MCA narrative report Y2 JH 12.04

ACADEMIES

RAF-13/0005

Year 2

progress report

Narrative PERIOD COVERED: APRIL 2014 – MARCH 2015 CONTACT PERSON: JOE HERRMANN

List of annexes:

Annex 1: poster example used for advertising

Annex 2: Pedagogical monitoring report

Annex 3: Teacher training campus report

Annex 4: Admin workshop report

Annex 5: Zimbabwe 2014 intake pic

Music Crossroads Academies project. Narrative progress report year 2

Introduction

The Music Crossroads Academy project was established with the goal of enriching the mu-sic sector in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe by providing relevant, affordable and ac-cessible quality music education to young talented musicians.

This report will focus on the activities carried out by the Music Crossroads academies project. Details will also be provided on the achievements attained during the course of the year and challenges faced during implementation.

In brief, we have made substantial progress with all the activities planned, and added a few very important ones previously not included, for example:• A national monitoring visit from the pedagogical partner to each of the countries to monitor the

teachers and how the delivery of the classes was being carried out.

• A course in school administration was prepared and held at the same time with he teacher train-ing campus which took place for the first time at one of our academies, in Harare.

The MCA in Zimbabwe moved into town and is now accessible and better located than previously 45 mins out of town. in a partnership with a ‘backpacker’s lodge, the MCA in Zimbabwe was able to host all the campus’s participants enabling the campus to be a success.

We trained for the first time Female teachers and one of the ladies has joined our Zimbabwe team as a bass teacher. a step towards the gender balance which we strive to achieve.

A couple of our former students have moved on to achieve great things. We have had a national winner of a high profile music competition in Malawi

We have students using their background course at the MCA to gain entry at higher education in Universities both in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

A few former students have now jobs at schools teaching music, being able to earn a living with their talent which they developed with the help of our Academies.

The planned activities section of the logical framework used in the proposal document was used to report on the activities carried out.

The following narrative details firstly the summarised activities, and then the activities carried out by each of the academies in respect of the key statements made in the project document (which are included for reference in blue), followed by the pending activities and challenges facing the project.

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Expected Result 1

Relevant, affordable and accessible quality music education to young talented young musi-cians in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Activities to achieve result1:

1.1 MC’s partner organizations in each of the three target countries will undertake aware-ness-raising activities (posters, flyers, media etc), sensitization and promote the Academies project at all relevant opportunities to help inspire potential talented young musicians (in-cluding specifically women) to register for the course(s) on offer.

The promotion of the project has been ongoing throughout the year, in addition to marketing fo-cussed activities. At events held by Music Crossroads the promotion of the Music Crossroads Academies is always an item on the list the students and staff also play an important role on verbal communication and promotion of the MCA and at events where Music Crossroads participates throughout the year.

The 2014-15 intake poster was a standard poster designed for all the three countries, adapted to include locally relevant content (see annex 1). This design was used by each of the three countries in both poster and flyer format. approximately 1200 flyers and 60 posters were used in this Year 2.

The communications officers in each country distributed flyers on key locations frequented by mu-sicians, like, live music venues with the help and support of academy students and other employ-ees with a view to promoting the Music Crossroads Academies to the general public and young talented musicians. Furthermore flyers were handed out to young people specifically, in areas where high unemployment is an issue (for example Buididiro, Harare). to attract potential talents and offer them a chance to develop.

Institutions were also targeted in the efforts to advertise the MCA courses. Letters were sent to schools and churches. The latter showing a good potential for future students given the important of music in their activities.

Further promotion of the project was carried out through advertising on local radio stations, in newspapers and on social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook. All of these channels of communication have proved instrumental in raising awareness of the project and have resulted in the academies receiving increased attention from prospective musicians and parents. It has also been clear that former projects and events organised through Music Crossroads have also proved beneficial in raising awareness of the project and the tutoring offered by the academies.

Malawi:

• A ‘mobile’ marketing strategy has been designed and is in the process of implementation with the objective of encouraging and the recruitment of new students. This strategy involved a van being driven around the city, playing music and advertising the MCA, also registering a few students on the move.

• Material used to advertise the course was translated into Chichewa in order to ensure that the promotion of the academy to reach a higher broader market.

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Mozambique:

• The Academy was showcased in three local newspapers: Journal Noticias, Journal Domingo and Journal A Verdad. The Academy also featured in a renowned Mozambican magazine, Revista Missanga.

Zimbabwe:

• The administration department compiled a database of people who expressed an interest in the Academy and proceeded to send promotional SMS messages to such list of individuals.

• One of the teachers as well as a member of the administrative team were interviewed on Sport FM in order to raise awareness as to the activities of the Academy.

• Popular musicians including Stella Chiweshe and Albert Nyathi were invited to visit the academy in order to draw public attention and raise the profile of the project.

1.2 Interviews / auditions will be undertaken with interested young musicians wishing to enrol on either the basic year one course or extended second year course (to be made available from 2014)

Interviews and auditions were held all the teachers and staff of each MCA, to determine the musi-cal level of the applicants. The life background of each applicant was also documented and it was taken into consideration when reviewing scholarship applications. In response to a stronger marketing campaign we received a higher number of applications (in comparison to the previous year), a total of 154 students applied.

MCA Malawi:

42 young people registered for the 2014 academic year, after auditions/interviews 37 remained.

MCA Mozambique:

16 applied, 14 students started the course in June 2014, 4 females and 10 males, as the second intake for the academy.

MCA Zimbabwe:

A whopping total of 96 young people applied in Zimbabwe. This high demand prompted the acad-emy to revise its enrolment figures with the view to avoid disappointing interested candidates.

After a full day of auditions, held with help of all staff and teachers, 60 students were enrolled.

Note: At this phase of the project only 1 year of music education is being offered and not the initial-ly planned 2 years. The development of the material and the training of the teachers for the initial year lasted for longer than originally envisioned and the implementation of the devel-opment of the 2nd year (the advanced year) had to be postponed until the Year 1 course has been fully developed and the teachers at the academy have been fully and thoroughly trained.

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1.3 Scholarships will be offered (in part of in full) to talented young musicians from mar-ginalized backgrounds, on the basis of “Family Wealth Assessments” (in Year 1, scholar-ships will be available for 20 students out of a total of 30 per Academy (66%); in Year 2, 18 out of 30 students (60%) will be eligible to receive scholarships; and in Year 3, 16 out of 30 (53.3%). MCI will work closely with government ministries, donors and corporate organiza-tions to try to secure further funding for scholarships for poor and disadvantaged young musicians. Assessments will be undertaken regularly of attendance and results of all stu-dents, and any differences between those who did and did not receive scholarships will be observed.

A total of 37 ‘full scholarships’ were offered in Y2. The MCAs have struggled to attract ‘paying stu-dents’ and the majority of students are on full scholarships. A decision on the selection criteria for scholarship could not be reached and the current agreement is that all male students are to be offered a part scholarship or full scholarship, the part scholarship means they would pay $35 per month ‘student fee contribution’. The total income generated from the ‘student fee contribution’ is reflected in the financial report under the ‘income’ section.

MCA Malawi: 16 scholarships. Most of the female students were offered scholarships as a way of encouraging them to be role models and to attract more young women to register for the academy. Some of these young women belong to different bands.

MCA Mozambique: 1 male student was awarded a scholarship and this was on merit. He is assisting in the communi-cation department by helping to promote the academy. He also assists with administration work. The fees for the course as a requisite has evidently driven potential students away, for the next in-take the number of scholarships will be eased to allow for sufficient number of students to attend the course.

MCA Zimbabwe: 20 Scholarships.

In order to attract more females, 100% scholarship was offered to all female students who enrolled (currently 9), except one of them who negotiated to pay part of the fees and was offered a partial scholarship per month.

1.4 Contracts with students will be produced and signed, including clauses such as the re-quirement to repay in full the course fees in case of non-acceptable reasons for dropping out of the course (NB: each country will have space for an additional 5 students per year – i.e. space for 35 students in total – to allow for a potential drop-out rate of 15%) Discussions have been held over the clauses of this agreement with the students but a final ver-sion has not yet been implemented. We envision to have this in place for the 2015 /Y3 intake.

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1.5 To carry out 3 consecutive 1st year courses and 2 2nd year courses at the MC Academies providing music education to (a total of 270 for Year 1 and 120 for Year 2) young musicians in the target countries.

The MCAs started their second intake of the first year course with a total of 116 Students (Annex 5 shows the first day at the Zimbabwe MCA). Dropouts throughout the year brought the final number of the second year 1 course to: 60 stu-dents. 30 students below the yearly target of 90 for the year 1 course. the minimum 25% of female students was reached in Y2 representing a total of 19 talented female students. We however strive to raise the percentage of female students at all the MCAs. We are proud to report however that in two of the countries, the best performing students were fe-male. The level of the curriculum is high and demanding for most of the students who have not had mu-sic education before. To mitigate this preparatory or catch-up classes have been introduced to cope with this issue.

The course material covered throughout the year has been implemented according to the revised plan with a delay of 2 months, apart from Mozambique which continues to battle with a late start from the first year. and a delay of 5 months.

Apart from the final examination, students wrote a test at the end of each quarter to determine their progress. The tests helped identify the students who needed catch up lessons, which were organ-ised and carried out during the ‘off-days’. Attendance for the catch up lessons varied in each coun-try.

MCA Malawi: Classes started with 37 students, throughout the year 12 students dropped out of the course, leav-ing a total of 25 students in attendance, 6 of those are female. Melodic Reading and Writing had to start in the 1st quarter and Rhythmic Reading and Writing has been extended to all the 4 quarters.

The 2014-15 course is due to end in June.

MCA Mozambique:

The first intake for 2013 completed their course in December 2014 and wrote their exams in the first week of March 2015. From the 15 regular students recorded in 2013, the academy suffered 5 more dropouts and 10 students remained. 2 of the students in this group were asked to repeat by their teachers as they were falling behind and did not have good results like the other classmates. They have joined the new intake.

MCA Mozambique had 3 trimesters in 2014. During the 3 trimesters, the teachers administered lessons on subjects namely: Keyboard Harmony, Music Theory, Harmony, Body Percussion, Rhythmic Reading and Writing, Melodic Reading and Writing, Choir, Ensemble, Main Instrument (Voice, Guitar, Drums, Piano, Bass Guitar.)

Students at the academy have generally determined to do well; all students strive for top results. Most impressive are couple of female students, who were given preparatory classes before the start of the second intake, have become top performing students. Due to the different levels of musical backgrounds amongst the students, preparatory course for the next intake for duration of 2 months was introduced . A total of 20 students were enrolled for � of �6 23


“Ano Zero”. This course commenced in February 2015 and will run till end of March before the start of the course in April 2015.

MCA Zimbabwe: Before introducing the GMA curriculum, the teachers took a week to establish the level of the stu-dents and it emerged that most of the students were ready to start the program.

The unexpected turnout of students also presented some logistical problems but that was solved by the pedagogical monitoring visit, which helped restructure the classrooms and adapt for the surprisingly large number of interested students. Chairs and tables were bought to accommodate the high demand. The students’ ability to play instruments simplified the teachers’ task and after a month, most of the students could interpret written rhythms in binary system and they could also identify pitch notes using letter names. Students have expressed their gratitude and look forward to putting their ideas down on paper and being able to share their musical ideas with each other and their musical community. Throughout the course of the year the academy experienced a high student dropout for several reasons. This resulted in only 25 students attending the classes until the end of the year.

Expected Result 2

Dedicated education plans in place in each Academy helping to ensure complemen-tarity with the national music sector in each country.

Activities to be undertaken to achieve Expected Result 2:

2.1 The first year basic course (developed in Phase 1) and associated pedagogical materi-als developed specifically for the Music Academies will be closely monitored to ensure that they are relevant and achieving their aims.

Constant communication between the pedagogical partner the Global Music Academy (GMA) and the teachers enables for small glitches experienced by the teachers to be cleared up swiftly and any unclear aspects in the teaching materials to be dealt with. The teaching materials’ implementation is also followed up by the GMA on a frequent basis. In this Y2 of the project, an extra activity was introduced on this area of monitoring the teaching by the teachers and the implementation of the materials. A local visit by the GMA’s artistic director William Ramsay to each of the academies to monitor the teachers ‘on the job’ revealed greatly useful as the teachers could be monitored in their own ‘environment’ and small corrections made. The findings of this pedagogical monitoring trip were taken into consideration for several remedy actions taken (number of teachers to be trained, classroom spaces, administration workshops in-troduced, restructuring of MCA administration etc) to enhance the activities carried out y each of the MCAs. The report to MCI of this monitoring trip by the GMA can be found as Annex 2

2.2 As/where relevant – based on monitoring data and the findings of local evaluations – revisions/adaptations/reproductions of the existing curriculum and/or existing educational materials will be made throughout in Years 2-3 of Phase 2 (and necessary translations un-

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dertaken) for use in the final school year (Year 4 of Phase 2). Where necessary, new print-ing/production/shipping of the revised tuition material to the Academies will be organized.

At each of the teacher training campuses the material implemented in the previous period is evalu-ated by the GMA and all the MCA teachers. revisions are made and incorporated in the curriculum and materials. In this Y2 of the project, A set of specially built Chromatic Marimbas were introduced to each of the MCAs to teach Melodic reading and writing. Translations have been made for each section of the curriculum and further materials into Por-tuguese for Mozambique.

2.3 A second year (extended) course standardized curriculum – intended to complement and deepen the knowledge and skills obtained in the first year course - will be developed) in Years 1 and 2 of Phase 2 (2013 – 2014). MCI’s pedagogical partner, the Global Music Acad-emy (GMA) will recommend a suitably qualified music education expert who will be hired to design this course curriculum, with input from the Teacher Training sessions held in Phase 1 and in Year 1 of Phase 2 and feedback and lessons learned during 2013. GMA will compile and devise a curriculum with standardized and local content for all 3 MC Academies, which will be distributed to all three MC partner organizations for rolling out from 2014.

The 2nd extended year curriculum development has been postponed to take place in the next phase of the Music Crossroads Academies project after this current 1st year is fully developed and the single instrument curricula relevant to the year 1 level which are currently being developed. and the teaching team has been fully trained to duly understand and implement the advanced year of teaching. The main instrument curriculum of guitar bass piano and drums was introduced at the teacher training campus. Individual instrument curricula continues to be developed and adapted for the MCA initiative.

MCA Malawi: • A voice curriculum has been added to the course content and the class registered a total

number of 6 students. New videos and sample list of songs were developed during the teacher training campus, which the teachers are using now.

MCA Mozambique: • The Drum curriculum introduced at the Teacher training campus in Harare 2014 is now

implemented in class. The bass guitar curriculum was developed in the beginning of Jan-uary 2015 and was introduced to the bass students in February when classes commenced.

2.4 Once finalized, MCI will work closely with the respective (TEVETA) accrediting body in each of the 3 countries to assess the education plan and obtain national certification/official accreditation (diploma status) for this extended second year course.

Initial registration and talks with the respective bodies in each of the countries has been made and the process of registering interest in seeking accreditation has been done, however the accredita-tion process is long. the MCAs have been made aware that the process will last for further years before obtaining local accreditation.

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Expected result 3

15 Music Academy teachers (5 in each Academy) have received annual (re)training and feel confident in delivering high quality music education effectively aimed at the intermediary level according to the new curriculum.

Activities to be undertaken to achieve Expected Result 3: 3.1 Music Academy teachers (currently 5 per country) will receive follow-up training on an annual basis (in a 20 day training campus held by GMA), to ensure that their skills are kept up-to-date and any issues in relation to teaching the curriculum and/or using the pedagogi-cal materials developed for this project are highlighted, so that adaptations can be made as/where necessary.

This year’s Teacher training Campus was hosted at the Music Crossroads Academy in Zimbabwe from the 19th of September 2014 to the 4th of October 2014, in an initiative to cater for higher demand of future students and to allow for a Broader set of skills in our teaching staff, the number of trainees was increased in each of the countries. The 2014 campus successfully trained 28 music teachers from 6 countries (Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) for the first time, we had female teacher trainees. 3 talented women made substantial progress at the campus, and the Academies will (and have) incorporate (-d) in the teaching staff as trainees initially, with the aim of establishing a well balanced gender mixture within the teaching staff.

We incorporated graduates from the Y1 course from Malawi and Zimbabwe as teacher trainees. Graduates will be given the chance of joining the MCA teaching team as we gear up for a potential expansion and diversification of the teachers.

The campus focused on Pedagogy, Instrumental teaching, Melodic reading and writing, transcribing and Ensemble training. Curricula for individual instruments (Piano, drums, bass and Guitar) was introduced and worked with the teachers.

The campus was concluded with a concert from all the teachers, who were given songs written as ‘sheet music’ to perform. This was a huge achievement as the majority of them were performing a concert reading the music from paper for the first time in their lives.

The teachers have been exposed to this training for 2 years now. They mention the level of teaching by GMA, being at an all time high and are grateful for the trainings, as they can see the growth and progress made every year.

The teachers took classes in Individual instrument curricula, teaching practice and methods and ensembles Although these single instrument curricula are still being developed, teachers have been utilising the trainings given at the campus to continue administering classes to the students.

Teachers were taught about a variety of challenges they may face when teaching students during the course and how to effectively resolve them.

The teachers were confronted with specific parts of the Curriculum, issues they come across and how to adapt and fix these problems.

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MCA Malawi:

In addition to the current 5 teachers, The training also incorporated a percussionist (John Duma) and a Bassist (Sanderson Mphapo) The latter being a graduate from the MCA who seeks a career in music teaching.

MCA Mozambique: There were 2 new participants from Mozambique, Danito and Anselmo. They explained how they have never experienced such a high-level of training in their careers. The intensity and method-ology used during the trainings was a first for them, resulting in them leaving Zimbabwe as different people; as they broadened their musical knowledge and techniques in music. Almeida Tomas was also attending for the first time. The highlight for him was the introduction of the drum curriculum in the first year of his attendance at the campus. He mentioned his excitement during the classes and meeting new people who shared the same interest and knowledge of mu-sic. He said he learnt a lot and was looking forward to getting back and implementing what he had learnt in his classes.

MCA Zimbabwe: The Zimbabwe academy took advantage of hosting the campus by engaging more participants than the ones already under the engagement of the academy, 5 MCA teachers plus 6 ‘new’ teachers were trained at the Campus in Harare. The following were additional Zim participants :

• Nicholas Nare; current male student and, Piano and keyboards teacher.

• Rumbidzai; female drummer specialising in hand drumming

• Georgina Mutenda; former female student; voice specialist.

• Edith Weutonga; Female bass player now engaged as bass teacher.

• Trust Mutombo; Former male student; keyboard player

• Nyasha kuchekana Chirau; former student and teacher; keyboard specialist who unfortunately did not stick to the end of the campus after fraudulently claiming transport allowances for the total duration of the

Edith and Rumbidzai were taken through the curriculum several months before, to prepare them for the campus. Three other targeted participants, two male and one female failed to pitch up for the campus.

A comprehensive Teacher training campus report and assessment of each of the teachers trained submitted to MCI is attached to this report as Annex 3

========== In addition, for the first time, and as an extra activity, an Administration course was implemented for the MCA’s administrators and/or accountants. General ‘school administration’ was touched, filing systems, book keeping were among the topics covered during the administration course. Gnu-cash Accounting System was taught – the academy administration team was introduced to the accounting package. The instructor took the participants through the system demonstrating how to effectively deal with different kinds of accounting sections. Accounting system setup from scratch to the production of accounts was taught. The training was aimed at building capacity in the administration of the Academy especially on managing records for staff, students and sched-ules as well as tuition. � of �10 23


The areas of focus included: Filing Students contracts, Filing Teachers contracts, Filing bank statements and correspondences The administrators voice: Everything taught was relevant to the project. For the best accountability and transparency, Gnu-cash accounting package is user friendly. The filling system course was very helpful in the sense that it is now easy to access files.

the report of this administration workshop is included as Annex 4

3.2 In each of the MC Academies, Resource Centers established in Phase 1 will be contin-ually upgraded and equipped with new materials over the course of Phase 2. MCI and its local partner organizations in the three target countries will seize all opportunities to secure additional funding to enhance the software available to students in each of the Resource Centers, to further support musical creativity and cost-effective music production. All of the MC academies are equipped with high quality equipment and digital technology that the students use for practice during and outside classroom hours.

MCA Malawi: • Each of the main instruments has soundproof labs fitted with equipment and material

relevant to that instrument, which the students use for practice. A resource centre is also available which provides students with iMac computers and online materials for further studies.

• The academy has a recording studio, though not necessarily belonging to the academy; it is made available to the students.

MCA Mozambique: • Having found and settled at the new location in the center, students have had easier

access to the classrooms equipped with quality equipment and digital technology at the academy.

MCA Zimbabwe: Instruments and sound equipment are accessible to the students, giving them the necessary

time to practice. Apart from working in ensemble groups during classes, students also have access to the instruments on request.

3.3 A database of local music (African music, African descendent music, and music of the world) will be developed by four music experts from different fields and made available in each Resource Center. Currently on-going, and activity overseen by the pedagogical partner the Global Music Academy.

3.4 Students will be meaningfully involved throughout in providing feedback on the quality of the course content, the teaching materials and the level of teaching at each of the three Academies.

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The students express their experiences in regards to the course, specifically, the difficulty, the pace of it and issues surrounding the MCA’s on general on a frequent basis.

Challenges are discussed and the teachers include those on their reports. As a result of this for example, the preparatory course was introduced, to ensure all students are at the same ‘starting point’ when the course starts ion order to enable them all equal progress chances.

Expected result 4

Improved national and regional music education networking;

Activities to be undertaken to achieve Expected Result 4: 4.1 One national ‘Music Education Stakeholders Meeting’ will be organized per year of the project in each of the three countries, with a minimum of 20 participants (government rep-resentatives, Embassies, musicians, pedagogues) to share experiences and best practice. At these meetings, each MC entity will present the outcomes and results of the MC Acad-emy pilot while learning more about other music educational developments in each country.

The national stakeholder’s meeting did not take place in the Y2 of the project. The challenges facing each of the countries let each MCA to prioritise other crucial aspects of their operations (for example the pursuing of the duly registration of the new organisation in Zimbabwe.)

However relation building with local stakeholders was achieved (explained in point 5) and each of the MCA has managed despite the challenges, to build a network of stakeholders previously not connected to Music Crossroads. in 2015 a meeting will be organised in each of the countries to cover this important aspect. The results of this meetings will be incorporated in the internal project review and strategy revision. to take place later in the year.

4.2 Experiences and best practices from these annual stakeholder meetings will be shared, including on MCI’s website. Minutes of the meetings will be made available by MCI to NOR MFA [an other donors, if relevant]. same as above: in 2015 a meeting will be organised in each of the countries to cover this important aspect. The results of this meetings will be incorporated in the internal project review and strategy revision. to take place later in the year.

4.3 A total of 2 Regional ‘Assessment and Evaluation Meetings’ will be organized and held throughout the duration of the project (the location and ultimate number of regional meet-ings to be discussed and confirmed at annual national meetings), during which experiences and best practice can be shared, annual adjustments to the work plan (e.g. content, methodologies, recruitment etc) can be made, discussions and reports on the sustainability planning of each country can take place, and lobbying/advocacy plans for national and re-gional music sector development can be developed and elaborated. At least 20 national & 3 regional participants per country should attend, including 3 delegates from each national platform (at least 1 from each of the 3 local MC entities). The location for these Regional � of �12 23


meetings should rotate each year (between Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe). The last meeting (in Year 3) will be an extended stay in Europe, where participants will be able to make visits to music educational institutions in at least 3 European countries (e.g. Norway, Spain and Germany) to initiate contacts.

Before and after the 2014 Annual meeting held in Lilongwe, MCI met to discuss and evaluate the challenges and progress made during that previous year. success stories like in Zimbabwe the near 100 Applicants were shared and notes were taken by the other countries in order to try and enhance their own procedures .

This was also a great opportunity for all the administrator and head teachers to meet other part-ners sharing and exchanging experiences.

MCA Mozambique: We managed to work through the challenges the academy is facing in Mozam-bique and tried to look for possible solutions. Getting advice from the other partners also assisted in improving the way in which the academy is run.

The plan for the international meeting to be held in Europe was revised as not necessary at the stage in which the project currently lies. This meeting could be beneficial at a later stage in the project when the local academies are better established and have found a local ‘foot’.

4.4 Minutes of each Annual Regional Meeting will be produced and made available annu-ally to NOR MFA [an other donors, if relevant]. Minutes of this meeting are available on request

Expected result 5

Increased sustainability of the Academies project activities and outcomes assured by the end of the project.

Activities to be undertaken to achieve Expected Result 5: 5.1 MCI will work consciously throughout the project on further developing the long-term sustainability plan developed in Phase 1. This plan will be updated on a yearly basis (at the Regional ‘Assessment and Evaluation Meetings’ – see Activity 4.3) in this Phase 2. This plan will include regular networking with and lobbying of governments, ministries and other pub-lic/private partners to help ensure sustainability of the project activities and outcomes. MCI was able to secure partnerships with important stakeholders in the music education and music industry. among a few, currently work together with the ‘Music in Africa’ foundation and the estab-lishment of an ‘all African’ database of the musical sector where the MCAs will play a crucial role in being the Music education point of contact for the souther african region where we currently oper-ate.

In addition we currently are in a partnership with the International Music Council under the African Music Development Program supported by the European Union through the ACP group of states development program. Our MCAs currently receive training in Audio technology and music man-agement in the form of biannual workshops held at the Academies.

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country-specific networks and partnerships:

MCA Malawi:

• The academy is working hand in hand with other local stakeholders like Lusubilo Music School, Andiamo Music School, Teveta, UNESCO, Musicians Union of Malawi, Manage Your Art (MYA), Organization for Career Guidance.

• Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Blantyre Arts Festival, Nkhotakota Cultural Centre, Lake of Stars to improve the quality of music and music education in Malawi.

• 17th may will be a Music crossroads Career Guidance Open day where the importance of music as a career will be discussed in collaboration with the Organization for career Guid-ance. Many of the stakeholders have been invited.

• Independent meetings were held with UNESCO, Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Teveta, Lusubilo School of Music, Andiamo, Nkhotakota Cultural Centre and an opinion leader to discuss improving art education. The academy also held planning meetings with potential international stakeholders and partners in the music education sector, for example, Manage Your Art (MYA) and Napier University (Scotland).

• The academy took part in several joint activities with various stakeholders including the Lake of Stars festival, where some students performed and the Japanese Cultural night with the Japanese embassy, where the academy teachers performed.

• All these joint activities are documented as articles, videos and pictures and are publicized on Music Crossroads website

MCA Mozambique:

• MCA Mozambique managed to create new synergies with Associacao Cultural Muodjo. This is an association, which is running an orphanage in Zimpeto, arts and crafts work, mo-bile libraries in the community and advocating for disabled children. MCA Mozambique has volunteers working at the orphanage and through this volunteer work MCA Mozambique also got involved and performed at the Orphanage’s first graduation. The academy bands performed, while the children and parents danced. This was a heart warming experience, enabling the academy students to give back to the society.

• Synergies were also created with the Association of Musicians. The academy made its end of year concert at the Association of Musicians centre. This was a success, and in the month of January, we received several calls from young people and artists who attended the closing concert and are interested in joining the academy.

• The academy also created a new relationship with ISArC (Instituto Superior de Arte e Cultura) during their Biannual campus in November 2014. The academy bands had their first performance to a large crowd at this festival and it was a good experience. The acad-emy bands made an impression on many individuals, with people from other Southern African Countries attending like South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe. This was an oppor-tunity for MCA Mozambique to put itself on the Map.

• Music Bridges Project: Music Crossroads Mozambique hosted the Crossroads Music camp from the 17th of May to the 1st of June 2014. Project Music Bridges aimed to reinforce the creation and the production of music goods in Vanuatu and Mozambique building on south-south cooperation, networking and distribution circuits between regional and European artistic contexts. Diverse and talented young musicians from two regions, Melanesia and Southern Africa, were engaged through creative platforms to share amongst one another and discover innovative ways of promoting themselves, their music and their culture. Activi-ties included creative workshops, formal workshops, performances, national evenings and recording. Crossroads Music camp had 45 musicians from Mozambique (Maputo, Gaza, Sofala, Nampula, Cabo Delgado and Zambézia provinces), Vanuatu, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania and New Caledonia, had the opportunity to exchange experiences, explore the creativity and work together during the camp.

• Move project: Musicians and Organizers Volunteer Exchange (MOVE) is an exchange program between Musikk og Ungdom in Norway and Music Crossroads academies in

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Malawi and Mozambique. The program exchanges youth with musical and organizer com-petence, empowering them with new tools and intercultural understanding to enrich the par-ticipants as well as their local cultural communities.

• Music Crossroads Mozambique hosted 2 young Norwegian musicians in August 2014, Liv Hauge and Hannah Werkland, to exchange and share experiences with young talented musicians in Mozambique. They have been engaging in lot activities, which include volun-teering at the orphanage and at MONO, also assisting the Music crossroads academy of-fice. 2 other participants from Malawi, Sanderson Mpapho and Bridget Shumba joined the exchange program and are also assisting at the orphanages and at the academies. MCA Mozambique sent 1 participant to Norway (Trondertun Folk school) Orlanda da conceicao a bass player; 2 participants to MCA Malawi, Mauro Paulo Maxhlungo and Iolanda Fogao. Their exchange programs will end in June 2015.

MCA Zimbabwe: • A new organization, which showed interest in working with the academy, was the In-

ternational Volunteers Association. • The academy has also formed a relationship with the Zimbabwe German Cultural Society,

which provided the campus participants with a venue for the final concert for the annual campus in October.

• On the 30th of June, a group of five students from the Fonty’s Academy, called The Square Foundation in the Netherlands visited the Music Crossroads for a two and a half hour on Personal Branding. They also promised to involve MCA Zimbabwe in an event called Music Marathon for Harare Kids next year.

• Teachers in their capacity have continued to popularise the curriculum in other institutions. Mbaki and Godfrey have provided an important link between the academy and Shownation. Shownation is a private company whose objective is to develop sound engineering in the country.

• The Book Café also continues to provide most of the students at the academy with a platform to perform their music for the public and implement the new skills learnt.

• The academy continued its close relationship with Savanna Trust. • Efforts have also been upped to collaborate with the Zimbabwe College of Music, whose

programs are mainly based on the conventional ABRSM approach. • In October, academy students and teachers were invited to attend a two-day music

workshop by an Italian music outfit at the Zimbabwe College of Music. An exchange with the Italian embassy was also made, facilitating a team of musicians who came to the Acad-emy to share their music experiences and also learn about the Zimbabwean music industry from the students.

5.2 MCI will lobby national governments in each of the three countries - and specifically the respective Ministries of Education – to secure their support in identifying funding sources for future MC Academy educative activities. In order to be in a better position to attract support from institutions and government, MCI has pri-oritised the restructuring of problem setups and to make sure the MCAs are operating correctly and progressing on their tasks efficiently. This includes the administration as well as the teaching staff. MCI has invested major efforts to ensure this is the case before approaching potential supporters, it is a process that is currently ongoing. However the process of approaching potential supporters has now started in parallel, and we managed to receive initial small support from the German foreign ministry and the Siemens foun-dation, through the help and connection of the GMA. Each of the countries were aided with a small amount to alleviate the high customs charges for im-porting the Marimba sets from South Africa to the countries. � of �15 23


MCI with each of the local MCA entities has started lobbying discussions with the relevant min-istries of each country. The next step for these discussions is for the MCAs to ‘show’ results. an aspect on which the MCAs are working on. and have achieved initial results outlined under the ‘highlights’ section on this report.

MCA Malawi:

• MCA Malawi has institutional support from more than 10 local institutions, some of which are Lusubilo Music School, Andiamo Music School, TEVETA, UNESCO, Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Blantyre Arts Festival, Nkhotakota Cultural Centre, Lake of Stars, the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Lilongwe and the Japanese Embassy in Lilongwe.

• The Ministry of Tourism Information and Culture as well as the Ministry of Education has given MCA Malawi official recognition, providing them with services and also attending the events. They have given MCA Malawi recommendation letters to assist the operations. Al-though this has not translated into actual cash, it is a great step towards acquiring the ne-cessities that we should have otherwise been paying for.

• The Ministry has also been backing the academy with recommendation letters for the fundraising drives. The Department of culture has also invited the academy to participate in grant applications to the Japanese fund for culture towards purchase of the Centre equip-ment.

• Music crossroads has been a stakeholder in the discussions towards the development of the National Cultural Policy, which has now been approved.

MCA Zimbabwe: • The hiring of the MCA sound system has helped the academy in a small way to boost

funds. • The German Foreign Affairs Ministry via the German Embassy in Zimbabwe assisted the

academy with money for customs duty clearance for the set of Marimbas imported from South Africa.

• The academy now has an accountant to keep books of accounts in shape and together with the Project Manager follow up on defaulting students since it has proved difficult for teachers to do that without damaging the academic atmosphere in the academy.

There is more hope now than there was at the same at time last year. There is a more stable base for fundraising since the academy managed to register the Trust on the 11th of December 2014 as Music Crossroads Zimbabwe Trust, registration number 1561/2014

5.3 MCI will make the necessary efforts to identify and organize work placements (either as musicians or music teachers) for interested students after graduation from the MC Acad-emies, ideally so that they can earn an income from their musical talents. MCI will offer the necessary support and supervision. A few students graduated from the MCA’s first year have managed to secure paying Jobs at schools in their countries, A fact that motivates further students to join the academy. From Malawi, Kingsley Tembenu was recommended by the academy for the teaching post at Bedir International School. Sanderson Mphapo was recruited for the GMA training in Zimbabwe with the academy teachers. Jacob Jana was sent to Norway in a youth exchange program with Norway where he will be get-ting further education at a music school for 6 months. � of �16 23


In Mozambique we have had students being accepted at higher music education studies for having taken the Y1 course at the MCA.

In Zimbabwe we have a few students who have gone onto university music studies after being at the MCA. One particular case of a female student who was previously unable to study at university, was granted a scholarship at the Zimbabwean university after graduating from the MCA with merits Two students have started teaching in local primary and secondary school. Two students will be incorporated on the teaching staff of the MCA in Zimbabwe after receiving proper training from the MCA.

5.4 MCI will pursue a long-term plan to obtain self-owned or secured low-cost premises (e.g. leased or state-owned), either unilaterally or together with other local partners, so as to ensure that the MC Academies can function beyond the life of this project (to feed in to the annual sustainability plan – Activity 5.1) Premises for the MCA have been a problem for the past years, However we are at a turning point,

where we have been able to secure a partnership with a local business in Zimbabwe, and have been able to adapt to the available spaces in Mozambique.

MCA Malawi: • The academy is located in a peri-urban area, making it far to access for those coming from

the urban areas because transportation costs are high. • A students’ hostel was rented close to the academy for students who have to travel far. • MCA Malawi continues to operate from rented premises. The long-term agreement, which

was initially agreed upon with the owner of the premises, expired at the end of 2014 and they are currently negotiating the new rental agreement.

• Over the past few months, through financial resources from locally generated incomes, well-wishers and the additional funds allocated under this project, the MCA has been refur-bishing the drum lab and the toilets and is adding some structure that includes the perfor-mance stage, Staff room, drum lab and the accounts office.

The academy has generally been working on landscaping of the premises as well.

MCA Mozambique:

• The academy managed to set up the academy, where the MCA Mozambique’s office is, which is ideally located in the centre of town.

• This was a difficult process at the beginning but the academy was able to negotiate the rent of 3 more rooms, which were located at the back of the office and were not being used. This increased the academy space to 5 rooms.

• The academy had been promised a bigger space, which will be used for the academy ensemble. This has not been confirmed, as the academy is still waiting for the go ahead to use it, as it is shared amongst neighbours.

The rooms needed refurbishment, including painting and resolving of infiltration problems. The additional funds for refurbishments have allowed for works to remedy to start.

Refurbishment started at the end of February and so far, doors and some shelves have been fit-ted. Painting of the rooms is also in progress.

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MCA Zimbabwe: • On the 20th of October, the academy moved from Budiriro to new premises in Belgravia.

The new premises are closer and have more rooms. The ceiling and the door of the new storeroom were fitted with steel anti-burglary screens to keep academy items secure.

• The Budiriro premises, however, have not been abandoned as negotiations are still un-derway with the City of Harare with the view to initiate a Music Crossroads children’s pro-gram at the centre.

More classroom furniture was acquired to cater for the increased enrolment

5.5 Country-specific curriculums will be developed in Year 3 for short-term courses for the MC Academy and for possible expansion to other cities/regions beyond the scope of this project. This will ensure that the methodology and content developed for this Academy project, plus the teachers who have been trained, can be effectively utilized, to reach out-side of capital cities, while at the same time optimizing the use of the existing resources of each of the three established Academies.

To be initiated in Y3 and continued on the next phase of the project.

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR

The high level of the education provided at the MCA has proven important, several students from the MCA have been able to use what they have learnt through the academy curriculum and have been able to establish themselves and make a good start at a professional career in Music. Some graduates of the academy have become teachers in the private schools that offer music lessons and some are also church band instructors. Others have established their own music education initiatives from their homes and in bands. Kingsley Tembenu was recommended by the academy for the teaching post at Bedir International Schools. Sanderson Mphapo was recruited for the GMA training in Zimbabwe with the academy teachers. Jacob Jana was sent to Norway in a youth exchange program with Norway where he will be getting further education at a music school for 6 months. Based on the local level, the quality of the music knowledge, theoretical and practical, provided to students has significantly increased over the past 2 years A couple of female students, who were given preparatory classes before the start of the second intake, have become top performing students. The female students attained overall top marks again this year. A great achievement looking at the societal stereotyping of females when it comes to music and education A handful of students at the MCA Mozambique academy have been recognized for their talent and have been accepted into a competitive Communication and Art course at the Eduardo Mondlane University.

The completion of the first Music Crossroads Academies professional certificate course, In this, ‘the pilot year’, 41 students successfully completed the first ever course. The course covered the base for the sound development of talented musicians, “the core curricu-lum” which focuses on teaching all the core skills needed as a performing musician within an African context.

The MC Academy in Zimbabwe moved to new premises with enough space to do all the train-ing in a proper environment close to the city centre.

Teacher evaluation in all countries Successful “on the job” teacher evaluation at each of the MCAs was done by the Pedagogical partner, the Global Music Academy, represented by its artistic director Mr. William Ramsay, to ob-serve the teaching in progress. Crucial to identify any challenges on the quality of the delivery of the music education offered at the MCA.

MCAs equipped with specially built Marimbas Two sets of professional two-octave chromatic Marimbas were built for each Academy and shipped from African Musical Instruments in South Africa to each country. The Academies are now able to teach Melodic Reading on the Marimbas. It is also now possible for them to offer Marimba as a main instrument. The potential for training Marimba teachers for the school system can now be ful-ly realized in each country.

Core curriculum for first year completed The Core Curriculum for the first year of the program has been completed and all the teachers have received training in it. The final elements of the curriculum for the first year will be completed in 2015.

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Teaching videos filming started Filming of the individual lessons in the main instrument curriculum has started with the aim to as-sist the teachers. This process is continuing through 2015.

Hosting of the Teacher training Campus in Zimbabwe. For the first time, the Music Crossroads Academies project successfully hosted the 5th edition of the Global Music Campus, A mobile teacher training and curriculum development program for African music, which has been training our Academy teachers and developing the curriculum and teaching materials used at each of the Music Crossroads Academies.

28 teachers trained It trained 28 music teachers from 6 countries (Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) The teachers studied pedagogy, began training on the main instrument curriculum and the ensemble curriculum. The campus was concluded with a concert from all the teachers, who were given songs written as ‘sheet music’ to perform. This was a huge achievement as the majority of them were performing a concert reading the music from paper for the first time in their lives.

Female teachers trained For the first time, we had female teacher trainees. 3 talented women made substantial progress at the campus, and the Academies will incorporate in the teaching staff as trainees initially, with the aim of establishing a well balanced gender mixture within the teaching staff.

School administration workshop help An additional and parallel School administration workshop was held with the Academies admin-istrators from all the 3 countries to introduce bookkeeping, organizational structures and music school administrative systems

PENDING ACTIVITIES

Development of the 2nd extended year course to allow students to ‘graduate’ from the Academy with proper titles. A process that in planning can take up to 4 years in development of materials and training of teachers to deliver these classes.

A new activity will be the development of a preparatory course to be offered to students who’s level is not sufficient to start benefiting fully from the courses offered at the MCA.

The National stakeholder meeting, to take place in 2015 The regional meeting to evaluate the progress’ progress and revise the strategy of the MCA project.

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CHALLENGES

Delayed results for the first intake. the agreement process between the teachers and the GMA took longer than planned. meaning that the students who finished the first year have only so far been granted ‘attendance certificates’ and not been granted achievement certificates. The MCA course needs to be registered so that it can be recognised at the local authorities, for the students graduating being able to benefit from their certificates in their musical career.

MCA Malawi: • In the past, the academy has suffered several thefts of instruments by students and some-

times MCA staff. There has also been robberies and break-ins on the academy’s premises. • Most of the young talents interested in the course could not afford to pay the tuition fees and

sought scholarships. Unfortunately, there were not enough scholarships to accommodate for everyone.

• Number of paying students is too low to generate sufficient income for the academy to be sustainable. The academy offers 60% scholarships to deserving young musicians, and the remaining 40% are supposed to pay as a way of sustaining the project. However, out of the 25 students that are attending classes, only 7 are paying, representing a 28% payment rate and leaving a difference of 12%. The money generated from this is insufficient to sustain the academy.

• The fluctuation of the local currency affects the salaries of the teachers, sometimes making their payments insufficient to sustain them.

• There have been a lot of issues concerning corruption in the government and some NGO’s, which has led to donors freezing their aid in Malawi affecting all sectors in one way or anoth-er.

• Many corporate organizations are still struggling to accept music education as a worthwhile investment. As a result, they are very reluctant to give their financial support when ap-proached.

MCA Mozambique:

In 2014, MCA Mozambique had to consider restructuring the office as a result of poor administration and financial management. This was a very challenging time, as the acad-emy had to try and build new solid structures within the organisation.

• Economic strains still remain a huge challenge for the students as they continue to struggle to pay the necessary fees. The political instability continued to cause price fluctuation on food commodities with people struggling to feed their families and deal with transportation costs. The second intake of students however, have been better at paying their fees, al-though not completely. Most of the students come from poor backgrounds and paying fees is very difficult for them. It is a difficult situation but we continue to work on encouraging the students to pay their fees.

• Acquiring a bigger space for the academy still remains a challenge. The space is not sufficient enough for students to have different bands practising at the same time. The Min-istry of Youth and Sports are still encouraging the academy to negotiate with the govern-ment to reduce the rental costs and occupy the rooms at the National sports stadium. How-

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ever, it is very far from town and the target students may have difficulty reaching the acad-emy.

CHALLENGES

MCA Zimbabwe:

• Now that a Trust has been registered, the Administrator has already started the account-opening processes with the Standard Chartered Bank. An account is due to be open within the next two weeks.

• The Trust will also facilitate the registration of the academy with the relevant ministry, allowing for proper accreditation of the academy’s programs with properly institutionalized local universities. There is need to formalise and regularise the teachers’ employment con-tracts at the academy.

• The budget for staff salaries is limited to cover six teachers, yet the number of main in-strument required is higher than the number of teachers at the academy. The salaries of individuals at the academy are inadequate, as currently the poverty datum line is pegged very high. This has impacted the attendance of teachers, who sometimes find it difficult to raise enough for bus fares.

• Generally the time allocated for the curriculum is inadequate. To complete Rhythmic Reading and Writing syllabus for instance has already spilled into the 3rd quarter.

• Dealing with high levels of corruption, characterising most of the economic sector has made life difficult for the accounts clerk. A case in point is the VID case where most of the money paid to the officials goes without proper receipts and Immigration where we had to facilitate the expedient entry of the Mozambican teacher participants to the campus.

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CONCLUSION

The MCA project, in the period of April 2014 to March 2015, has had another year of challenges which we have mostly managed to deal with efficiently, some are still ongoing and it is our priority to remedy them. The academies experienced a lot of down falls due to several factors including poor management and restructuring of offices, political instability, price fluctuations, and issues relating to the premis-es and their security. However, the perseverance and determination of everyone involved in the academy project has resulted in providing relevant and quality music education to talented young people in all three countries. Despite the issues faced throughout the course of the academic year, the academies are pleased and proud of the many achievements they have managed to reach this year. Many organizations have identified the purpose and need for the academies and have shown Interest in wanting to work and collaborate with the academies, resulting in activities and projects that have and will en-rich the music sector in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. In 2015, the academies are aiming at growing stronger, enrolling more stable and determined stu-dents to mitigate dropouts, creating more synergies and networking with many arts and culture in-stitutions within the region. Through tough experiences, the academies have become stronger. Through the strength attained, the academies are working harder to improve every element of their respective academies. The future looks bright for the Music Crossroads Academies project as long as its development is done properly and we can build solid foundations of the Music Crossroads Academies, placing them as the hub for music education and professional development in the arts in each of their countries is key and will open doors with numerous possibilities. We unanimously agree that the MCAs can make a substantial difference to the music sectors in each of the countries and are determined to make it happen.

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MCA narrative report Y2 JH 12.04

Documents

Transcript of MCA narrative report Y2 JH 12.04