There have been a number of reports into the state of music education released recently by a wide range of organisations such as the British Phonographic Industry, Youth Music, the Music Commission, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Music Education, and Sussex University, all of which have concluded that despite the assurances of politicians and decision makers, music within many schools is not thriving and the promised increased opportunities for young people to be involved in music making are actually decreasing.
Who gets to learn?
The Musicians’ Union (MU) has also contributed to this gathering of data by publishing two research projects. In November 2018, our report into understanding how income affects the likelihood to learn an instrument showed that families with a total household income of less than £28,000 were now half as likely to have a child learning an instrument as more affluent peers whose family income was £48,000 or more. This stark disparity was seen to exist despite similar levels of interest from both groups of children showing that it really is the cost of lessons that is the barrier to learning. The research also showed that children from lower- and mid-income families were more likely to be teaching themselves, therefore missing out on the benefits of a specialised tutor and exposing a clear need for this provision to be made available within the school environment. The importance of equal access and opportunity for all in music-making cannot be understated. The benefits of music education on children and young people are well documented, whether it be for academic achievement, the development of the individual, or for their wellbeing and confidence. Therefore, it should be a part of everyone's educational experience. Often, private school students have many more opportunities to engage with music-making, with up 50% of these pupils taking individual lessons as opposed to the average of just 9-10% in the state sector. This reinforces the fact that music education is deemed to be important by parents but can be seen as being an elite subject which is just for those who are privileged enough to afford it.
Access and opportunity in music education is of real importance to us as it influences where our members of the future will come from. We want to encourage as diverse and wide-ranging group of musicians as possible, who will participate in all aspects of music-making. We therefore will continue to raise this important issue of inequality of access with policy and decision makers.
Who will teach?
Our second research project concentrated on another of our major concerns and that is the workforce that is delivering music education to young people now. This was undertaken by Jonathan Savage, reader in music education at Manchester Metropolitan University, and David Barnard, music education official at the MU, in partnership with both the Music Industries Association and UK Music. This was a piece of both quantitative and qualitative research polling over 1,000 heads, teachers, music service managers and instrumental teachers with 42 of the respondents being followed up with an individual interview.
The results of this report showed that the cumulation of chaotic education policies has led to music being in a perilous state within schools with a demoralised workforce, working under poor or non-existent employment conditions, and a huge inequality in provision across the country.
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Falling numbers of musicians training as teachers makes music provision a downward spiral
It highlighted how it is within the classroom that music is seen to be suffering the most, with the delivery of the subject being squeezed out despite it being a core subject of the national curriculum. The introduction of accountability measures, such as the English Baccalaureate and Progress 8, was cited by many respondents as being part of the reason why music was disappearing from the timetable, as well as students being increasingly pushed into starting GCSE in Year 9 resulting in other subjects being dropped a year earlier. Even in primary schools the emphasis on ‘stats’ subjects meant passing ‘key skills’ such as English and Maths was pursued at the expense of the delivery of other subjects.
This result of all of this is that far fewer students are now going on to study music at higher education establishments to become teachers – a reduction from over 850 to just 250 per year over the last eight years. This presents a real concern as it is self-perpetuating – fewer teachers means fewer specialists, meaning those teachers who are trained have the choice of jobs, resulting in schools that are unsupported being less likely to get a teacher. We are already seeing a reduction in students taking music at GCSE and A Level with some schools stopping these classes completely or charging students to take the courses as an ‘extra’, again making music a subject that only the few will be able to access.
A combination of drastic budget cuts within schools plus the effect of academisation, where schools don't have to follow the curriculum, have both contributed to music disappearing from the timetable in schools. With teachers now haemorrhaging from the profession due to the challenges they face, there are an increasing number of schools not able to offer any music classes at all with a specialist teacher.
The success of any music provision within the education system is very much dependent on the workforce delivering it and there is a need for skilled, supported and properly remunerated teachers.
It should not be dependent on whether a headteacher understands the benefit of having music within their school as to what provision is on offer. Every child deserves the opportunity to receive a well-designed, comprehensive and systematic music education throughout their school years from infant through primary to secondary school. To address this issue comprehensively needs the implementation of the national curriculum for music in every school delivered by an appropriately qualified workforce. This should form the central plank of music education provision moving forwards and it needs to be addressed quickly before music education disappears entirely from state schools.
To view the reports, visit themu.org
