Not enough music teachers are being trained for the country’s future needs, according to new Initial Teacher Training (ITT) data from the Department for Education.
64 per cent of the government’s target was met for 2022-23, representing a drop from 71 percent in 2021. That translates into 301 of a hoped-for 470 recruits entering teacher training in music this year. Last year, there were 386 trainees, falling short of the target of 540.
‘These figures are very disappointing and as we have previously warned, our fantastic music education workforce will need to grow in order to deliver the ambitions of the refreshed National Plan for Music Education,' says Deborah Annetts, chief executive of the Independent Society for Musicians (ISM).
In response, the ISM has called for financial support for budding music teachers. ‘In order to attract the brilliant teachers of tomorrow during a cost-of-living crisis, the Department for Education should reconsider and provide a bursary to help students during their study.'
Numbers of music teacher recruits increased in 2020-21, with 469 new trainees exceeding the target of 385. However, this one-off bump is thought to be a direct consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, when many sectors of the music industry came to a standstill.
It's worth noting that in 2020 the government began calculating its targets using the Teacher Workforce Model (TWM) rather than the Teacher Supply Model (TSM), which rules out direct comparison. In recent years, the overall number of music teachers has been falling, the ISM has found.
The figures are broadly in line with the wider picture for teacher training recruitment in secondary subjects, which saw just over 59 per cent of the target met this year, compared to 79 per cent in 2021. In total, 28,991 students began Initial Teacher Training this year, down 20 per cent from 2021.
Earlier this year, the ISM published two reports: ‘Music: A subject in peril?’ and ‘The case for change’. ‘[These] revealed real problems with the terms and conditions and size of the music education workforce, and these recruitment figures are further evidence of these issues,’ says Annetts.
Findings from ‘Music: A subject in peril’, which surveyed over 500 teachers, revealed inequality in music education in England, particularly when it came to funding. One key recommendation that came out of the report was to ‘ensure music teachers are properly remunerated, trained and supported’.
