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Held at the Woodbine Room at the Cara Lodge in Quamina Street, Georgetown, the ceremony brought the curtain down on the workshop, launched on August 12 at Guyenterprise Headquarters at Lance Gibbs Street in Queenstown to enable music teachers to develop and deliver a music curriculum and work plan for children locally.
Participants were drawn from several organisations, including the Ministry of Education’s Unit of Allied Arts (Georgetown and New Amsterdam); the Ruimveldt Children’s Centre; Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre; Unique Arts Group; Child Link; Y3k Gospel Assembly, and the St. Ann’s Orphanage.
The programme was a joint initiative of the Tina Insanally Foundation, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, and the Inter-American Development Bank.
The feature address at yesterday’s ceremony was presented by Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, the Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony. IDB Representative, Ms. Sophie Makonnen, in her brief remarks, congratulated the players of the initiative, as well as the participants and instructor, Mr. Derry Etkins, for their part in realising the success of the workshop.
Ms. Sarah Insanally briefed the gathering about the Foundation and the workshop, and Mr Etkins gave a review of the workshop. Chairperson was Mr. Vic Insanally, Managing Director of Guyenterprise and father of the late Tina Insanally.
Congratulating the Tina Insanally Foundation for its noble initiative, Dr. Anthony said music, in any society, is a very important thing. He noted that it is one of those aspects of culture that make a country vibrant, and could bring and hold a people together. Alluding to the times when music played a dominant role in Guyana’s culture, Dr. Anthony said, “We in society need to bring that back. We need to work hard to bring that back again.”
Citing Guyana’s determination at creating this vibrant culture, Minister Anthony recalled that, in preparing for the very first CARIFESTA in the 1970s, Guyana created first an arts school, then later created a dance school. With an arts school in place, he said, Guyana has been able to heighten its appreciation for, and professionalise art, effectively moving to the level of being one of the dominant forces in this direction.
From a school which initially did not certify its students, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport (MCYS) took the initiative of changing this dynamic, and is moving towards restructuring, so as to be able to give accreditation and have the training validated. To this end, the ministry has started a programme of creating institutions to train people, Dr Anthony said, and is now in the process of restructuring the two schools of art and dance, to ensure they are properly certified. Plans are also carded to get a system of external accreditation in place.
More recently, as the MCYS moved to place greater emphasis on drama, it also created a theatre school which is being conducted at the National Cultural Centre. The first batch of 22 students is currently in training, and they are expected to graduate within a few weeks’ time.
Teachers at the school are also now writing the Royal School of Music Exams.
Dr. Anthony said the response from persons wanting to learn music was so heartening that there is not enough space to accommodate everybody. Anticipating this buzz of excitement and enthusiasm about learning music will continue to grow, Dr. Anthony said, “I’m sure that in every community there are people who (would) like to get the opportunity to learn music.”
He challenged the graduating music teachers thus: “We want to see you as an extension of what we want to do. If you can help us to extend your range of this programme into communities, schools, institutions, organisations where you work, and so forth, to get more people doing music, then you will be facilitating what we want to do in schools but do not have the capacity right now.”
Dr. Anthony said that what his ministry has been able to demonstrate is that they can go into poor communities and use music to help develop and empower young people, thus giving them self-confidence and the pride of knowing they have been able to excel in some area.
“Through music, we are able to reinforce that self-confidence, self-esteem, of knowing they can (get) a community audience and they can play for them and people can enjoy it, or come to a regional or national audience and do the same thing.”
With that type of reinforcement, Dr. Anthony said, the young people will develop more confidence, and can still use that skill to do so many more things in their lives.
The Culture Minister cited instances in which persons coming out of very poor communities and having developed this skill have gone on to some of the best world stages, be it in the UK, USA, or wherever, and have done fabulous jobs. The minister sees the Training of Teachers Workshop as merely the first step along the way, which promises to be most rewarding for the network of schools — The Arts School, Dance School, Drama School and Music School – all of which are being robustly pursued with the development of culture and young Guyanese in mind.
The facilitator of the just concluded workshop was popular Guyanese musician and teacher, Derry Etkins, who has over 33 years’ experience in teaching music at primary and secondary level, and preparing choirs and instrumental ensembles for different events. He has also been involved with music curriculum development at primary, secondary and post-secondary levels.
Etkins has received several awards for his contribution to music in Guyana and Barbados, and is currently teaching music at St. George’s School in Tortola, British Virgin Isles.
The Tina Insanally Foundation is a legally registered not-for-profit organisation established in 2010. It has been inspired by the life of the late Tina Insanlly, a young musician who used to regularly volunteer to work with disadvantaged children. TIF works to enrich the lives of Guyanese children through music education.
