Union fears music lessons could be ‘soft target’ for council spending cuts

Teachers’ leaders have raised fears that school music lessons could be a “soft target” for councils making funding cuts in the coming year.

Andrea Bradley, general secretary of the EIS union, said that music should be an “essential part of the school curriculum”.

The union said that proposals by one authority could “effectively privatise music provision” in the area.

The EIS is campaigning against plans by East Ayrshire Council to transfer the instrumental music service from the authority’s education department to an arms-length leisure trust, and has also launched a petition to protect free music education from what it says are cuts by Midlothian Council.

While local government body Colsa says that a “record high” of almost one in 10 youngsters (9%) are learning a musical instrument at school, Ms Bradley said such lessons could be under “budget-driven threat in some parts of the country”.

Adding that students “absolutely cherish” being given the “opportunity to develop their musical talents” at school, she said: “In addition to developing their talent, learning music also builds young people’s confidence and can have a strong positive impact on achievement, including attainment.

“It is, therefore, a matter of deep concern that instrumental music continues to be seen as a soft target for councils looking to make funding cuts.

“Music is not an add-on, or an extra-curricular activity, it is a core element of the school curriculum.”

She said: “The EIS strongly opposes any cuts to instrumental music provision, such as the proposals that are currently being pursued in East Ayrshire, which would remove instrumental music from the education service and farm it out to an arm’s-length trust.

“This would have serious implications for schools, for instrumental music teachers and, most importantly, for young people who deserve equal opportunity to learn instrumental music.”

Ms Bradley said it would be “simply unacceptable to have a ‘pay to play’ culture around music education in Scotland”.

She said: “As the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer famously said, music is food for the soul, but local authorities are risking starving our collective soul with ill-thought-out cuts to instrumental music provision in our schools.”

A Cosla spokesman said: “Scottish councils thank and congratulate all pupils and school staff for the great job they do playing music at concerts and in ensembles, not just during the festive season but throughout the year.”

The spokesman said the most recent results of an annual survey of instrumental music tuition provision had found that 61,715 school pupils were learning music, almost 9% of all pupils.

This “record high” shows the “continued value that young people see in taking part in instrumental music services”.

“This high level of uptake also reflects the huge amount of work that local authorities have put into promoting their services and taking steps to remove barriers to participation for all pupils.

“All councils greatly value the provision of free instrumental music tuition within their schools.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The Scottish Government has transformed instrumental music tuition in Scotland’s schools by funding councils to eradicate unfair music tuition charges.

“This year we are providing £12m to local authorities to support the continued delivery of free instrumental music tuition in schools.

“It is the statutory responsibility of local councils to ensure that its provision of school education is in line with relevant legislation.”