Sunday, January 26, 2020

IT Impact on Organizational Performance in Banking

IT Impact on Organizational Performance in Banking Information technology and permeated almost every aspect of business operations and communications technologies. So it is a one of the most exciting research has been focusing on the wide interest in all parts of the world through the decades, but little was devoted to study the impact of information technology to banks in Bahrain. This study examines the impact of information technology on organizational performance in the banking sector during the period from 2005 to 2009. The dependent variable used is return on equity ( ROE) while the independent variables are Hard ware, Soft Ware, System Development Operations, I .T Maintenance, I.T Training , I .T Insurance , I.T Communication, I .T Implementation, I .T Consultancy , I .T Sites and Business Continuity Planning (BCP). Preliminary data collected through in-depth interviews, official documents and surveys of the field through the top 8 banks in Bahrain, this data has been tested by applying different statistical methods and finance. The research results led to the conclusion that information technology has a positive impact on organizational performance in the banking sector. CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION As an emerged business trend, the use of information technology (I.T) in the economic organizations are immense and measureless. Systems of organization and functions are now considered effortless and unproblematic because of I.T. information technology passes to be the most important one for each financial institution and the banks, particularly, they are one of the greater investors in I. T, Ahli united bank one of these banks that costs them around $ 13 millions. It is an enormous cost of this technology for local and international market. The existing studies generally have concluded two positive effects concerning the relationship between IT and the financial performance of banks. â€Å"First, it can reduce operational costs of banks (the cost advantage). For example, the Internet helps banks to conduct standardized, low value transactions (e.g. send the bill payments, balance inquiries, account transfers) through the online channel, while focusing its resources on specialized, high value added transactions (eg small business loans, personal trust services, investment banking) through branches. Second, can facilitate transactions between customers within the same network(the network effect). As an example, let us consider the case of automated teller machines (ATMs) by banks. If ATMs are geographically dispersed areas available largely over, the advantage of using an atmosphere will increase as customers can access their accounts from any geographic location they want. This would imply that the value of the ATM network increases with number of locations available in the atmosphere, and the value of the network of the a bank to a customer is determined in part by the final size of the network effect banks network is important in the adoption of the atmosphere. IT has drawn the attention of many researchers, commissioned to study the impact of IT in the functioning of the bank and that is a goal of many organizations. Some researchers have found positive relationships between IT investment and organizational performance and some of it found it negative. Problem Statement IT investments and its impact on the banking industry is a very important point for both banking managers and IT managers to be able to deal with and justify wither increased spending for investment in IT will lead to increase performance of Bank or not. That will put increasing pressure on managers to asses its business value. In this study we will examine the key components of IT investments (Hard ware, Soft Ware, System Development Operations, I .T Maintenance, I.T Training , I .T Insurance , I.T Communication, I .T Implementation, I .T Consultancy , I .T Sites and Business Continuity Planning (BCP) to see if spending in different IT areas as an impacts on bank performances. Significance and Importance The importance of this project lies in its ability to shed a light on the Impact of Information Technology on The Financial Performance of Bank sector in kingdom of Bahrain. Furthermore, this study would encourage other Banks in the area to benefit from Bahraini Banks experience and therefore follow their lead. Purposes The goal of this study is to: To determine which type of information system leads to high financial performance of the banks. Evaluate in what specific ways and to what extent do information systems could eventually lead to high financial performance. To find out what issues emerges when implementing IT at the bank. Research Hypothesis The main Hypotheses There is no significant relationship between investing in I.T and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H01: There is no significant relationship between investing in HW and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H02: There is no significant relationship between investing in SW and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H03: There is no significant relationship between investing in SDO and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H04: There is no significant relationship between investing in Main and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H05: There is no significant relationship between investing in Trn and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H06: There is no significant relationship between investing in Insu and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H07: There is no significant relationship between investing in Comm and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H08: There is no significant relationship between investing in Imp and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H09: There is no significant relationship between investing in Con and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H010: There is no significant relationship between investing in Sit and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H011: There is no significant relationship between investing in BCP and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. Key Words Information technology (I.T): any technology that helps to produce, manipulate process, store, communicate, and/or disseminate information. Information system (IS): is any combination of information technology and peoples activities using that technology to support operations, management, and decision-making. I.T Investment : Banks of Bahrain: Its a financial institution located in Bahrain that deals in money and its substitutes and provides other financial services. ATM: automated teller machine, which allows customers to complete basic transactions without the aid of a branch representative or teller. Financial Performance: is the overall profitability of the insurance firm. Study Outline The paper proceeds as follows: Chapter 2 focuses on the literature review where the work of other researchers and some previous theoretical and empirical studies are mentioned. Chapter 3 is about the methodology used in this study. Chapter 4 discusses the empirical results and findings of the research. Finally, conclusions and recommendations are made in chapter 5. CHAPTER TWO BACKGROUND CHAPTER TWO BACKGROUND Introduction This chapter will specify some aspects of Bahrains economy and what attracts foreign and local investors to invest their capital in this country; along with some important features and statistical data regarding the banking industry, we will try to know why It is necessary for the management of the organizations to measure and to evaluate the organization performance. Finally, the literature review will discuss a number of some previous studies related to this topic. An Overview of Bahrains Economy The economy of Bahrain is mainly defined by oil production and refining and production, ship repair, iron pelletization, fertilizers, offshore banking, insurance. The country is trying hard to privatize its economy so that it can reduce the dependence on oil production and that prompted the government to develop other industries as well. For example, in 1970, the government established Aluminum Bahrain (ALBA), an aluminum smelting industry which still remains an important industry. In a further effort at diversification, the government has also promoted tourism. The government controls the oil and gas, most heavy industry, and the bulk transport and communications, but has made efforts to privatize the economy, bank transfer, light manufacturing, and trade in private hands. Listen Read phonetically Dictionary View detailed dictionary Translate any website El Confidencial-Spain Tom.com-China News.de-Germany Nord-Cinema-France Zamalek Fans-Arabic Gotujmy.pl-Polish Vogue-France Arte Toreo-Spain LExpress-France Onet.pl-Polish Pà ºblico.es-Spain Zeit Online-Germany Bahrains economy is strong and always improving their sectors to look for a bright future. It was called the fastest growing financial center in the Arab world by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia in January 2006 by the City of London global financial centers index in 2008. In 2004 it signed a free trade an agreement with United States will reduce the trading Which Barriers between the two countries. Bahrain Was the first Arabian Gulf state to sign such a trading mutual agreement with the United States. http://www.mapsofworld.com/country-profile/bahrain1.html https://www.cia.gov Banking Sector in Bahrain Bahrain is the home of more than 400 the authorized financial institutions, what represents a rich mix of international, regional and local names. They cover all the range of financial products, with private concentrations in sure, wholesale banking and funds / asset management. The financial sector is now the major sector of the economy represents more than the 27% of the GDP. The financial sector is also the major employer in Bahrain for more than the 80% of the labor. The sector is regulated and supervised by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) (www.cbb.gov.bh), which since 2002 has functioned as a regulator of the entire financial system. Bahrains banking system consists of both conventional and Islamic banks and is the main component of the financial system, which represent over 85% of total financial assets. The conventional segment includes 19 retail banks, 69 wholesale banks, 2 specialized banks and 36 representative offices of foreign banks. The Islamic segment, offering a series of Sharia Conformity of their products and services include 6 retail and 18 wholesale banks, and the numbers are increasing steadily. The banking sector has played a central role in the development of Bahrain as major financial center in the region. As in December 2006, banking sector assets amounted to over U.S. $ 180 billion, more than twelve times annual gross domestic product. The recent increase in the sector has been supported willingly fortune of the industry of the petroleum and the corresponding increases of liquidity. The banks are playing thus a central role in surplus to reinvest the petroleum incomes as well as complying the opportunities of financing in other segments of the economy. http://www.bahrain1.com/banking.html Performance Measures The performance as declared by Wheelen and hunger (2000) is the final result of an activity and a performance organizacional accumulates turned out final of all the organization process and activities. It is necessary for the management of the organizations to measure and to evaluate the organization performance to utilize organizations resources in better form and to win good organization honorableness. Managers measure and to control organization performance, since conducts to a better management of assets, to a greater capacity to provide value of the client, for improve the measures of organization Knowledge and measure of performance organizacional have an impact on an organization reputation. Literature review Many studies had been done in order provide a clear picture of the financial performance of banks. Gupta, Uma and Collins (1997) investigate the impact of information systems on the efficiency of banks. They were centered in determining the relation among the investments in I.T and bank efficiency; they identified an efficiency measures assembly commonly utilized by the banks and they asked to their respondents to specify if these measures were utilized to evaluate the performance of I.T an investment. They found that the companies ensure that the investments in technology are deliberately and in a significant way aligned with achieving the strategic, tactical one, and the operational goals of the business is probable that to see a narrower link among I.T investments and improvements of productivity of the organization. Thus I.T performs an important and valuable role in helping to reach objectives organizational, to enlarge the productivity to improve service to the client, and to utilize fully existing system. Lunardi, Becker and Macada (2003), they evaluated the strategic impact of IT in Brazilian, American, Argentinean, Uruguayan and Chilean banks as perceived by their executives. In order to externally validate the questionnaire, results were analyzed considering, as isolated samples, (a) Brazil, (b) the United States, (c) Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, and, then, (d) as one group merging all data. The results indicate that (1) Competition, Products and Services, and Borrowers (customers) are the main strategic variables affected by IT; (2) there are no differences between executives of IT and other functional executives regarding their perception of the impacts of IT in strategic variables; and (3) the impact of IT in Competitiveness is significantly related with the impact of IT in Borrowers, Government and Country Requirements, Products and Services, and Cost Structure and Capacity. This study supported banking executives to plan IT strategies, their implementation and to evaluate their use. Another research had been done by Elena Becalli. (2005) Who investigated whether investment in Information Technology (IT) hardware, software and other IT services influences the performance of banks by Using a sample of 737 European banks over the period 1993-2000 . The study found that the impact of different types of IT investment (hardware, software and services) on banks performance is heterogeneous. Investment in IT services from external providers (consulting services, implementation Services, training and education, support services) appears to have a positive influence on accounting profits and profit efficiency, while the acquisition of hardware and software seems to reduce banks performance. Shaukat and Zafarullah. (2009) made a study examined the impact of IT on organizational performance in quantitative terms of Pakistans manufacturing and banking sectors over period of 1994-2005 and come with the following result. I.T changed the character of so much work for the industries and enlarges its performance. This positive impact has shown in indicators of qualitative performance. Significant improvements with regard to the different qualitative variables as customer satisfaction, client/suppliers links, image of the business, employees interest work, shareholders, confidence and among office links/communication they have been observed in both the sectors and banking in Particular . Akram and Allam. (2010), explored the impression on improving the performance of two forms of matrix. The first is matrix of financial performance which comprises Market Value-Added (MVA), Return on Investment (ROI) and Earning per Share (EPR) and the second is matrix of operational performance, which includes the Net Profit Margin (NPM), Operating Return on Assets (ORA) and the profit value of the employee (PE). Utilizing IT by Jordanian banks which measured by testing the level of investment in Hardware, Software, Internet Banking, Phone banking, number of ATMs, use of Cyber branches and Banking via SMS. The results of measurements indicated that there was an impact on the use of MIS in Jordanian banks in the market value added (MVA), Earnings Per Share (EPS), Return on Assets (ROA), Net Profit Margin (NMP). Keramati, Azadeh and Mehran (2009), discussed and tested empirical to moderate environmental effects of dynamism and branch strategy on the impact of the investment and other efficient variables (number of employees and fixed assets) in the branches. The study sample was comprised of 102 branch offices of the bank Parsian and the empirical results, on the base of a model moderate of decline. Concretely, IT investment seems to have a greater positive impact on performance of the banks when there are greater environmental changes and more proactiva strategy branch. According to their conclusions, the banks considering that the investment should evaluate their performance environmental contexts and the strategic orientation. Another investigation has been carried out for Mallick and Shirley (2006). They examined the effects of the information technology (IT) in the banking industry of United States. They found that IT can improve banks performance in two ways: IT can reduce operational cost (cost effect), and facilitate transactions among customers the clients inside the same network (effect network). They characterized the conditions to identify these two effects and the conditions for the two seemingly positive effects to turn negative in the equilibrium. The results were tested on a panel of 68 US banks over 20 years, and they found that the bank profits decline due to adoption and diffusion of IT investment, reflecting negative network effects in banking Industry. In this study I will use the same factors used by Akram and Allam (2010) to explain the Impact of Information Technology on The Financial Performance of Bank sector in kingdom of Bahrain. CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY Introduction In this part of the study, we build the methodology of the study that is characterized in terms of tools and method of measurement and tests for the problem of the study, taking advantage of methods and tools of previous studies, in order to guarantee the access to the methodology to obtain the information more I need and better results. The key variables will be measured in an intent of practice to identify dependent and independent variables and to explain how the independent variable affects the dependent variable. Finally, It will also provide a study model and some specifications of the model used to conduct the research. Population and Sampling Data Collection The data was collected through in-depth interviews with the senior managers of finance , and some mangers from I.T Department of Banks in sample and from official documents plus We used several academic journals and articles which have been downloaded online from various websites to collect data for this study. Updating numerical data about the Banking sector and Banks have been collected from the annual reports of each Banks which are submitted on their official websites. Population The research population is all locally Banks in Bahrain Ahli United Bank National Bank of Bahrain Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB) Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait B.S.C . Bank Muscat International (BMI) Standard Chartered Kuwait Finance House Bahrain Citibank Bahrain HSBC Bank Middle East Limited Arab Bank Table 3.1 : Population Source: The Researcher Sample Ahli United Bank (AUB) Bank Muscat International (BMI) were selected as research sample to represent this sector. However these Banks were selected because I found that it was easy for me to collect any information needed for this research from these tow Banks since I am working in Ahli united Bank and I Know Manger of IT in Bank Muscat International (BMI) . Ahli United Bank . Bank Muscat International (BMI) Table 3.2 : Sample Source: The Researcher The first bank is Ahli United Bank, Bahrain (AUB): Ahli United Bank BSC (AUB) formed after the 2001 merger of Al-Ahli Commercial Bank and Commercial Bank of Bahrain, It is a full fledged commercial and investment banking group providing Services of 1. Wealth management 2. Retail, corporate 3. Treasury 4. offshore 5. Islamic banking 6. Real estate fund management 7. Structured finance and private banking services. The Groups businesses consist of the operations in Bahrain, a wholly owned subsidiary in the UK and associates in Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Egypt, Iraq and Libya. Source: http://www.cbb.gov.bh/page.php?p=banking The second bank is Bank Muscat International (BMI) : BMI Bank (previously known as Bank Muscat International), an associate of Bank Muscat the largest financial services provider in Oman today, is a Retail Bank, registered in Bahrain and regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain offering a full range of retail and commercial banking services. BMI Bank operates in Bahrain through a network of 8 branches and 26 ATMs with net banking for easy access to services. Source: http://www.bmi.com.bh/AnnualReport/images Period covered in this research This research covers the period from 2005 to 2009. Analysis Plan Use Regression method to specify the relationship between the independent variables (HW, SW, SDO, MAIN, TRN, Insu, Comm, Imp, Cons, Sit, BCP) and the dependent variable which is the (ROE). Research Model Model Specification This economic model is used to examine the relationship between Independent Variables and Banks performance. Defining Study Variables The independent variables Hard ware: Which includes spending on data storage devices, terminals, memory, peripherals, workstations, personal computers and data communications devices, So It is the net investment bank in the computer hardware and equipment in the period. (Akram Allam 2010) Soft Ware: which includes spending on packaged software, application Solutions software, application tools, and systems infrastructure software? It is the net investment bank in the software during the period. (Akram Allam 2010) System Development Operations: Which includes spending on Specific activities related to system development and other expenses for operations management during the period like the network, processing services, backup and archiving. ( Elena Becalli. 2005) I .T Maintenance :On going operational support of either hardware or software IT assets of an organization. This can be both preventative as well as reactive support. I.T Training: Includes education used to enhance general knowledge and expand the abilities to use IT during the period. (Elena Becalli 2005) I .T Insurance: The insurer provides protection of IT assets against fire, theft, flood and accidental damage and protects the firms investment from claims arising out of professional negligence or system failure . I.T Communication: Providing effective ways for inter application, inter entity communication. Effective IT communication provides the backbone for the working of any next generation application due to centralized and cloud based roadmap towards Information Technology. I .T Implementation: Which includes spending on a new or changed application systems are needed in order to support the processes, these must first be procured or developed and implemented. I .T Consultancy: Includes all what they spend to provide product-specific consulting during the period. It is one of the independent variables. (Elena Becalli. 2005) I .T Sites: Physical controlled infrastructure support for IT related hardware / data centers. This can be segregated between production and disasters recover sites Business Continuity Planning (BCP): It is the cost of Planning that identifies to the organization, exposition to external and internal threats and synthesizes soft and hard assets to provide an efficient prevention and the recovery of the organization, during the period. It is one of the independent variables. The independent variables ROE: Return on equity  measures a corporations profitability  by revealing how much  profit a company generates  with the money shareholders have invested. So it is the amount of the net incomes returned like a percentage of the capital stock.   Each banks ROE has been obtained for its annual reports and calculated as: Return on Equity = Net Income/Shareholders Equity CHAPTER FOUR ANALYSIS TESTING HYPOTHESIS Introduction This Section includes tow main topics, the first is about descriptive Analysis of the study variables through various descriptive statistical measures, such as: Central tendency measures, Dispersion measures, Mean, Median, Range and Standard Deviation; to describe the study variables. The Second topic represents testing the study hypotheses, and computing the regression model information. First topic, Descriptive Analysis Descriptive Analysis The descriptive analysis table in the appendix shows the following: From Table 4.1, which illustrates the use of Bahrain banks for I.T, we notes that average cost of H W in Bahrain banks reached the highest average in year 2009 (3,332,204) and this year was the lowest in the standard deviation (323,436), as well as the year that contains the largest cost for investment (3,103,500), which refers to the rise in investment H W by Bahrain banks. The second independent factor is the S W, its mean (medium) started with (1,085,277) and we notice that they are on the increase from year to year until it reaches in 2009 to (3,117,740) While the standard deviation of S W started with 940,060 then decrease to (865,657) and increase later in 2007 and again decreased to (805,459) in 2008 and lowest amount (236,654) in 2009. The minimum S W during the research period was (420,554) while the maximum was (2,950,400). We marked that the third factor which is the S D O had a mean started with ( 627,493 ) and ended with( 525,001 ) and noted that investment in S D O reached the highest value in the years 2005 ( ,000,000) and 2007 ( 720,000 ) while the lowest value was in the year 2008 ( 245,907 ) and the standard deviation started high in first year 2005 ( 526,804 ) and decreased to the lowest in the last year 2009 ( 35,281) . The M A I N mean (medium) started with (930,182) in 2005 and ended with (1,519,138) in 2009. While the standard deviation started with (805,844) and ended with (957,440). The minimum M A I N during the research period was (360,365) and the largest amount was (2,196,150). The fifth factor which is the T R N had a mean (medium) of (133,498), (142,611), (180,363), (147,626) and (94,051) the standard deviation started with 94,048 and ended with (36,697), the minimum T R N during the research period was (66,996) while the maximum was (280,000). The I N S U mean (medium) started with 48,220 in 2005 and ended with 99,966 in 2009 while the standard deviation started with 37,873 and ended with 13,918 the minimum I N S U during the research period was 21,440 while the largest was 109,808. From the previous table we note that the seventh variable COMM, the average cost in Bahrain banks started with 1,124,045 and continue increased upto (1,737,626). In 2009, the standard deviation started with 955,944 and ended with (1,148,871), the minimum rate during the period reached to the lowest of 448,091 and highest was 2,550,000 in 2009. The I M P mean (medium) started with (243,621) in 2005 and ended with (562,749) in 2009. The standard deviation started with (188,627) and ended with the (60,303); the minimum rate during the period was (110,241), while the maximum was (60,303). The ninth factor which is the C O N S had a mean (medium) of (63,192), (32,123), (38,552), (55,051) and (95,053) and the standard deviation started with (52,055) and ended with (35,281), the minimum C O N S during the research period was (14,245) while the maximum was (120,000). The S I T mean (medium) in the beginning 3 years were the same 65,307 years and in the last 2 years increased to (104,500) while the standard deviation started with 49,063 and ended with (21,920). The minimum S I T during the research period was 30,614 while the maximum reached to (89,000). The BCP mean (medium) in the beginning year started with (295,011) and ended in the last year with (430,744). While the standard deviation was beginning with (247,472) and decreased in the last year to (198,759). We note the minimum BCP during the research period was (120,022) and the maximum was (571,288). The dependent variable is the ROE which was marked by the year 2006 the highest revenue between the years of the sample, as it reaches the highest return of 19.230% while the standard deviation was started with 3.606% and decreased later to .495 % in 2009. The year 2009 marked the lowest return on equity, amounting to 9.600%. Regression Analysis I used Pooled Data Regression method because Ive tie series data (2005-2009) and cross-sectional data (2 Banks). I have mathematical model of the study is developed as follows: I used E views program to analyze the data, I also used pooled regression and multi-regression because we have more than one independent variable verses only one variable which is the R O E. The confidence interval is ( 95 %). Testing Hypothesis As stated in the first chapter, these are the null hypothesis for this research The main Hypotheses There is no significant relationship between investing in I.T and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H01: There is no significant relationship between investing in HW and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H02: There is no significant relationship between investing in SW and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H03: There is no significant relationship between investing in SDO and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H04: There is no significant relationship between investing in Main and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H05: There is no significant relationship between investing in Trn and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H06: There is no significant relationship between investing in Insu and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H07: There is no significant relationship between investing in Comm and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H08: There is no significant relationship between investing in Imp and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H09: There is no significant relationship between investing in Con and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H010: There is no significant relationship between investing in Sit and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. H011: There is no significant relationship between investing in BCP and the financial performance of Banks of Bahrain. The above hypothesi

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Procter & Gamble: From Top to Bottom – A Consultant’s View

Not only does P&G demand an outside the box thinking model, but they also demand collaboration inside and outside the Company. This is in addition to strict project management guidelines and the desire to be in communication with consumers, retail customers and outside stakeholders. (Leadership Development, 2014) Recommendation 1 – One recommendation here is to involve employees on a greater level. The mission statement itself covers everything an employee should take to heart. However, involvement at the local level may increase the publics awareness to the firm's existence.Employees being more involved in going to local retailers and attempting to market P's products, giving away products to local homeless shelters and charities, providing charity work in the local communities by P&G employees can take a company to another level in this area. P&G is heavily concerned with improving the lives of others around the world. It is this author's opinion that integrating a greater h ands-on approach an help accomplish this. P holds a lot of strength in its organizational structure. P feels the organization's structure is an important part of its continued growth.With products touching the lives of nearly 2 billion people every day, it combines its strength of product benefits and a local focus to win consumers and retail customers in all the countries where the products are embedded. There are four major portions of the organization, all embedded neatly in the company's Selling & Market Operations sector. These include – Beauty, Hair and personal Care Baby, Feminine and Family Care Fabric and Home Care Health and Grooming (Corporate Structure, 2014) Specifically, the division of that delivers products to market is the Selling and Market Operations division.The division name was changed from Market Development Organizations because of the intense pride it takes in bring its products to the people of the world. The name change was not just a name change, i t clarified the work the firm does and the work they do best. This division handles every portion of marketability including superior, effective and efficient selling, distribution, shelving, pricing execution and rescheduling – every day, every week – in every store and in all its markets.Markets include Asia; Europe; India, the Middle East, and Africa (MIME); Latin America and North America. (Corporate Structure, 201 4) Recommendation 2 could likely benefit from a stronger focus in where it does not hold a strong enough market share. For example, in Personal Health Care, which is considered a $240 billion market, P is a market leader, but with only a 5% share. Another area is Beauty and Grooming, and while leads the consumer market, it only holds 13% of the share. (P – 2014 Annual Report, 014) Organizational management is key to a business' growth opportunities.It has a number of billion-dollar and half-billion-dollar brands that cover a number of markets. P&G is certainly not lacking in performance. However, it is possible that it could build in certain areas. It has strong relationships with retailers, suppliers and a competitive advantage where innovation is recognized. Recommendation 3 – It is possible that could reach its hands into undeserved and unseeded consumers. There are a number of markets where consumers are not reached such as those watching a lot of television.With Digital Video Recorders (DVD) available for every home in the world, it is possible that is not reaching these consumers because people typically fast-forward through commercials. If these consumers were targeted in other areas such as highway billboards, mobile app advertisements, and e-commerce, P&G may see a rise in its consumer markets. Employee performance management is not the only concept that creates an effective firm like Procter & Gamble. Another tightly held idea is their efficacy in the use of partners and suppliers. P&G's network of partners and suppliers is critical to our long-term success ND in our purpose inspired growth strategy to touch and improve more consumers' lives, in more parts of the world, more completely. † (Partners and Suppliers, 2014) P&G's supplier diversity goes deep and is historical. Since the sass's, there has been a strong focus on its ability to diversify its supplier strategy. P&G holds a special pride with minority and women-owned businesses around the world, investing more than $2 billion in the last six years.This figure has placed P&G on a short list called the Billion Dollar Roundtable, which specifically invests more than a billion dollars a year with a minority or woman-owned business. Recommendation 4 A recommendation to be considered might be the insertion of deeper rooted supplier networks. Possibly delving into more privately owned businesses for their product sales. One of P&G's greatest weaknesses is its inherent ability to rely on â€Å"big box† retailers such as Wal l-Mart for revenue generation.With P product insertion into stores like Wall-Mart, the world-wide retailer is at an advantage with potentially greater bargaining power. With this comes less profit for Procter & Gamble. Spreading the market share to smaller entities could help level the playing field with these large retailers. Chuan, 2010) Investing in a number of partners, P has not only generated awards for its partnership strategies, it has also helped to better the lives of the people who work in these companies. With well-treated employees comes greater confidence in the products created.P has set a very important standard in its desire to be a trusted company. P's goal, where its products are concerned, is family safety. They need the consumers that purchase their products to come back and purchase more. The organization considers its commitment to safety as a part of its heritage and future. There are more Han 700 experts that work for P&G globally, specifically to ensure the safety of its products with respect to environmental safety, human safety and the various regulatory compliance agencies around the world. Product Safety, 2014) Recommendation 5 Where product quality is concerned, P&G is heavily involved. For example, in 2007, there were a number of product recalls in its pet food division. With keeping its powerful brand name, P&G eventually sold off its pet division. This is an example of a recommendation that was followed and came out on top. With fast moving product, which is what P&G relies on, having re-stocked rodents is important. Generating sales is heavily reliant on new and innovative products.There is a possibility of having greater product quality if third party assets assisted in quality management. With so much product oversight on the inside of P&G, this leaves room for bias. Outside experts, working independent of P&G, and not under financial collusion, could assist in bringing greater product value to the market. (Chuan, 2010) Con sidering the size and reach of P&G, their use of technology plays a significant role in its daily operations. They are reliant on IT systems for internet sites, data costing, processing facilities for tools and other hardware.The use of these IT systems includes services such as ordering and managing materials from suppliers; converting materials to finished products; shipping products to customers; marketing and selling products to consumers; collecting and storing customer, consumer, employee, investor and other stakeholder information and personal data; (P&G – 2014 Annual Report, 2014) The firm has clearly stated A breach of information security, including a cyber-security breach or failure of one or more key information technology systems, networks, processes, associated sites or service providers could have a material adverse impact on our business or reputation. (P&G – 2014 Annual Report, 2014) Recommendation 6 It is recommended that instead of relying heavily on its own employees for security management, to consider moving to a third party company and outsourcing its security.Ideally, with the extensive product development and its classified nature (until necessary patents are obtained), it is recommended that the firm receive the same level of security as the Department of Defense receives. Additionally, while the following details are likely classified, P&G's yester should be regularly hacked by white-hat hackers to determine potential security holes and assist in having them plugged. The culture at P is very strong. They lend the strength of their culture to its powerful innovation Structure. Is constantly displaying their formidable position on the planet as a leading innovator. A well-known process of moving the innovation from idea to prototype, to development, to qualification, to centralization is in place for the product launch model.Bob McDonald (2008) stated â€Å"Innovation requires a certain kind of culture, one that is curio us ND courageous, connected and collaborative culture, and open-minded – a culture in which people want to take risks to identify game changing, life enhancing innovations. † McDonald went on to say that culture is not something that can fall under a mandate or be imposed. Good culture is grown on an organic level and while it cannot be demanded, it can be shaped and influenced. Recommendation 7 – Change management exists in all companies around the world, big and small. Dealing with the change comes down to working with employees in the firm to ensure the smooth transition. With constant changes in laws and isolations around the global, a global organization like Procter & Gamble should consider a Change Consistency department, whereby change is predicted and the firm can then get ahead of it.Working with regulatory agencies around the world, it is possible that P can obtain potentially conflicted items based on ingredients. For example, in China, a number of pr oducts were found to have banned substances in them. Had there been a department designed to specifically combat these issues, P could come out on top and release products that do not interfere with a country regulatory efforts. With the above stated Change Management, there comes number of issues involving power, politics and conflict. With that in mind, everything comes down to quality leadership and effective communication. Without these two ingredients, it is too easy for a firm of this size to fall into complete disarray.

Friday, January 10, 2020

Multiculturalism And School Music Education Education Essay

Before get downing to discourse about Macaus music instruction, the general history background should be introduced ab initio. Macau lies on the western side of the Pearl River Delta across from Hong Kong, which is to the E, surrounding Guangdong state to the North and confronting the South China Sea to the E and South. The entire country of Macau is about 29.5 kilometers and the population is about 544,000. ( Macau Yearbook 2007, 475 ) The history of Macau can be traced back to the Qin Dynasty ( 221-206 BC ) , Macau was under the legal power of Panyu county at the clip. Between the old ages 1368 and 1644, under the Ming Dynasty, fishermen moved to Macau from Guangdong and Fujian states. Therefore, Macau was a normal fishing small town before the reaching of Portuguese. Macau was a former Portuguese settlement, and was both the first and last European settlement in China every bit good. Since the Portuguese arrived in the sixteenth Century, Macau started to be developed as a major colony. In 1535, Lusitanian bargainers obtained the rights to ground ships in Macau ‘s seaports and to transport out trading activities, though non the right to remain onshore. ( Fung, 1999 ) In 1887, Macau became a settlement of the Portuguese imperium and its sovereignty transferred to the Portuguese. Macau became one of two particular administrative parts of the People ‘s Republic of China ( the other being Hong Kong ) in 1999. Under the policy of â€Å" one state, two systems † , the Chinese authorities is responsible for the district ‘s defence and foreign personal businesss, while Macau maintains its ain legal system, constabulary force, pecuniary system, imposts policy, and in-migration policy.The Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of Macau stipulate that Macau operates with a high grade of liberty until at least 2049, fifty old ages after the handover. Macau participates in many international organisations and events that do non necessitate members to possess national sovereignty. Macau ‘s economic system is dependent mostly on touristry and chancing which make up about 50 % of the economic system. In peculiar, chancing in Macau was legalized by the Lusitanian authorities from the 1850s, and Macau has been known as the â€Å" Monte Carlo of the Orient † since so. It is worthwhile to see that most of the visitants come from Mainland China and Hong Kong. Therefore, it can be concluded that the Macau ‘s economic system to a great extent depends on Mainland China and Hong Kong. The population of Macau is consist of 95 % Chinese, includeing Cantonese and Hakka. The staying 5 % aliens which includes Portuguese, Nipponese and Philippine members. ( Result of 2011 population nose count. 11 ) Therefore, assorted cultural groups and sole history background form Macau as a multicultural society, and such phenomenon exists in anyplace. The first case is the multiple linguistic communications. The official linguistic communications are Lusitanian and Cantonese Chinese, and there are 40 % and 1.5 % of the population in Macau are able to pass on through Mandarin and English, severally. In add-on, Hokkien and the Creole Macanese linguistic communication besides exist. Furthermore, the 2nd illustration may be the festivals. Not merely should the Lunar Chinese New Year be one of the most important festivals in Macau, but besides the Christmas may be celebrated, every bit good.2. Macau ‘s instruction in colonial period.In the sixteenth century, the authorities clung to the instruction system of Portugal and about all the educational events were supervised by the Catholic missionaries in Macau. In 1572, the Jesuit priests established a school in Macau, taking to learn kids and the grownups who were willing to be a Christian missionary ( Li & A ; Choi, 2000 ) . Furthermore, in 1594, the first Western university was founded in Macau by the Jesuits, which claims the rubric of the first Western university in the Far East ( Li, 2001 ) . Such state of affairs besides happened in other settlements at the same clip. In 1599, the Jesuits transformed their school originally founded for the Indians into colleges for direction in broad humanistic disciplines ( Havighurst & A ; Moreira, 1965 ) . From the 16th to 19th century, except a bantam figure of kids from rich households who could engage private instructors, a immense sum of childs were taught merely by sermonizers. For illustration, a primary degree school named the St. Rose of Lima School was established in 1692, which targeted to learn basic reading, composing, Portuguese, Latin, French and English to kids who come from destitute households. ( Silva, 1998 ) To sum up, there were really few measures of primary schools existed at that clip. In the mid of 19th century, the authorities paid more attending to Macau ‘s instruction in order to consolidate the Lusitanian position in Macau. Li & A ; Choi ( 2000 ) point out that the Macau colonial authorities established the first Portuguese primary school in 1847 and managed by diocesan priests. The first Lusitanian Government secondary school was founded in the 1893 and managed by the authorities. In the twentieth century, with the dining development of Macau ‘s instruction, a series of jobs were besides exposed. The political legislative acts of Macau was alone due to the about 50 decennaries ‘ settlement by Portuguese. Such alone statues has sometimes been considered as a consequence of the contradiction between Chinese and Lusitanian authoritiess, and was besides be influenced by the sole mode in which Portuguese sovereignty had been carried out locally. Franco Nogueira, who was the Portuguese Foreign Minister, concluded the state of affairs in 1966 as follows: â€Å" aˆÂ ¦ We have ne'er been genuinely autonomous over Macau ; we have ever outlasted out of China ‘s good favour, and authorization has ever been shared with them. † ( Nogueira, 1966 ) , viz. there was restriction of Lusitanian sovereignty over Macau. Rosa ( 1990 ) besides points out that such state of affairs besides happened in local instruction system in the 1980s. The authorities ‘s policy could non follow the gait of the instruction development in Macau. Even more, there were really few pupils: merely 5 per centum of Macau ‘s pupil population, survey in the public schools. In institutional footings, on the one manus, the huge bulk instruction sectors were private Chinese watercourse schools and which held about 85 % . On the other manus, there were merely 15 % schools in Macau were government-run. In other words, the instruction in Macau had different systems, and both of the private and authorities schools were â€Å" fighting to run into the Territory ‘s demands – but hardly wining in making so. † ( Rosa, 1990 ) Due to the deficiency of proper organisation and support, the system of Macau ‘s instruction was extremely based on related states and countries, such as Hong Kong, the People ‘s Republic of China, the United Kingdom and Portugal. Such dependance can be seen from the course of study and the contents. However, the imitation and dependance may non run into the demand of Macau itself. The ground might be that the Macau ‘s alone history and civilization background may non be wholly same as other states or countries. Rosa ( 1990 ) believes that there were several defects in the country of human and physical resources. First of wholly, the absence of the available instruction material might be a serious job in Macau. For case, the teacher/student ratio was highly high at the pre-primary degree of private Chinese watercourse[ 1 ]school in 1988 ( 1/45 ) . Second, academic making of the teaching staff was unsatisfactory. There were merely 54 % of the instructors had accepted learning preparation or keep instruction grade ; on the contrary, 34 % of the instructors might merely complete secondary school. In footings of the physical resource, the private schools ever suffered from overcrowding in schoolroom and deficit of learning equipment. However, there had been some advantages in Macau ‘s instruction. Harmonizing to the research from Rosa, the age of most of the learning material in Macau was under 50 ( which was about 84 % ) ; moreover, 62 % of instructors were between 20 to 39. Obviously, th e immature instructor might be really helpful to get the better of the quandary at that clip. In add-on, in the 1980s, the private schools, which occupied a immense sum of the schools in the Territory, deficiency of proper intercession and support from the authorities, taking to a batch of Macau ‘s households being unable to pay fees for school and the increased rate of dropout. Hence, the authorities approved the Law No. 11/77/M on October 22 1977 and so some fiscal aids was set out based on it. The donees of such aid included the privately-owned school, their teaching staff and the pupils. First of wholly, the fiscal aid helped the instruction establishments to regenerate equipment and renovate plants. Second, instructors received authorities excess subvention in order to promote them through the Government Order No. 199/85 in 1985. Third and the most significantly, tonss of the pupils, even non all of them, received subsidies from the authorities, which non merely lightened the household finances load, but besides reduced the dropout rate which was highly high. Howev er, the fiscal aid might non enough to run into the demand of the development of Macau ‘s instruction. For illustration, the pupils ‘ allowance merely occupied about 40 % of mean schooling fees, viz. Macau did non hold free general instruction at that clip and might non accomplish the end of equity of instruction. Furthermore, harmonizing to Rosa ( 1990 ) , there was a Chinese watercourse instructors developing class sponsored by Macau Education Department since 1987. Rosa besides shows that in the academic twelvemonth 1988/89, there were 106 local instructors who took portion in the instructors developing class. To sum up, there were several issues exist in footings of Macau ‘s instruction during the colonial period. Initially, deficiency of organisation and systematized construction resulted in heavy dependance on other counties ‘ systems. However, it was happenstance with the cultural and societal world of Macau in a little grade. The 2nd job might be the restriction and deficiency of resource, including in human, infinite and fiscal facets. On the one manus, the deficit of eligible teaching staff and equal infinite may take hapless quality of instruction ; on the other manus, deficiency of instruction financess would be the ground of the high rate of bead off, and doubtless, such a high schooling fees no uncertainty increase the fiscal load of many hapless households. About all the jobs in Macau ‘s instruction could be partially attributed to the softness of local authorities supervising and direction. Even more, there were no exact official counsel and ordinance in footings of instruction country. Therefore, the authorities since handover has already changed their attitude to such facet and improved relevant policies and systems. For case, the most of import and necessary action is to implement and vouch free schooling, particularly in the first six old ages of primary school. And so, the mainframe Law on Macau ‘s Education System has been approved desperately in order to suit the Macau ‘s world of the development of society and civilization.3. Macau ‘s instruction since handover3.1 General instruction in Macau Macau enjoy a high grade of liberty harmonizing to the â€Å" one state, two systems † policy since handover on 20 December 1999. In footings of instruction, as prescribed by the Basic Law of Macau Chapter VI Article 121, the Government of Macau â€Å" shall, on its ain, formulate policies on instruction, including policies sing the educational system and its disposal, the linguistic communication of direction, the allotment of financess, the scrutiny system, the acknowledgment of educational makings and the system of academic awards so as to advance educational development † and â€Å" bit by bit establish a compulsory instruction system † ( Basic Law of Macau ) . And it besides provided that Macau ‘s general instruction is charged by the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau ( the DSEJ ) . In institutional footings, the construction of Macau ‘s instruction sector rests chiefly on private-owned establishments. As Table 1 ( DSEJ, 2012 ) shows that approximately 85 % of local schools are private. Alternatively, merely 15 % schools are government-run. Even though the rates in 2011/2012 academic twelvemonth are really near to which in colonial period, this state of affairs has changed. From the academic twelvemonth 2007/2008, a 15-years free instruction is offered to the pupils who have been enrolled in the schools that are belonging to the free instruction school system, viz. it is free of charge from kindergarten to secondary in all public schools and great bulk of private schools. Meanwhile, pupils of non-free school would afford allowance from the SAR authorities every twelvemonth. For illustration, pupils of non-free kindergarten and primary received 10,000 MOP ( Macanese pataca, about 800 British Pounds ) , and the pupils from these secondary schools acquired 12 ,000 MOP in the academic twelvemonth 2009/2010. Table 1. Number of General School in Macau 2011/2012 ( DESJ, 2012 ) Free instruction school system* Public schools 2—3 5——1 11 Private Schools 1 2 2 15 4 26 3 53 Private schools of non-free instruction school system 3———3 5—11 Entire 6 2 5 20 7 31 4 75 Auxiliary reading: – There are wholly 35 schools supplying inclusive instruction. Among which, there are 8 public schools, 22 private schools of the free instruction school system and 5 private schools of the non-free instruction school system. Harmonizing to the TABLE 2 we can deduce that the figure of pupils decreased continuously in these 10 old ages. The ground might be the sustained decrease of birth rate from 1989 ( statistics from DSCE, 2012 ) . But it is worthwhile to see that the figure of instructor increased endlessly, in other words, the teacher-student ratio have became more sensible than in the colonial period times which was 45 pupils per instructor. And the ratio, which was about on tierce of colonial period, was 13 pupils per instructor. Table 2 Figures of General pupil Numberss in recent 10 academic old ages ( DESJ, 2012 ) 2002/2003 49,215 46,610 95,825 2,404 3,951 2003/2004 48,842 45,970 94,812 2,454 4,181 2004/2005 47,603 44,777 92,380 2,441 4,275 2005/2006 45,953 43,246 89,199 2,414 4,363 2006/2007 44,005 41,301 85,306 2,418 4,445 2007/2008 41,771 39,052 80,823 2,418 4,610 2008/2009 39,481 36,928 76,409 2,425 4,711 2009/2010 38,273 35,553 73,826 2,417 4,831 2010/2011 37,577 34,787 72,364 2,404 5,104 2011/2012 36,794 33,925 70,719 2,415 5,134 Not merely the sum of instructors is wrinkling, but besides the quality of learning material in Macau is bettering, every bit good. From the Table 3 ( DESJ, 2012 ) we can deduce that most of the learning material in Macau are possessing pedagogical preparation: more than 90 % of instructor of kindergarten possessing pedagogical preparation, and more than 80 % and 70 % of the instructors from primary and secondary schools received teacher developing class from 2008 to 2012 academic old ages. Furthermore, there are huge bulk of the instructors developing class are organized by DESJ, and other are supported by public university ( see the TABLE 4, ) , in other words, it sponsored by the authorities. In add-on, the Numberss of trainees are continuously grow these old ages. Therefore, the sufficient attending paid by the authorities is good to better the degree of instructors ‘ specialisation and learning ability. TABLE 3 Rate of instructors possessing pedagogical preparation ( for in-service instructors merely ) in recent 4 academic old ages ( DSEJ, 2012 ) Education degree Academic Year 2008/2009 Academic Year 2009/2010 Academic Year 2010/2011 Academic Year 2011/2012 Baby 95.3 % 94.6 % 92.1 % 93.2 % Primary 86.1 % 84.7 % 85.8 % 87.9 % Secondary 70.8 % 71.2 % 72.1 % 74.3 % Table 4 Figures of instructors developing ( including normal instruction ) in recent 3 academic old ages ( DESJ, 2012 ) Forming establishments Number of trainees ( by frequence ) 2008/2009 2009/2010 2010/2011 Education and Youth Affairs Bureau 17,964 23,950 32,340 University of Macau 677 754 805 Macau Polytechnic Institute 24 54 122 Colegio Diocesano de Sao 37 59 60 Entire 18,720 24,817 33,327 In footings of fiscal resource of Macau, harmonizing to the TABLE 5 we can deduce that investing from the authorities addition steadily. In 2007, the per centum of public instruction outgo to gross domestic merchandise is 2.1 % , and which was 0.2 % lower than 2008. After so, the rate arrived the extremum at 2009, which occupied about 2.6 % of the GDP. Table 5. Public instruction outgo and gross domestic merchandise ( DESJ, 2012 ) Unit of measurement: million Pataca Type Year 2007 Year 2008 Year 2009 Gross domestic merchandise 141,934 161,669 165,457 Public instruction outgo 3,028 3,704 4,372 Rate 2.1 % 2.3 % 2.6 % However, the rate of public instruction outgo to GDP of Macau was much less compared with whether western or about states. For case, harmonizing to the statistics from the World Bank ( see the TABLE 6 ) , the rates of both the United Kingdom and the United States held steady from 5.4 % to 5.6 % , and which was about twice more than Macau. On the other manus, the rates of Hong Kong and Japan, both of those are Asiatic states and shut to Macau, were besides much higher than Macau and floated between 3.0 % and 4.5 % . Therefore, the proportion of Macau ‘s instruction outgo to GDP was still at a low degree. Table 6. The per centum of public instruction outgo to gross domestic merchandise of United Kingdom, United States, Hong Kong, Japan and Macau. State Year 2007 Year 2008 Year 2009 United Kingdom 5.5 % 5.4 % 5.6 % United States 5.5 % 5.5 % 5.4 % Hong Kong 3.5 % 3.3 % 4.5 % Japan 3.5 % 3.4 %—Macao 2.1 % 2.3 % 2.6 % In brave, harmonizing to the day of the months above, it can be concluded that: First, the 15-years free instruction system might be the most impressive facets of Macau ‘s instruction, which brings several benefits ; for illustration, it would helpful to accomplish the end of the instruction equality. And besides, it lightened the fiscal load on family. The most of import is that it would hold profound consequence on the development of the society. Second, the teacher-student ratio became more acceptable compared with the period times. Furthermore, due to the turning figure of free instructor train class, the overall quality of the instruction might better in some extent. Third, the authorities increased fiscal input to instruction, and the proportion of public instruction outgo to GDP raised. However, it might still lie at lower degree compared with western and some close states.3.2 General Music Education in MacauThe development of Macau ‘s music instruction may non be balanced in different facets. Social music instruction has shown it tendency of vigorous development: more and more private and extracurricular music categories organized by the authorities, the mission and civil groups appeared and â€Å" plays one of the most of import function in Macau ‘s music instruction † . ( Dai, 2004a ) On the other facet, third music instruction grew rapid since handover: foremost, in 2009, the Macau Conservatory united the affiliated in-between school of China Central Conservatory of Music to form a music secondary school ; secondly, the new class – music public presentation – is added in to the School of Art, Macau proficien t Institute, which expand the field of third music instruction. However, the development of general music instruction seems to dawdle behind compared with societal and third music instruction. Harmonizing to a study in 2003, Dai ( 2004b ) points out that Macau ‘s general music instruction is â€Å" free and self-generated, alternatively of regular and normative † , and â€Å" the instruction quality is unevenaˆÂ ¦ there are series issues and may impede the development of music instruction, which keep the degree downaˆÂ ¦ ( It may ) non presume its responsibility and duty † . Dai ( 2009a ) introduces some basic information of Macau ‘s general music instruction. Initially, in most instances, the primary and junior secondary schools offer one music lesson per hebdomad. What ‘s more, it is frequent to offer music extracurricular activities in the schools[ 2 ]. In add-on, the music instruction equipment is comparatively complete. Furthermore, an overpowering 89 proportions of the schools ain music schoolroom. In footings of learning stuffs, which are multiple and about all of them are imported from Hong Kong and Mainland China. Because there is no expressed ordinance or counsel from the local authorities, instructors should take learning stuffs by themselves. The deficient figure of instructor can be one of the most note worthy characters of Macau ‘s general music instruction and it may increase the instructors ‘ work load in some extent. It is besides worthwhile to see the instructor ‘s quality is different, some of them may non have music background or instruction degrees are lower than expect. On the other manus, although the authorities intercession in schools is restricted, it may take to a growing of music instruction via to keep a series music activity. For illustration, Macau Education and Youth Bureau ( DSEJ ) organizes interscholastic singing competition every twelvemonth, which may advance development of general music instruction via communicating of music public presentation among the schools. In add-on, the DSEJ holds series of activities to popularise art music and some music groups are invited in order to execute to the secondary school pupils. The purpose of the activity is to give a opportunity to the pupils to travel to music concert hall every twelvemonth because the organisers believe it may elicit pupils ‘ involvement of music grasp. What ‘s more, the one-year Macau Young Musicians Competition, held by Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macau S. A. R, aims to progress the musical humanistic disciplines in the district and heighten the preparation and public presentation abilities of immature local instrumentalists. For good over two decennaries, the competition has given 1000s of immature people the chance to derive cherished phase experience, and therefore has played a critical function in the betterment of the musical accomplishments of Macau ‘ young person. To sum up, the character of Macau ‘s music instruction can be concluded as: rapid development of societal music instruction and imperfect general music instruction. The latter includes 3 facets: issues on learning stuffs, authorities and instructor resource.III. Issues and Challenges in MacauTeaching stuffsDatas analysis Current state of affairs of learning stuffs can be described by two questionnaire studies in 2003 and 2009. Both of them are completed by music instruction professors of Macau Polytechnic Institute. ( Dai, 2004b & A ; Dai, 2009a )Table 7. Resource of the instruction stuffs of Macau*Beginning of learning stuffsQualityRateMacao 2 3.1 % Mainland of China 18 28.5 % Hong Kong 47 74.6 % Mission 2 3.1 % Complied by the schools themselves 23 36.5 %Entire60100 %* Multiple picks Most of schools selected learning stuffs that are imported from Hong Kong ; and so comes to the instruction stuffs that complied by the schools themselves and Mainland China, and those occupied 74.6 % , 36.5 % and 28.5 % individually ( multiple picks ) . Furthermore, merely 4 per centum schools use Macau and Mission editions. In add-on, the figure of schools whose teaching stuffs are determined by principals occupied about 15 per centums ; learning stuffs of the remainder 85 % schools are decided by their ain music instructors. Furthermore, those studies besides illustrate instructors ‘ attitudes towards learning stuffs. An overpowering 93 % of the instructors consider that the qualities of learning stuffs are tolerable but still have room for betterment, 7.4 % of them think the stuffs are disused, 3.7 % of instructors regard that pupils may non fulfill with the instruction stuffs and more than 20 % of them do non believe the instruction stuffs reflect local conditions or are suited to local demands ( multiple picks ) . Issues and challenges of instruction stuffs Harmonizing to the questionnaire study shows above we can deduce that the deficiency of incorporate and proper learning stuff could be a serious job of Macau ‘s music instruction. Fifteen ( 2008 ) indicates in her research that the current state of affairs of Macau ‘s music instruction stuffs is complicated. Assorted different editions are applied in both primary and secondary schools, including the stuffs exposed from Hong Kong and Mainland of China, complied by schools themselves, mention from songbooks and music instruments stuffs. In add-on, the unsure applications of those learning stuffs make the state of affairs more complex. At the first glimpse, it seems benefit to the instruction generation because of the variegation of learning stuffs. However, it may besides hold several disadvantages. First of wholly, there is strong subjectiveness and random in the choice of learning stuffs, it may take the inadequacy of criterion. Second, the patched quality of the instruct ion stuffs may harmful to the instruction equality. Such instruction stuffs system may because of the alone political, cultural and economical state of affairs in Macau. Before handover, the Portuguese-run colonial authorities took a mostly laisser-faire and negative attitude towards Macau ‘s civilization and instruction, and this led to miss of standardisation and considerable variegation of the educational system. ( Huang & A ; Chen, 2007 ) Furthermore, the policy of Macau ‘s learning stuff has non been stipulated by jurisprudence explicitly, whether the Proposta de Lei do Sistema Educativo district attorney RAEM ( Proposal for the Education Law Special Administrative Region ) legislated by Portuguese-run colonial authorities in 1991 or the Lei de Bases do Sistema Educativo Nao SuperioriNon-Higher Education System Outline Methodi?†°legislated by Macau authorities in 2006. However, Hong Kong where has a similar colonial history as Macau implements much more positive criterions and policies imposed from British author ities. On the other manus, due to Macau ‘s economic system that concentrates on chancing and touristry and relies well Mainland of China and Hong Kong, its instruction and civilization signifier a characteristic that is regarded as dependance. Consequently, such grounds underlie several characteristics of Macau ‘s instruction stuffs – variegation, liberalisation and dependance ( Huang & A ; Chen, 2007 ) The systems of music instruction stuffs in nearby countries, like Mainland of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, are dissimilar from Macau. For illustration, from 2001, Mainland China patterns scrutiny and blessing system for learning stuffs. That is, the publishing houses should roll up music text editions observed by the New Music Curriculums Standards, and so those books need to be examined by the Examination Committee. ( MOE, 2006 ) several sorts of text editions arose after the policy of â€Å" One Principle, More Textbooks † issued by the Department of Education. Taiwan has similar learning stuffs system with Mainland China. ( Huang & A ; Chen, 2007 ) In footings of Hong Kong, Huang ( 2000 ) indicates that the Hong Kong Education Bureau issues the Recommended Textbook List to schools every twelvemonth. There are many assortments of music text editions on the list. For case, there are 7 sorts of music text editions in the junior secondary school list. ( Hong Kong, EDB ) Unlike the system of Hong Kong, Macau ‘s authorities dose non recommends any text editions to schools. And besides, there is no expressed criterion and counsel presented by the authorities of Macau, and which is different from Mainland China and Taiwan. Furthermore, there is no music learning stuff was compiled or published the local instruction section. Although some schools may roll up learning stuffs themselves, the quality and the character of localism may be weaken due to the restriction of local instructors ‘ professional degree. In summarized, the degree of Macau ‘s learning stuff system may still far behind the which in nearby countries. In brief, the deficiency of unitarity, the lack of ordinance and the jobs left over from history could be three major grounds which cause the current state of affairs of learning stuffs in Macau. And such issue has been widely concerned by local music pedagogues. For case, the Dai ‘s study ( Dai, 2009a ) shows that about all the music instructors agree that it is necessary to roll up a series of music instruction stuffs with in order to run into the local demand. And besides, a instructor suggests that local characters should be added into text edition. Such research reflects the demand from music instructors of local music instruction stuffs. To turn to the issues mentioned above, specific suggestions and recommendations will be given in Chapter IV. Teachers and instructor preparation Date Analysis The researches from Dingcheng Dai & A ; Baisheng Dai ( Dai, 2004b & A ; Dai, 2009a ) in 50 primary and secondary schools, the position quo of music instructors lists below: Table 8 Number of music instruction material Number Percentage Full-time 24 28.9 % Part-time 54 65 % Guest Teacher 5 6.1 % Entire 83 100 % The studies indicate that the entire sum of music instructor in the primary and secondary schools is 83 ( 1.66 per school ) . There are 24 full-time instructors and occupied 28.9 proportions. It is worthwhile to see that the sum to parttime music instructor which hold overpowering 65 per centum. In footings of instruction background of the instructors, merely 13 of them hold bachelor grade or above, which account for 15 % . 21 of them graduated from junior college. The remainder of the instructors may have enfranchisement of secondary school. The state of affairs of academic activities is besides contained in the research. There are 10 documents published in diaries ( 0.2 per school ) . Furthermore, 17 text editions are complied by the instructors ( 0.34 per school ) and 48 vocals are composed by them ( 0.96 per school ) , every bit good. The DSEJ ( Macau Education and Youth Affairs Bureau ) issued a Music Syllabus in 1999[ 3 ], 22 % of the instructors select the option that â€Å" I am familiar with it and will implement it purely † ; 56 % of them express their attitude that â€Å" I know it but can non implement it purely † ; and remainder of the instructors ( about 22 % ) may non be cognizant of such authorities paperss at all. 2.2 Issues and challenges of instructors and instructor preparation By the day of the months and researches shows above we can deduce that a batch of lacks exist in the Macau ‘s music instructor resource. Initially, insufficient of sum of instructor can be one of serious jobs. Dai ( 2009 ) indicates that it may increase the instructors ‘ work load, and underlines inability to farther preparation and development. A research by Beijing Normal University ( 2007 ) besides points out that it is about cosmopolitan that the learning material in Macau is suffered from long working hr and heavy work loads. In footings of music instructors, on the one manus, because a instructor may learn a batch of different classs, who may endure from endemic force per unit area to fix lessons and frequently be exhausted. For illustration, the studies show that there is a instructor should learn 8 different classs. On the other manus, due to some music instructors should learn non merely music, but besides other topics like Chinese and English, they have no suffi cient clip and attempt to go to learning preparation and farther perusal. Second, the low quality of the instructors can be a terrible job of Macau ‘s music instruction. Harmonizing to the informations above we can deduce that an overpowering 85 per centum of the instructors may non keep unmarried man grade. And more notably, most of the instructors are parttime and may non have professional music instruction or preparation of all time. For case, a instructor surveies mathematics in undergraduate and who may be both mathematics and parttime music instructor. Therefore, purely talking, the instruction background of the instructor is unwanted, every bit good. Therefore, merely a really few of the instructors ‘ professional background can run into the demand of eligible music instructor. Furthermore, the studies besides indicate that non merely the consciousness of academic research is deficient, but besides the theoretical idea of music instruction is bare. The history of third music instruction can be traced back to 16 century. Li ( 2001 ) mentioned that the Saint Paul College, which founded by Portuguese and claimed the rubric of the first Western University in the Far East, offered music class since 1594. It is too bad that the development of Macau ‘s third music instruction was dead since 1726 when the college closed. There was a space of third music instruction that was about 250 old ages until 1997 when the music class was established by the Macau Polytechnic Institute. Hence, the historical space of Macau ‘s third music instruction non merely suspended the first-class tradition, but besides had left harmful influence to its development until today. For case, more than half ( 54 % ) of Macau ‘s music instructors are received music preparation or instruction outside of Macau ( Dai, 2009a ) . At the first glimpse, it indicates variegation of endowment, but the lake of local music instructor instruction was emerged, every bit good. There are two universities in Macau that offered the class related to music instruction. The first 1 is the module of Education, University of Macau that offer music instruction as an optional class to primary and pre-primary instruction in the first or 2nd semester of year-2. However, such short-run preparation ( one semester merely ) may non fulfill the demand as a music instructor. The 2nd is Macau Polytechnic Institute that offers a 4-year professional music instruction class, which brings a great possibility for the development of third music instruction. However, some jobs still exist. Initially, little graduated table and pupil beginning limited could be a major hindrance to the development of third music instruction. Due to the little figure of registrations ( 15 – 20 per twelvemonth ) and the cost of instruction input, seldom of optional classs can be offered, which may non run into the demand of the pupils. In add-on, the beginnings of pupils are restricted because the sum of occupant decreases continuously ; and besides, it seems less attractive to the pupils from Mainland China even though the school accept them since 1996. Furthermore, the university can non form external class due to local authorities ordinances, therefore the demand of farther preparation from the local music instructors may non be satisfied. Furthermore, it has less internsh ip chances than expect, therefore some of the pupils can non develop experience cognition from internship, and the university may get feedback from the pupils about the current state of affairs of general music instruction which may helpful to set its course of study. In add-on, although farther instructor preparation classs are offered in several organisations[ 4 ], seldom of them are focal points on music or its teaching methods. It should be a serious issue in Macau ‘s instructor resource. Government Datas analysis The TABLE 9 shows public and non-tertiary instruction outgo between 2007 and 2010. The per centums of those to entire authorities outgo in the four old ages are besides listed. The sums of public instruction outgo are addition from 2007 to 2010. The per centum of which to entire authorities outgo is 16.2 % in 2007 ; However, over the following two old ages, the proportions decreased to 14 % and 13 % . But in 2010, the per centum rose to 14.9 % . Although the existent figure of public outgo of non-tertiary instruction grows from 2007 to 2010, the per centums of which remain the downward tendency between the 4 old ages. The proportion was 10.2 % in 2007, and autumn to 8.9 % and 8.2 % in 2008 and 2009. It hit a new depression in 2010 and which was 7.5 % . Table 9 Education Finance Indicators of Macau ( DESJ, 2012 ) Indexs Year 2007 Year 2008 Year 2009 Year 2010 Public instruction outgo ( Unit: 10 million Patacas ) 3,028 3,704 4,372 5,776 The per centum of public instruction outgo to entire authorities outgo 16.2 % 14.0 % 13.0 % 14.9 % Public outgo of non-tertiary instruction 1,912 2,347 2,763 2,896 The per centum of public outgo of non-tertiary instruction to entire authorities outgo 10.2 % 8.9 % 8.2 % 7.5 % Issues and Challenges The insufficient of investing of the local authorities for public instruction should be a one of the most primary factors curtailing the development of public, particularly non-tertiary instruction. Harmonizing to the TABLE 9 we can deduce that although the existent input is addition, the per centum of public non-tertiary instruction disbursement is decrease continuously. The ground of such state of affairs might be that the rise of non-tertiary instruction outgo can non maintain up with the entire authorities outgo. Because the entire authorities outgo remains increase in the four old ages due to the rapid economic growing of Macau[ 5 ]. It besides suggests that the velocity of Macau ‘s instruction development is slower than the rapid economic growing of Macau. The TABLE 6 shows the per centum of public instruction outgo to gross domestic merchandise of United Kingdom, United States, Hong Kong, Japan and Macau. Harmonizing to the statistics we can deduce that the grade of public instruction outgo lags far behind the Western states. Even more, it remains far less that the per centum of Hong Kong which is such similar to Macau, no affair the history background or the current economic state of affairs. The local instruction section deficiency of valid paperss and steps which could steer or direct the development of general music instruction could be the other drawback. Because the Lusitanian authorities took laissez-faire attack to Macau ‘s private schools, that system of the schools and course of study are diverse. Such attack may besides take the school instruction deficiency of incorporate criterion. ( Feng, 1999 ) Furthermore, Macau Education System ( 1991 ) provides that the authorities does non hold the right to interfere learning plans of the schools, every bit good. However, Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, which is in charge of Macau instruction, has an duty to steer, manage and measure the non-tertiary instruction, and therefore the DSEJ establishes Education Commission, Youth Commission and educational supervising system. But it is too bad that music instruction seems rarely involved in the educational supervising system. And besides, the committees may chiefly concentrate on the extracurricular music activities, such as the interschool singing competition. Even though the activities promote growing of general music instruction in some extent, and flourish activity of general music instruction apparently, those may non wholly stand for the state of affairs of Macau ‘s school music instruction. The ground may be that, foremost, those are non everyday, viz. it is timeliness. Attention will be attracted merely if few months before it stars, and schools may fix it without attempt. Second, merely seldom of pupils can participant of the ac tivities, and it may non profit to all the pupils. Therefore it is unjust to the pupils who do non go to the activities. Third, the study of Dai ( 2009a ) indicates that some of the instructors consider that music category may replace by such activities[ 6 ]. However, music category is the lone manner to accomplish the end for comprehensive, equal and consecutive general music instruction. The DSEJ may disregard such phenomenon and importance of general music instruction at some extent. Furthermore, some school leaders may attach excessively much importance to ensue and ranking of the activities, and put unusual force per unit area on the music instructor. For illustration, consequence of the singing competition may act upon fillip and rating of the music instructors. Hence, the music instructors concentrate on preparing of the competition alternatively of general music category, and which can non offer benefits to the pupils ‘ music survey. In brief, even though the DSEJ and the Cultural Affairs Bureau make a great attempt to form music competitions, the right counsel for the activities is absent, and the basic map of music instruction is non achieved. It is besides worthwhile to see that the authorities paperss for general music instruction might be dawdling. The Macau Education and Youth Affairs Bureau issued a Music Syllabus in 1999 and which is available on the official web site ( DSEJ 1999 ) . The papers contains 3 parts and focal point pupils on different degree, including junior primary, upper primary and junior secondary. The web site besides offers two other links, including the Music Curriculum Standard of Mainland China and the Music Curriculum Outline of Hong Kong. Nevertheless, those two official paperss are issued in 2001 and 2003 individually, and which may propose that Macau ‘s official papers is far behind the Hong Kong and Mainland China. To sum up, the issues of the local authorities exist in three facets: the underfunding on public non-tertiary instruction, the deficiency of right counsel and the obsolescence of official usher paperss for general music instruction. In the first facet, on the one manus, the local authorities investing for instruction is non merely much less than the Western states, but besides smaller nearby countries ; on the other manus, the growing of the investing may non maintain up with the rapid development of Macau ‘s economic and society. Furthermore, the instruction and civilization sections of Macau lack proper counsel, therefore the extracurricular music activities hold by them may non accomplish the end for music instruction. In footings of the authorities paperss, which may be outdated comparison with the nearby countries.Need to suit cultural diversenessTeaching stuffs and cultural diverseness Presents, multicultural music instruction has become a tendency of music instruction throughout the universe. Meanwhile, local music besides be more emphatic because which plays a great of import function in multicultural music instruction. Dai ( 2009b ) insists that as an unalienable portion of history and civilization, local music represents non lone tradition and plants, but besides a sort of communicating between single and group. The instruction of local music may assist pupils and instructors to understand themselves ‘ universe via a series of comprehensive and related ways. Hence, local music should be a important attack to associate people, society and civilization. Music instruction may be isolated from the civilization and the societal environment when without local music. As one of the most of import parts of music instruction, learning stuffs should suit local music facet, every bit good. Fan ( 1990 ) insists a successful music learning stuffs should assist pupil to non merely research the civilizations of foreign states, but besides understand their ain music bequest. However, as I discuss before, the music learning stuffs of Macau might be in bad crisp. Local schools either borrow music learning stuffs from nearby countries, such as Hong Kong and Mainland China, or roll up their music instruction stuffs by themselves for each classs. On the one manus, Chang ( 1994 ) points out that there are two disadvantages of the deficiency of local instruction stuffs. The first 1 should be that the pupils might lose the opportunity to pass on with the outside universe at some extent. Second, he realizes that the pupils may non to update newest cognition. On the other manus, a study made by Wang ( 2010 ) indicated that the music textbooks used in Macau are chiefly emphasized on international common people vocals, like Nipponese, Korean and African Children ‘s nursery vocals ; and besides, the common people vocals from different territories of Mainland China are besides included in those teaching stuffs. However, seldom of Macau local music may be referred in those text editions. Therefore, he believes that the application of text editions imported from Hong Kong and Mainland China could ensue the fact that â€Å" non merely ca n't the local Macau pupils enjoy efficient music acquisition experienced in neighbouring parts, but the pupils besides lack the chances to larn their ain cultural and musical heritage from their ain music text edition † . On the contrast, Wang ( 2003 ) considers that the locally published instruction stuffs could â€Å" unite pupil ‘s learning competence in the part † and may give opportunities to the pupils to appreciate their ain music and cultural heritage more wholly. And besides, it can supply pupils the acknowledgment of their ain alone national features. Consequently, we can deduce that the lake of local music learning stuffs should be one of the most serious jobs in Macau ‘s multicultural music instruction. 4.2 Teachers, teacher preparation and the authorities Music instructors play one of the most of import functions in multicultural music instruction. The instructors should non merely learn music cognition to the pupils, but besides introduce the civilization which related to the music. Anderson ( 1991 ) considers that â€Å" music instructors must fix to make more than add stray choices of non-European musics to the course of study † , and they must assist pupils to understand the relationship between people and their music. Music instructors ‘ attitude and point of position in multicultural music instruction is highly of import, because it may act upon both instructors ‘ schemes and program, even the schoolroom ambiance ( Young, 1996 ) . The music instructor ‘s attitude in Macau can be acquired through Dai ‘s ( 2004 ) study. There is a inquiry in the probe about which sort of music accomplishment the instructors want to larn ( multiple pick ) . There are 70 % and 52 % of them want to larn more about â€Å" choir conducting † and â€Å" music teaching methods † ; â€Å" music grasp † and â€Å" eurythmies † occupied 44 % and 37 % individually[ 7 ]. There are merely 26 % and 18 % of the instructors interested in â€Å" universe musics † and â€Å" Chinese traditional music † . However, those two topics are the most of import facets in multicultural music instruction, and therefore we can deduce that merely a few of the instructors may invol vement and pay attending to multicultural music instruction. Such attitude in multicultural music instruction may impede its development at some extent. Current instructor preparation in Macau may non much aid to multicultural music instruction. As I mentioned above, the University of Macau offer music instruction as an optional class for primary and pre-primary instruction. But the topics related to multicultural music instruction, such as Ethnomusicology, Chinese traditional music are non available in the music instruction class in the University of Macau[ 8 ]. Furthermore, due to seldom of music instructor developing organized by the local authorities[ 9 ], multicultural music preparation might be a clean country in it. It is worthwhile sing that the ESA ( School of Art ) of Macau Polytechnic Institution may be the lone university refers subjects comparative to multicultural music instruction[ 10 ]. However, because the figure of pupils is little and the history of the university is short, it may non act upon Macau ‘s multicultural music instruction so much. As I discussed earlier, the local authorities deficiencies of criterion and ordinance to instruction, and which besides should be a ground of imperfectness of music instructors, learning stuffs and even more, multicultural music instruction. The fact that there is small policy should another failing in multicultural music instruction. Other states ‘ authorities, such as England, issues much more paperss in relation to multiculturalism than do authorities in Macau. For illustration, the Music Syllabus of Macau stipulates every twelvemonth ‘s instruction content and mark. In the primary degree, neither the instruction content or the mark reference multicultural music instruction. On the contrary, the section for instruction in the United Kingdom stipulates multicultural music instruction in every Key Stage. The State Curriculum ( for England, Wales and Northern Ireland ) for general music instruction at Key Stage 1 and 2 stipulates â€Å" students should be taught the cognition, accomplishments and understanding throughaˆÂ ¦ a scope of unrecorded and recorded music from different times and civilization † . ( National Curriculum ) Furthermore, it should be another failing that the Music Syllabus of Macau chiefly focuses on music cognition and accomplishment, alternatively of civilization. For case, the instruction content in grade 4 includes five parts: vocalizing, listening preparation, rhythm preparation, reading tonss and music grasp. In the last portion, the demands are: 1 ) listening vocal and instrumental pieces ; 2 ) separating genera of vocal and instrumental pieces ; 3 ) retrieving music kineticss ; 4 ) separating AB and ABA signifier ; 5 ) separating duple, three-base hit and quadruplicate metre. All of the demands are technique and seldom of them referred to civilization. Such state of affairs may non profit to multicultural music instruction.IV. Suggestions from other states theoretical accountsHarmonizing to the treatment before, the issues of Macau ‘s music instruction can be concluded in four facets. First, instructors and instructor preparation could be a portion of the issues: the figure of instructor is inadequacy, and the quality of the instructors may be lower than anticipate. Furthermore, the failing of third music instruction and the deficiency of farther learning preparation, may besides impact Macau ‘s music instruction profoundly. Second, lack of learning stuffs ordinance and local text edition should besides be a job in Macau ‘s music instruction. Third, in footings of the authorities, there are some issues on the authorities investing. Furthermore, the deficiency of valid counsel and the obsolescence of official usher paperss for general music instruction may be harmful, every bit good. Fourthly, civilization diverseness should be accommodated in order to develop Macau ‘s music instruction. In order to better and decide the issues, some first-class experience and theoretical account for general and multicultural music instruction can be learned from other states. However, Kennedy ( 2009 ) insists that a specific theoretical account of multiculturalism can non be transported straight from one state to another, because every theoretical account has its ain characters. Therefore, three states, including the United States, Hong Kong and Mainland China, are selected to demo their successful theoretical accounts and experiences. The ground why the states are chosen may be that, ab initio, the United States is the topographic point to implement the construct of multicultural music instruction most successfully around the universe. In footings of Hong Kong, the state of affairs of which is really similar to Macau: both of them were settlement, and so handover to China in the 1990s ; even more, civilizations of these two topographic point are similar due to the geographical prop inquity. However, the state of affairs of instruction in Hong Kong is better than Macau due to the different colonial authorities policy. Finally, Mainland China portion the same civilization with Macau, and its multicultural instruction developed really good in recent old ages.Multicultural instruction in by and large in the United States, Hong Kong and Mainland China by and large.The history roots of multicultural instruction should be traced to the Civil Rights Movement in 1960s. The Civil Rights Movement in the United States is the societal action of African American and other people of colour aimed at disputing racial favoritism, subjugation and inequality ( Banks, 1989 ) . The motion focuses on equity and emancipation from white domination in both political and educational facets ( Blum, 1997 ) . They demanded for curricular reform in order to consistent with the racial diverseness in the state. Such motion besides inspired other groups to seek acknowledgment and equality in i nstruction, such as adult females, the handicapped and lingual minorities. The jobs received considerable attending in the educational establishments and organisations in the United States. Therefore, a host of plans, patterns and policies emerged and chiefly concentrate on little alterations or add-ons to traditional course of study. During 1970s, a figure of professional organisations encourage the integrating of cultural content and the course of study via issued policies and publications. For case, the National Council for the Social Study ( NCSS ) published the Curriculum Guidelines for Multiethnic Education in 1976[ 11 ]. And besides, the criterions for teacher instruction are issued in 1977, by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education ( NCATE ) , which require that the multicultural instruction content should be added to classs. From 1980s, the bookmans chiefly focus on developing new attack and theoretical accounts for multicultural instruction. ( Gorski, 1999 ) He besides consists that multicultural instruction must be understood comparative to the societal facet and political construction. Nowadays, the construct of multicultural instruction was applied in a figure of topics, such as history, mathematics ( Sleeter, 1997 ) , ocular art and music. In footings of Mainland China, Wang ( 2007 ) believes that chiefly emphasizes on â€Å" local diverseness † , that is, the cultural diverseness of Chinese minority groups should be the most of import facet of Mainland China ‘s multicultural instruction. He insists that the multicultural instruction in the western states may concentrate on civilization ‘s maintain and development. But in China, the endurance and development of the minority groups should be more important to multicultural instruction. There are 55 minority groups in China and all of them have their ain civilizations. Even more, 24 of them have their ain linguistic communications. The Chinese authorities issues several policies in order to develop and protect multicultural instruction. First, bilingual instruction is applied in the topographic point of abode of cultural minorities, which proposed in 1950 ab initio in the Plan for Cadre Cultivating in Minority Groups. Second, the civilization heritage of the cultural minorities was included in the course of study. The policy â€Å" Strengthening the Cultural Minorities Education † issued in 1980, which provides that the development of course of study and the compilation of learning stuffs should utilize their ain linguistic communication, and related to their ain history, civilization and humanistic disciplines. As a Particular Administrative Region of the People ‘s Republic of China, Hong Kong has alone position and ever see as runing pot of western and eastern civilizations. The authorities of Hong Kong attach much importance to multicultural instruction, and they believes that reformed instruction can advance the development of multicultural instruction even which is a comparatively new experience for the schools of the HKSAR ( Ho & A ; Law, 2009 ) . The planetary citizenship became a constituent of civil instruction for secondary school, and a figure of lesson in the course of study intended to assist pupil appreciate the diverse heritage of the universe ( Law, 2004 & A ; Curriculum Development Council, 1998 ) . The authorities besides insists that pupils should be educated to see and believe profoundly on â€Å" different values to their ain, their relationships with others, the community, the state and the universe at big graduated table † ( Ho & A ; Law, 2009 ) . Furthermore, the authorities believes it is necessary that the pupils should hold ability to appreciate multicultural diverseness in the humanistic disciplines, and understand the values and the traditions of universe musics. ( Curriculum Development Council, 2003 )Brief Introduction of Multicultural Music Education in the United States, Hong Kong and Mainland China.The United States is a innovator and a microcosm of international multicultural music instruction. The federal authorities wage attending to the development in humanistic disciplines instruction and issued the Goal 2000: Educate America Act in 1994 and set frontward the clear mark for American pupils: â€Å" All pupils will go forth classs 4, 8, and 12 holding demonstrated competence over disputing capable affair including English, mathematics, scientific discipline, foreign linguistic communications, civics an authorities, economic sciences, the humanistic disciplines, history, and geographics † . On the one manus, the authorities offers support in support facet, for illustration, $ 86.5 million available to provinces in 1994 to get down developing school betterment programs and an extra $ 5 million was made available to develop programs to utilize state-of-the-art engineering to heighten instruction and acquisition. On the other manus, the first National Standards for Arts Education is created with the transition of Goal 2000. The music course of study in the United States is developed on the National Standards for Arts Education. The standard requires the pupil to â€Å" understand music in relation to history and civilization † and to â€Å" place an appreciate music from different civilizations, manners and periods for all class † . There is no uncertainty that the publication of the criterion non merely go a milepost, but besides symbolizes the mature phase of the multicultural music instruction in the United States. In add-on, multiculturalism draws attending to music instructor instruction in colleges and universities. The multicultural constituents are added in the class. Furthermore, The National Association of School of Music ( NASM ) stipulates â€Å" all ( music ) undergraduate course of study shouldaˆÂ ¦ provideaˆÂ ¦ a repertory for survey that includes assorted civilizations and historical periods † . Furthermore, some provinces in the United States â€Å" have enfranchisement demands that specify that ( music instruction ) pupils should have music literature experiences that draw on a assortment of music civilizations from throughout the worldaˆÂ ¦ ( Including ) African and Asiatic musics. † ( Anderson, 1992 ) Furthermore, multicultural instruction is one of the contents in the scrutiny of learning enfranchisement in some provinces. For illustration, Colorado, New Hampshire, Vermont and Virginia have multicultural music demands ; Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Oregon have multicultural demands in professional instruction for music enfranchisement. ( Ma, 2009 ) Multiculturalism refers to non merely musics from other states, but besides minority cultural musics. The New Music Curriculum Standards requires pupils to â€Å" develop and spread out † minority cultural traditional musics, and understand musics from other states. What ‘s more, the demand and rule of the instruction stuffs ‘ compilation are besides listed in the criterion. In footings of multiculturalism, the criterion requires the content of music text editions should maintain the balance between the Chinese traditional music and universe musics. It is besides worthwhile sing that the standard stipules that the text edition that is based on it should busy 80 % – 85 % in the entire sum, the remainder 15 % – 20 % should be local learning stuffs. Fan ( 2009 ) points out that the characters of music instruction stuffs in China are â€Å" diverseness of the content and big of the scope † . Take the music text edition published by People ‘s Music Publication House[ 12 ]as an illustration, which contains six units and involves western art music ( The Plant Suite ) , Asiatic music ( Indian, Turkey, Thailand musics ) , movie music ( music from â€Å" Do Re Mi † ) , Chinese traditional ( yangko ) and minority cultural musics. ANNEX? ? ?