Calling the tune for everybody

Learning to play a musical instrument should be available to people of all backgrounds

The First Minister insists her government will tackle the social and educational inequality that continues to blight the life chances of far too many of Scotland’s children.

“Education is our priority,” she asserts regularly, and rightly so. Scotland, the first country in the world to provide universal education to both boys and girls, has always understood that education is the key to creating a fairer and more just society.

Investment in our schools will unlock the potential of all our children, not just those fortunate enough to have been born into a comfortably-off home.

And that means keeping faith with educational interventions that work, such as music tuition, as well as trying out new ideas.

But as Scotland’s councils struggle to cope with funding cuts, free music tuition has become an unfortunate victim of their forced budget trimming.

Most councils have either introduced fees or been forced to increase them, with only Edinburgh, Glasgow, Orkney and Western Isles continuing to offer free lessons.

And only a few days ago it was

revealed that the number of music teachers in Scotland’s primary schools has plunged by nearly half since 2011, with only 62 for the whole country.

It is against this background that the First Minister and her Education Secretary should heed the warning from one of the UK’S leading musical experts, Lucy Noble, artistic and commercial director of the Royal Albert Hall, when she insists that a loss of music tuition in schools will lead to even greater inequality.

Her claim is backed by figures from the Musician’s Union which show that the educational attainment of parents also plays a factor in whether children will pick up an instrument.

Nearly half of children who have parents who are educated to university level will learn an instrument, compared with only one-fifth whose parents’ education ended at secondary school.

It is widely accepted that music education helps with a child’s intellectual and emotional development, as well as providing them with a life-enhancing skill.

Teaching our children to play an instrument should not be for a lucky few, but a core part of every school’s curriculum.