Music legal challenge reaches target

A community musician is to begin a court battle against council charges for instrumental lessons in Scottish schools after reaching his £15,000 crowdfunding target.

Ralph Riddiough, from Ayrshire, launched the campaign last month to pay for a judicial review over the lawfulness of fees for musical instrument tuition in Scotland’ s state schools.

He said :“The hard work start snow. This ruling will be a landmark in the wider campaign against the erosion of music education in state schools, and will shine a light on the various ways in which budget pressures are twisting principles out of shape.

“Children should be taught without fees in state schools, and should be provided with all the materials they need without charge.”

Parents and young mu sic ian shave campaigned against local authority cuts for the past year. Some councils have raised existing tuition fees – some to as high as £524 a year – while others have introduced them for the first time or started charging for the hire of local authority instruments.

Others, like Midlothian, unveiled plans to axe tuition entirely for those not takin ga Scottish Qualifications Authority exam – but made a U-turn following opposition.

Section 3 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 states that local authorities shall not charge fees for the provision of education.