The degradation of National Anthem-Where are Education Ministry, Service and music teachers? …Asks G.D. Zaney, Esq.

Has anyone noticed that parts of  the  tune of the Ghana National Anthem are not being properly sung in our schools?I  have and I am very concerned and  bewildered about the silence,   apathy  or negligence of the Ministry of Education(MoE) and the Ghana Education Service(GES) concerning the level of degradation or corruption  in  virtually every school from basic to tertiary and across the public and private divide.

Indeed, it will be absurd, shameful  and gross dereliction of duty, if not negligence,  for  the overseers of education in Ghana to claim  to be unaware that the singing of   the   National Anthem in our schools   is substandard.

 In other words, I believe, they are fully aware but are helpless about  how to  rectify the problem.

In truth, the Ghana Armed Forces,  Police and the Prisons Services Bands have shown class whenever  the opportunity arises for them to play the National Anthem.

A proper  identification of the discordant  portions of the anthem as sung in our schools is necessary.The  discords arise at the following:    “freedom and of right”;  “with” true humility make us “cherish” fearless “honesty”; “with all our will”; “might forever”.

Withthese references in context,  an attempt to isolate   the real  solfa notes as against  the wrong or degraded, if not  corrupted,  ones assung in our schools and carried forward or over from school, is required.

The solfa notes for  “freedom and of right” are  “s-l-s-f-m-f-s:”  as against “s-f-m-f-s:” which is found on the lips of our school children. For “with” true humility make us  , the solfa notes  for “d-r-m“ for “with” as against “d-m” which our school children are heard singing. For “cherish”  the solfa notes are “r-r-m”  as against  “r-r” which our school children are heard singing. On the line of the  “FearlessHonesty”, the discord occurs at “honesty”wit its actual notes as “s-s-f-m” and degraded to “ s:f-m”.  The next dissonance is found at  “with all our will” which has its original notes as “s-l-t-d:” but distorted  by the school children to become “d-d-d-d” .  Finally,  are the last two  words of the last line of the Anthem. For, while the original notes read “m-f-m-r-d-r-d:” , the school children sing “m-r-d-r-d:” for “might forever”.

Now, let us assume MOE and GES are not aware of  the state of our National Anthem in our schools and let us also assume that the music teachers in our schools do not have accessto the original solfa notes of the anthem. Based on this assumption, I will assign MoE and the GES THE TASK OF  first, finding out  about the state of the anthem in our schools and using the  results of the  findings   to correct  the discords  or  deformities introduced into  our National Anthem in our  schools.This task or assignment requires collaboration with the music teachers in our schools as they will be directly  responsible for the   teaching and ensuring that  the solfa notes conform to the originally-composed  version of the Ghana National Anthem.

As it stands now,  the state of the Ghana National Anthem in our schools is a reflection of  the poor quality of education, lack ofattention to music as a field of academic  knowledge, the dearth or  irresponsibility of negligence  of our music teachers and  theweak supervisoryrole of managers of Ghana’s education system. We cannot  remain unconcerned.  The nation deserves better.

The writer is a Journalist and a Lawyer.

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