competency are relevant traits every administrator must possess; hence Cultural Administrators must be apprehensive about their traits and attitudes. Bentea (2014, p.1562) postulates that personality traits that are significant for a job, need values and attitudes towards different aspects of the organization and professional activity. Bowden & Klotman (pp. 21 – 22) believe the Music administrators must be concerned about personal and professional traits such as;

• Being musically knowledgeable /competent at least in a single area. 
• displaying a genuine passion for teaching music

• • Team playing

• Effective in communicating

• Effective in human relation/ creation of rapport

• Exhibit sincerity and integrity (dependable and responsible) 
• friendliness thus there should be no place for discrimination and prejudices 

    It is obvious that quality research improves teaching and learning, and remains one of the hallmarks of both cultural administrators and music teachers. Hamann et al., 2000; Mackworth & Young, 1990 cited in Button (2010, p. 36) argue that teachers who engage in quality research in music are more disposed to implementing the music curriculum in an interesting and more fulfilling manner, and this has a bearing on their learners. Consequently, music teachers with prolific research backgrounds are more imaginative, self-sufficient, emotionally stable, and less anxious, as well as employ diverse teaching strategies that augment their pedagogical prowess in the development of pupils’ musical interests.

V. Conclusion

    Drawing on the principle of line and staff and the theory of bureaucracy, this paper has established the hierarchical order of communication flow as well as the delegation of authority within cultural administrators in Ghana. Data also demonstrate that cultural education is a constitutional provision, and a preserve of the Cultural Unit of the Ghana Education Service, hence the responsibility of the Cultural Coordinators at the various levels of the continuum to ensure culture is imprinted in the youth of Ghana through education.

   Culture Education goes beyond the organization of cultural festivals in schools, to ensuring pedagogical practices regarding the various components (subjects) in culture, are well coordinated in schools. Culture is what identifies us as human beings and portrays us as the same people of the same society. It is what solidarizes us and by extension unites the nation’s diverse ethnic groups. It is an economic asset of the nation. It offers a sense of responsibility that makes an individual feel connected to a communal entity. It is, therefore, necessary to have adequate attention paid to its generational transfer to ensure continuity.

Appendix A

 Images for appendices taken from the GES website (https://ges.gov.gh )   Note: the arrows identify the office of Cultural Unit in each organogram.

                                                                      Appendix B 

Regional Education Office OrganogramFigure 2 Regional Education Offices Organizational Chart

 

                                                                             Appendix C

Figure 3 Metropolitan/Municipal/District Education Offices Organizational Chart