Schoolchildren who are a part of the World Voice Programme; singer Mohit Chauhan (below) attends the Conference on Arts Educatio

Imagine a day when British schoolchildren are humming Saare Jahan Se Achcha, or Indian kids are tapping their feet to a typical British song like The Three Pirates, or children from Senegal are dancing to the tune of both.

A cultural mix in the true sense, wouldn’t it be? That’s the aim of the World Voice Programme, a pilot project of the Conference on Arts Education, which in turn is a pioneering initiative between the British Council and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
This conference brings together experts from the UK and India to support the Indian government in its mission to promote education for all in a creative and effective manner.
Formally launched on March 19 at the British Council, New Delhi, with the World Voice Programme, the idea for the Arts Education project grew in the UK with one goal: to promote learning through music and, in the process, connect classrooms around the world. Cathy Graham, director, music, British Council, who has 14 years of professional experience in music, said,
“Singing is a joyful experience. If you start it young, you have it for life. We would like the World Voice Programme to leave a legacy such that perhaps 10 years from now, children of one country are happily singing the traditional songs of another. They are all doing it without knowing why.”
The Arts Education programme began with a four-day workshop on singing for schoolchildren and teachers, led by Richard Frostick, artistic director, British Council, and musician and singer Mohit Chauhan, who has been nominated as the World Voice Champion for India.
Mohit mesmerised the audience with his voice when he joined the schoolchildren in singing a traditional folk song from Himachal Pradesh, which he calls Mourni. “It was an absolute delight to teach the kids. They picked up the lyrics and tune in about two hours,” he remarked.
Mohit, who never had any formal training, feels that “music has a way of doing things with people”. “The seven notes never lie, and if one cares to hear, there’s music all around us. I grew up in Himachal Pradesh enjoying the rhythm of the cool mountain breeze, the snow flakes falling softly on the ground. So my education in music came from nature. For me, the World Voice Programme is a way of passing my traditional knowledge to the next generation. Hopefully with this initiative, we will be able to sing together as a nation,” he said.
Mr Frostick added that the emphasis would be to maintain the authenticity of the songs, retaining the original dialect.
“Like we have collected British and Indian folk songs so far, my next stop would be Senegal in Africa, and in this way I plan to travel to other countries to pick up local music and, at the end of the year, put them all up on a website so that it’s accessible to anyone and everyone,’ he said.
The World Voice Programme was just one agenda of the Conference on Arts Education.
The day-long event brought together eminent personalities from the fields of art, theatre and music to discuss the importance and means to promote arts in education. The inaugural session was addressed by Prof. Parvin Sinclair, director, NCERT, and chairperson of the Aruna Sinclair Foundation, and Pawan Sudhir, head of the department of education in Arts and Aesthetics, NCERT.
Padma Shri Anjolie Ela Menon, who has held 48 solo exhibitions and has numerous works in oil and mixed media to her credit, spoke on the importance of visual arts education in schools. Dismayed at the lack of arts teaching in schools, she lamented that children today are mere receptors because of the faulty training of teachers. “Arts and music are very important in a science and technology-laden school curriculum. Students should be given space to respond to their own environment instead of being fed with clichéd images,” she said.
Renowned theatre personality Bhanu Bharti stressed on the need to involve local artists in theatre.
He cited the example of the Bhil tribe and their many talents without any formal concept of theatre. “Everyday education needs to be rooted in our daily experience. In the same way art has to be rooted in the immediate environment and local traditions. The Bhils have close affinity to their environment and nature is a part of their lives. Hence, whatever they do assumes a spontaneity and beauty as they are rooted in their immediate environment. This is better than any formal training,” he said.
The other sessions discussed the importance of using theatre in education, teaching music in schools and refining the school curriculum to integrate arts in education.