LAWRA:Involve local people in school arts and culture training-Director

Students

Mr Fabian Belieb, Upper West Regional Director of Education, has suggested the involvement of local people in the training of arts and culture in schools to avoid adulteration.

He said some aspects of arts and culture taught in schools were found to be adulterated and that had encouraged students to develop interest for foreign cultures to the detriment of their own.

Mr Belieb was speaking at the 8th Upper West Region Inter-Senior High Schools Festival of Arts at Lawra on Thursday, which was on the theme: “Ensuring peace and unity in a sustainable society through culture”.

He noted that the region had for the past not perform satisfactorily in such festivals and urged students and arts teachers to go back to the roots and come out with the best practices with the involvement of local people.

 “We need to preserve our arts and culture. It is more urgent because the danger ahead is that our arts and culture will soon die off  as a result of adulteration and the love for foreign cultures by the youth”, Mr Belieb observed.

He urged Ghanaians to look back at aspects of the culture that promoted unity and bring them to bear on the lives of the people to help to minimise the numerous conflict situations in the country.

He added that equal attention should be given to the identification of certain parts of traditional medicine to help in the treatment of people.

Mr Belieb said government was committed to the study of culture hence its introduction in the school curricula.

He called on parents and district assemblies as well as non-governmental organisations and benevolent societies to complement government’s efforts to help to promote, preserve and propagate the rich culture in the region.

He appealed to teachers to form cultural groups such as choral music, dance and drama in their schools and compete among sister schools to help develop and sustain the cultural values of the people.

Naa Puowele Karbo III, Paramount Chief of the Lawra Traditional Area, who chaired the function, observed that the celebration of arts and culture was an important tool for the development and the advancement of the country.

“Our culture and the heritage bequeathed to us provide the framework and context for our development”, he said.

He noted that through arts and culture, the core traditional value systems such as unity, social cohesiveness, religious and political tolerance as well as peaceful co-existence were preserved and guaranteed for succeeding generations.

Naa Karbo said no country could develop meaningfully without effective harnessing of its arts and cultural resources.

He, therefore, called for strict adherence to and to mainstream the positive aspects of culture into the national development agenda.

Seventeen second cycle schools in the region are participating in the two-day festival and would among others compete in poetry recitals, drama, drum language, dance choreography, choral music and sight singing.

The best artistes would be selected to represent the region at the National Festival of Arts and Culture in Cape Coast in September.

GNA