The Sunday News
SOME years back the Government created a department of arts and culture within what was then the Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture.
This was after national cries that the education portfolio was overshadowing Sports, Arts and Culture. The new department was headed by a principal director.
The move was well received by the arts fraternity as it sought to streamline arts education within the education sector. Immediately after its formation, the department recruited arts and culture officers to spearhead and mainstream arts and culture in education.
Through one of the principal director’s memos schools were encouraged to have a department of arts and culture and also to have teachers solely responsible for arts and culture. Arts and culture became a buzzword as most schools began to warm up to the idea of allocating proper time for arts and culture within the official school timetable. We were all excited. Good times were coming. So we thought.
Fast forward to a few years later. The department is expanded into a full Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture. With a full ministry we all thought more good things were coming. We all assumed the new ministry would take over from where the department had left off.
Our hope was that, unlike the department which had been answerable to the parent Ministry of Education whose priorities were more on education and with little thought on arts and culture, the new ministry would come with more muscle and a clearer vision for the arts sector.
Of course we all expected more, starting with a clear roadmap in the form of a cultural policy – which sadly has taken ages to materialise.
We also expected to know the amount of resources Government would be putting to the sector. Lastly we also expected some national structures to be quickly put up to deal with the immediate priorities of the sector. But sadly nothing has come out so far. One would be forgiven to say perhaps it was better having an effective department of arts and culture than an ineffectual “ghost” ministry that seems to operate more like a secret service ministry than an arts and culture one.
This past week we came across news, sad news indeed, to the effect that Ministry of Education was doing away with arts and culture officers.
All arts and culture district officers were redeployed back into the classroom.
This on the pretext that the arts now had a ministry of their own and was capable of employing its own officers. We could not help but shed a tear, crying for the pulling down of the very structures previously set up by the then department of arts and culture to spearhead arts education in this country.
This is like going back several years. It is retrogressive and a mockery of both the findings of the Nziramasanga Commission and the current curriculum review process which all seem clear about the place of arts education in local schools. This also leaves one wondering about the future, not only of arts education, but the whole arts sector.
Without clear policies on arts and culture we are a doomed nation.
Away from the local arts scene to South Africa’s Big Brother Mzansi.
The reality show has reached its climax with the finale on today. While fans of the reality show are anxious to know which couple is going to walk away with the 2 000 000 rand some of us are really interested to know what really happened between the two housemates that were later expelled for misconduct.
Did they sleep together in their drunken stupor or was the young woman raped? Or was it a case of the two being too intoxicated they indulged without being aware they were doing so? As viewers and followers of the reality show we honestly need some answers.
At least we deserve the truth. Whether the truth finally comes out or not we believe there is just too much alcohol in that house. Give young people too much and they will surprise you!
