Portfolio Arts and Media: Pentagram Program

Pentagrama is a public policy of Guatemala’s Ministry of Education that uses music to provide children with internal structures and identities, through training based on a methodology inspired by different international experiences.

With this policy, music is seen as an essential tool for developing personal effort and the capacity for teamwork.

The policy has expanded to different schools and departments in Guatemala, which underscores its ability to attract the interest of children and adolescents, as well as of their parents.

GOALS SOUGHT

The initiative seeks to establish forums within the Guatemalan education system that expose children and young people to music, through the creation of music groups with artistic merit that enable the constructive use of free time and that create opportunities for the cultural and social development of their members.

WHAT IT INVOLVES

It involves a system of Music Classrooms, located in the departmental capitals or other municipalities in the country’s 22 departments, open according to flexible timetables in line with the communities’ needs. Each classroom works with the children and young people for a minimum of 16 hours a week.

The Music Classrooms are manned by local music teachers with experience in the areas of choral music, symphonic bands, symphony orchestras, estudiantinas, and marimba.

The pedagogical work with the symphonic bands and symphony orchestras involves exercises in the following areas: physical condition, breathing, aural rhythm, reading and writing music, individual instrument practice by instrument section, and full rehearsals. The choirs’ exercises include physical conditioning, aural rhythm, breathing, vocalization, and memorizing the repertory. In the preparatory singing exercises, emphasis is placed on the educational value of play as a way of learning.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Children and young people who, regardless of socioeconomic level, are studying at primary or secondary schools in the country’s education system and who belong to Guatemala’s various ethnic and cultural groups.

This initiative’s numbers are as follows:

2009: fifty-five (55) Music Classroom principals and teachers, and seven hundred and seventy (770) children and young people.
2010: fifty-eight (58) principals and teachers and six hundred and eighty (680) children and young people.
2011: fifty-eight (58) principals and teachers and seven hundred (700) children and young people.

ACHIEVEMENTS

The work of the Music Classrooms encourages the socialization and development of art, self-awareness, the positive channeling of emotions, and sensitivity.

HOW THE COMMUNITIES PARTICIPATE

In coordination with local education authorities and governmental and nongovernmental authorities, the Music Classrooms organize concerts, events, and cultural activities at schools.

Another of its strengths is the participation of parents, the support of municipal authorities, and the training the teachers receive from the program’s coordinators.

PROFILE OF TEACHERS

The Music Classrooms are manned by local music teachers with basic knowledge of creating choirs or playing an orchestral or band instrument (strings, woodwind, brass, percussion), marimba, and guitar. The principals and teachers are trained in conducting, strengthening playing skills, and instrument maintenance and repair.

INVESTMENT AND FINANCING

Annual investment: $205,740 U.S. dollars. Those funds come from the state and from special contributions made by Ricardo Arjona’s Adentro Foundation; support is also received from private companies. The resources were increased after an agreement was signed with the Ministry of Culture and Sport.

EVALUATION AND RESULTS

The ministerial policy encourages evaluations of the Music Classrooms’ operations by means of the FODA technique and, also through evaluations of the teachers’ musical performance. Evaluations are carried out by the General Directorate of Education Quality Management (DIGECADE) through its Department of Artistic Education. Those evaluations are performed annually.

RISK FACTORS

One risk factor is absenteeism among the children on holidays and during the examination season. Another is children abandoning the program because they do not have instruments or because they have moved on to another year at school. Another situation that requires monitoring relates to the management, care, safekeeping, and maintenance of the instruments.

In financial terms, one risk factor is the lack of money to pay the teachers and also the failure to allocate suitable facilities for their teaching work: often, they have to work in places that are not suitable for the purpose.