■Project Summary
Yamaha is developing School Project around the world with the aim of popularizing activities using music and musical instruments in public education in order to provide more children to play and convey the joy of music and musical instruments. Projects in Egypt, Brazil and India have been selected as 2022 EDU-Port Japan Supported Projects and this article covers the project in India.
■Background
Yamaha has a local integrated manufacturing and sales subsidiary in India that manufactures and sells portable keyboards, acoustic guitars, audio equipment and such like. We have developed our business in close association with the local music culture, and since 2017 we have been working to popularize music using recorders and keyboards in extracurricular classes at private primary schools.
As a new initiative since 2023, in collaboration with the Delhi Board of School Education, we are developing music lessons using recorders as regular classes for 5th grade students at 10 pilot public primary schools. This project was selected as a 2022 Supported Project and, with the support of the Embassy of Japan in India, we have made the necessary preparations for its rollout.
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| Handing the recommendation letter to the Delhi Board of School Education | Meeting with representatives from the Embassy of Japan in India |
■ Project Progress
◇Teacher Training
In preparation for introducing music lessons using recorders, first, local instructors dispatched by our local subsidiary provided technical guidance for the teachers. In addition, in October 2023, Japanese instructors from our head office went to Delhi and conducted face-to-face training focused on the process of nurturing Non-Cognitive Skills of children through music education.
Through music popularization activities, we are not just working toward education aimed at helping students become proficient at playing a musical instrument. Our goal is to spread holistic education through activities using musical instruments with the aim of developing human resources. We aim to nurture children’s Non-Cognitive Skills by incorporating collaboration with others through pair and group work, verbalization and sharing of feelings, the experience of thinking and creating on their own, and the experience of teaching each other in the process of learning to play an instrument.
In the October 2023 training session, we taught the teachers the importance of their role as facilitators with the aim of shifting from teacher-centered lessons to student-centered lessons. We established this approach by getting the teachers to give mock lessons and providing the opportunity for them to experience concrete activities, such as how the students work in pairs to check their recorder fingering and tones, create melodies using three notes (G-A-B), play in groups and share feedback on each other’s strong points.
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In addition to recorder teaching methods, the training also introduced icebreaker activities (introductory music activities) in which the participants acquired the sense of beat necessary for playing the recorder by moving in time to Indian nursery rhymes. We highlighted the importance of making music class a “feeling safe and secured space” by introducing icebreaker activities which motivate students communicate spontaneously and interact naturally with their friends and teachers with having fun on the beat of music. The activities were a great success and were enjoyed not only by the teachers but also by senior members of the Board of School Education amid much laughter and clapping.
A few days after the training, we were pleased to hear from teachers who had immediately incorporated the icebreaker activities into their classes, and we could imagine the teachers delivered what they learned and fun to their students.
◇ Lessons
After the training, we visited two of the pilot schools. Both schools welcomed us by performing tunes that they had been practicing for six months since April 2023, confirming that music education using recorders is indeed reaching the children.
The students told us what they liked about the recorder, saying, “I enjoy playing the recorder with my friends” and “It’s fun to play along with the accompaniment.”
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◇Exhibiting at DIDAC India 2023
Yamaha had a booth at DIDAC India 2023, the largest Edtech event in India, which was held from October 17th to 19th. The event attracted more than 20,000 visitors, and we were able to showcase our music education initiatives in India to many educators. At the Japan Pavilion, in collaboration with the EDU-Port Japan Secretariat and Tamai Investment Educations, we promoted Japanese-style education to many visitors.
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■ Future Plans
As part of the activities of this Supported Project, we plan to continue to promote recorder lessons while giving presentations and interacting with primary schools in Japan through video exchanges.
Additionally, through contact with schools that attended DIDAC India 2023, we will work to introduce our programs and further improve the quality of music education in India.
