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EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF CULTURAL 

AND CREATIVE ARTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS: A 

VALUABLE TOOL TOWARDS THE SUSTENANCE OF 

HUMAN DIGNITY IN NIGERIA 
 

Hope Nkechi Okpala Ph.D. 

 

Abstract 

he level of debasement of propriety globally and in Nigeria in 

particular is alarming. The effects of these are manifest in 

the level of lawlessness in the country. The vices that are 

prevalent in Nigeria today are as a result of degeneration in 

human dignity. Any effective approach to the restoration and 

sustenance of human dignity should start from childhood stage of 

human development where they acquire their basic education. Studies 

have shown that values inculcated into children at this stage guide 

them through adulthood. This paper therefore seeks to reveal how 

the effective teaching and learning of cultural and creative arts in 

Nigerian pre-tertiary schools will aid in the restoration and 

sustenance of human dignity. The values and aspirations of the 

country embedded in this subject if properly handled are expected to 

be inculcated into any child who passes through this stage of 

education. This no doubt will go a long way to produce individuals with 

worthwhile behavior who will in future contribute meaningfully to the 

all-round development of the country. The research method adopted 

in this study is the survey and review of related literatures. The 

paper adopts the theory of transformative musicology. This research 

reveals that teachers of CCA are faced with the problem of proper 

implementation of the curriculum for the subject. It suggests that 

T 

Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts (AJRMA) Vol. 14 2020 



 
127 

seminars and workshops should be organized to train teachers on the 

subject. 

Keywords: Cultural and Creative Arts, Sustenance, Human, Dignity, 

Education. 

 

Introduction 

A society is committed to making every individual within it a 

responsible member who, in turn, should be committed to the 

continuity and development of the society within its norms, values, 

and philosophy of life (Emeka, 2006:3). Studies have shown that this 

can only be achieved through both formal and informal education 

systems of the society. Education is a vehicle through which the value 

and aspirations of any given society is transmitted to its young ones. 

“It is designed to equip the individual not only to earn a living but also 

for life itself, through encouragement of socially desirable 

knowledge, attitude and skills” (Okafor 2005: 190). It is the pivot on 

which the developmental process of any society revolves no wonder 

Ojukwu and Onyiuke (2014:74) observed that “quality education for 

students is critical not only for individual growth but for a society‟s 

future.” It is therefore pertinent for some aspects of the culture of 

a people to be integrated into their education system. This is done by 

designing the curriculum of education in a way that it effectively 

reflects the needs of individuals in the society as well as the society‟s 

aspirations when properly implemented. By so doing the acceptable 

patterns of behavior will be inculcated into members of the society 

right from tender age and they will grow into adulthood with those 

virtues to be very relevant in their societies. This no doubt must have 

been the reason why the Federal Government of Nigeria has been 

reviewing its education system and curriculum of education to a more 

acceptable and objective based one. As a result of this, the 6-3-3-4 

system was introduced in 1982; President Olusegun Obasanjo 

launched the universal basic education in 1999. The 9-year Basic 

Education Curriculum (BEC) was introduced into Nigerian primary and 



 
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junior secondary schools nation-wide in September, 2008 (Mokwunyei, 

2014). All these attempts were made to provide an education system 

which the country will confidently rely on for its development.  

 

Cultural and Creative Arts (CCA) was introduced into the education 

system in order to incorporate the cultural values of the country into 

the basic education curriculum. „This was done to preserve and 

present Nigerian music, dance and drama on film video and audio tape 

slide and written form etc. as stipulated in cultural policy for 

Nigeria.” (Agu 2006:4).This study is geared towards revealing how 

effective implementation of the curriculum of cultural and creative 

art in pre-tertiary school will foster the restoration and sustenance 

of human dignity in Nigeria, with particular reference to music as an 

aspect of CCA. The rate of inhuman act exhibited by some Nigerians 

is alarming. These are evident in the killings, destruction of 

properties and the many corruption and insecurity cases that are 

carried by the Nigerian network and local news almost every day. All 

these happen because of degradation in human dignity. Most peoples‟ 

minds have been seared by evil thoughts that they can no longer 

discern between evil and good. They feel very comfortable in 

perpetuating evil without any thought of the consequence of their 

actions. This is really a thing to be worried about. This paper is an 

attempt to proffer solutions to the chaos which are gradually eating 

deep into the country. 

 

Definition of Concepts 

Human Dignity  

“Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their 

own sake and to be treated ethically” 

(https://en.m.wikipeia.org/wiki/Dignity). Every human being is born 

with it. Dignity is an inherent value in every human. Anyone that has 

dignity is worthy of respect. Human dignity is what separates humans 

from animals. A person with dignity carries himself/herself well. 



 
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There are certain characters the person should not exhibit – use of 

abusive words, stealing, kidnapping, embezzlement of public fond, 

cheating, etc. anyone who indulges in any of the acts mentioned above 

and the likes has lost his dignity completely. On the other hand, 

subjecting people to inhuman treatments means depriving them of 

their right as human beings. Dignity also entails treating others the 

way you would like to be treated. 

 

It is very appalling that in Nigeria today most people no longer have 

respect for human dignity; people are being humiliated, treated like 

slaves in their own country. People are being killed for no reason on 

daily basis. Right to dignity of human persons as contained in chapter 

4, section 34 of the Nigerian constitution have been greatly violated 

and the defaulters most times do not face any penalty for their 

crime. The constitution states that: 

Every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of 
his person and accordingly – a) no person shall be 
subject to torture or to inhuman or degrading 
treatment. b) no person shall be held in slavery or 
servitude and no person shall be required to perform 
forced or compulsory labour (https://Nigerian-
constitution.com/chapter-4-cestion-34-right-to-
dignity-of-human-person).  

The question is, how far has this section of the Nigerian constitution 

been observed by the citizens? 

 

Teaching  

Teaching has been defined in various ways by different scholars. 

National Teachers Institute NTI in Ojukwu and Onyiuke (2014) 

defines it as a process of manipulation of environment to bring about 

learning. Pring in Akudolu (1994: 133) views it as engaging in certain 

activities which you have grounds to believe will be instrumental in 



 
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bringing about, in another the learning of something that can be 

characterized or specified. The definitions above did not view 

teaching from educational point of view. They made no reference to 

the quality of the content to be taught or learned. Akudolu (1994: 

134) gave a more concised definition of teaching as a “systematic 

activity deliberately engaged in by somebody to facilitate the 

learning of the intended worthwhile knowledge, skills and value by 

another person and getting the necessary feedback.” 

 

This definition presents teaching as having a set of activities which 

when carried out will enable another person to learn what will improve 

the person‟s knowledge, value, attitudes and skills. In other words, 

teaching is expected to bring about positive and permanent change in 

the learner. 

 

Cultural and Creative Arts (CCA) 

Cultural and creative art is the amalgamation of music, drama and fine 

art. Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) 

has included cultural and creative arts as one of the core basic 

subjects in the 9 year basic education curriculum.  The three 

components of CCA are studied in Nigerian tertiary institutions as 

separate areas of study. Affirming this, Ojukwu and Onyiuke (2014: 

77) write, “though these three subject area has their own discrete 

characteristics which largely inform their particular and varied ways 

of working but within that work model arguably creative aspect is 

fundamental”. That is to say that creativity is one unique aspect 

which is shared by the three subjects. The integration of these 

three major arts subjects as one subject was necessitated by the 

quest of the Nigerian Government to integrate some aspect of its 

culture into its education system. This was done to change the 

Western culture which dominated the Nigerian education curriculum. 

Aninwene in Okeke (2014) rightly observes the effort of the Nigerian 



 
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Government to introduce an education system that will reflect the 

needs and aspirations of the people as he writes: 

Attempts were however made in 1969 by national 
curricular conference to change the British colonial 
heritage on education in Nigeria, in other to make it 
more responsive to the needs and aspiration of Nigeria 
and the Nigerian child alike. The conference sought to 
emphasize Nigerian culture including Nigeria music, 
folklore and literature in the education system with 
emphasis on acquisition of practical skills, from primary 
to tertiary level. (p. 24). 

 

The cultural and creative arts education is expected to educate the 

pupils and students about the culture of their people and inculcate 

discipline in them. “It is aimed at developing the students‟ acquisition 

of cultural repertoire, aesthetic perception, artistic talent, creativity 

and expression” (Ojukwu and Onyiuke 2014: 76).The three subjects in 

CCA have great impact in the life of any child that passes through 

the basic education program. Music in particular has tremendous 

influence in the all-round development of a child. A Nigerian child and 

the Igbo child in particular is introduced to music while still in the 

womb. It is believed that the rhythmic movements made by the 

mother while going about her house chores have remarkable effect on 

the unborn baby. The early exposure of the Nigerian child to music 

has proven to have a positive influence in his life. Every culture in 

Nigerian has provided musical activities for their children which, help 

in inculcating their values and aspirations into them. Okpala (2016) 

opines that: 

Early exposure of children to music is very important in 
the development of a child in terms of perception skills 
which enhances literary abilities and language. It helps 
in imbibing the necessary attitudes and values into 



 
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them, which if upheld guide and lead them throughout 
their life time (p.7).  

 

Aninwene, (2006:7) also has this to say about Yoruba culture, “in 

Yoruba land, for example, a child is right from his youth incorporated 

into the musical tradition of the land. He is allowed as part of 

training, to take part in various socio-musical activities which range 

from non- ritual to rites of passage.” Every attribute which a child 

needs to acquire to be relevant in his society is embedded into the 

music of that particular culture area.  

 

Effective Teaching and Learning of Cultural and Creative Arts 

(CCA) 

Teaching has been defined earlier in this paper as a systematic 

activity deliberately engaged in by somebody to facilitate the 

learning of intended worthwhile knowledge, skills and values by 

another person and getting the necessary feedback. Cultural and 

creative art is a performance oriented subject, so any teacher that 

will teach it effectively must be very competent and also very good in 

performance and practical activities. For instance, the teacher may 

lead the students in acting some drama pieces that portray the 

reward for good deeds and consequences of ill behaviors. The primary 

aim of the teacher will be to effectively pass on the knowledge that 

he/she has acquired into the students by employing adequate 

teaching methods. In consonance with this, Ojukwu and Onyiuke 2014 

state that “a teacher which is worth his or her onus employs adequate 

methods (strategies and techniques)that are learner centered to 

bring about permanent learning (p. 78). They further opine that 

teaching should be more of activity and leaner should be at the 

center of learning. The teacher of CCA should make teaching and 

learning very enjoyable to arouse the interests of the students. 

Adequate instructional material should be provided. The fine art 

teacher could lead the students to display the effect of some ill 



 
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behaviours through drawing and painting. The music teacher on the 

other hand could also achieve the same objective of directing the 

students or pupils towards the acceptable patterns of behaviour 

through songs, most especially, through folk songs. The use of 

indigenous materials as instructional material should be encouraged as 

much as possible. Agu in Okpala (2017:437) affirmed this by saying 

that “since music is strongly attached to culture, the application of 

indigenous knowledge system in music education provides a strong 

cultural orientation for the Nigerian child.” He went further to say 

that in other to provide the Nigerian child with adequate musical 

knowledge that will expose and provide him with appropriate socio-

cultural and environmental background, the application of indigenous 

knowledge system is the only solution. Indigenous music has many 

traits that will guide the Nigerian child throughout his developmental 

stages of life. Agu (2011) submits that: 

Music is the pivot on which education of the Igbo child 
rotates. The established musical tradition enhances 
acquisition of musical skills and competence. In 
addition, the child learns about everything around him 
including the culture, literature, history, religion and 
moral instructions. 

 

The discussion so far has revealed that amongst other teaching 

strategies, that the use of indigenous knowledge system will go a long 

way in actualizing effective learning. No wonder Emeka in Agu (2011) 

states that:  

Igbo traditional music education greatly emphasizes on 
character formation and starts early to inculcate the 
young into those values, behavior attitudes speech 
actions and traditions that are considered necessary 
for the making of a person in giving environment (p. 11) 

 



 
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Emeka‟s assertion above holds for every other culture in Nigeria. This 

implies that for effective teaching of CCA in Nigerian pre-tertiary 

schools, appropriate indigenous instructional materials should be 

employed by the teachers of the subject. 

  

For effective teaching of CCA there are pertinent questions which 

the teacher has to provide answers to in the teaching process 

starting from planning to teach, to evaluation. These questions by 

Child were observed in Onuora-Oguno and Okpala (2015) thus: 

What are the content of any teaching section? A- what 
am I expected to teach and in what order(content)? B- 
what educational purpose is my teaching expected to 
serve (Aims)? C- what teaching methods are known to 
achieve these purposes (methods)? D- what standard of 
achievement am I expected to aim at (objectives)? E- 
how will I discover whether the course I‟ve been 
teaching has been successful or not (evaluation)? (p. 9). 

The ability of the teacher to provide adequate answers to the above 

questions will enable him to plan and execute his teaching adequately.  

There is no doubt that the outcome of such teaching will be very 

rewarding because effective learning is the product of effective 

teaching (Ojukwu and Onyiuke, 2014:76). 

 

Factors that Hinder the Effective Teaching and Learning of 

Cultural and Creative Arts 

The introduction of CCA into Nigerian education curriculum is a 

welcomed development to achieve the desires and aspirations of 

Nigerians. But there are some challenges in the implementation stage. 

Some of these challenges has been highlighted by some scholars like 

Ugoo-Okonkwo (2014), 0keke (2014), 0jukwu and Onyiuke (2014), 

Onuorah-Oguno and Okpala (2015). They were unanimously concerned 

about the incompetence of CCA teachers at this level to teach the 

subject effectively. Most schools do not have teachers who are 



 
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specialists in the three subject areas of the CCA. The implication is 

that a teacher who specializes in drama will also have to teach music 

and fine art. Definitely, the outcome of such will not be desirable at 

all. Even where there are music teachers, the question is how 

competent is the teacher? Music is a creative subject and studies 

have shown that most of the music teachers at the pre-primary and 

post primary levels are not creative or performance oriented. 

“Teachers are merely content with teaching lines and spaces and go 

home leaving a yawning gap in the creativity aspect of music” Onuora-

Oguno and Okpala (2015:4). A music teacher who is not creative will 

never make effective use of folk music in the teaching of music as 

folk music is all about performance.  

 

Inadequate Time Allocation: Interview carried out by the 

researcher in the course of this study and her personal experience as 

a onetime teacher in the primary and post-primary schools showed 

that a maximum of 30-45 minutes per period were allocated for 

classes . The teacher has 1 to1½ hours to cover what he/she has in 

the scheme of work for the week. The scheme of work for the JSS 

classes drawn from the new curriculum was always over loaded with 

several topics which are expected to be covered in one week. “Lesson 

topics are so jam-packed in the new scheme of work” (Ugoo-Okonkwo, 

2014). She goes further to observe that for the topics to be covered 

by the teacher, he/she must have to superficially teach them that 

even the students will not comprehend what is being taught. Time 

factor coupled with over loading of weekly lesson periods with topics 

make it difficult for the teacher to do justice to his/her teaching. 

 

Lack of Provision of Adequate Instructional Materials: Most post 

primary schools do not have basic instructional materials that will aid 

the teacher in the teaching of CCA. Such materials as keyboard 

instruments and other local musical instruments, the use of some 



 
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electronic gadgets that are necessary for effective teaching and 

learning are lacking in most schools. 

 

Improper Teaching Methods:  A good teacher must cultivate and 

possess some personal qualities or characteristics that will endear 

him/her to the learner (Ojukwu and Onyiuke 2014:76). One very 

important character the teacher of CCA must possess is humility. He 

must humble himself to sing, dance and play musical instruments with 

the students irrespective of his/her social status in the society or 

rank in the school. The researcher‟s interaction with some students 

on students-teacher relationship disclosed that most students are 

afraid of their teachers. Some teachers use abusive words on the 

students, calling them names because they failed to answer questions 

correctly in the class. For effective teaching, the teacher must 

maintain friendly relationship with the students. It is also surprising 

to note that some teachers just give notes to students to copy with 

little or no explanations. 

 

The CCA teacher should employ all the necessary instructional 

materials available to make sure that he/she achieves his objectives. 

He/she must not look up to the school authority to provide him with 

everything needed for effective teaching; he must be ready to 

sacrifice his time and money.        

 

Music being a performance oriented subject requires active 

participation of the students during the teaching and learning period. 

The teacher must show a high level of competency in administering 

his lessons. The students must be actively involved. For instance, In 

teaching of „Rhythm‟ the teacher will provide few rhythmic 

instruments and lead the students to play the rhythmic patterns 

he/she wants them to master .The students are also expected to 

represent the rhythm by clapping or dancing as lead by the teacher. 

Knowledge acquired through this method is not easily forgotten. 



 
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Ugoo-Okonkwo (2014) in her discussion on “Implementation 

Strategies Employed by Teachers for CCA Curriculum and its 

Implications to Music Education” cited a Chinese proverb which 

states: “Tell me, I will forget, show me, I might remember, involve me 

and I will learn” (p.223).The teacher of CCA should adopt a teaching 

method that will encourage active participation of the students. 

“Students must be properly guided by the teachers through planned 

activities so that learning may be acquired” (Ojukwu and Onyiuke, 

2014:76). 

 

Summary and Conclusion 

It is very obvious that there has been great degradation of human 

dignity in Nigeria and this has hindered the developmental progress 

of the country. It has resulted in many vices in various parts of the 

country. People are deprived of their rights to dignity. This study has 

portrayed education as an indispensable factor in the development of 

any society as the desirable values, norms and philosophy of life are 

integrated into the education system. Education has also been viewed 

as a powerful tool for enhancement of the restoration and sustenance 

of human dignity. 

 

Cultural and creative art which is one of the core subjects at the 

basic education level in Nigeria is an important aid towards character 

formation if well implemented. The CCA teachers at this stage of 

child development should explore all necessary methods of teaching 

to make sure that his teaching is objective based. They should be 

aware that any mistake made at this level will be detrimental to the 

future generation. Appropriate instructional materials should be 

employed to make sure that the intended worthwhile behaviors are 

inculcated into the students. This will go a long way in molding the 

character of the students to conform to the patterns of life 

expected of them.  



 
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Many scholars have made some useful recommendations as regards 

the integration of the three basic art subjects as CCA and its 

implementation. Ugoo-Okonkwo (2014) is of the opinion that the 

curriculum be reviewed in line with the challenges currently faced at 

the implementation stage. She added that the required personnel 

should be involved in the review. Okeke, (2014) is of the opinion that 

„parallel approach‟ which allows the teaching of the respective 

subjects as separate disciplines with the proper incorporation of 

African values in each. 

 

This paper agrees with the recommendations above and also adds that 

while waiting for the review of the curriculum, the Nigerian 

government through the appropriate bodies should organize 

workshops and seminars to train teachers of CCA on how to handle 

the subject. This approach was adopted by Ford Foundation in 

America in 1962 by the request of the Music Education National 

Conference (MENC) and it yielded positive result. Mark (1986) 

discussing the curricular foundation of music education wrote:  

One of the first activities of contemporary music 
project was the establishment of sixteen workshops 
and seminars, held at various colleges throughout the 
country, to help teachers better understand the 
contemporary music through the analysis, performance 
and pedagogy (p. 37). 

 

It also recommends that rather than study the three courses lumped 

up as CCA as separate courses in tertiary institutions, School of Arts 

Education should be established. The school should offer these three 

courses and other related arts courses; the students will have a 

specialized area of study and still take relevant courses from other 

areas of study. This will produce teachers that will be competent in 

teaching the CCA. 



 
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