In February, the Scottish Executive announced it would allocate £17.5 million to local authorities to give every primary school student the chance to take a year of free music lessons. The announcement followed the publication of an audit of youth music tuition in Scotland, What’s Going On?, which found fees were one of the perceived barriers to children learning an instrument.
The report, carried out by the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD), was commissioned by the Scottish Arts Council (SAC), Youth Music and the Musicians’ Union. Nod Knowles, SAC Head of Music, explains that the Scottish Executive has now placed responsibility for distributing the music tuition funds into the hands of the council. According to Knowles, the SAC will undertake an in-depth review of tuition services offered by Scotland’s 32 local authorities, to identify gaps in provision, and determine the most effective ways of allocating the funds.
‘The first target’, Knowles says, careful to use the Executive’s wording, ‘is that every child in primary education in Scotland, by the time they get to primary six, will have had the opportunity to have had access to one year of free music tuition through their school. This target has to be in place by 2006,’ he explains.
‘It’s not saying that every kid will learn an instrument,’ Knowles points out, ‘it just means anybody who wants to can have the tuition. In other words, there is no barrier.’
The What’s Going On? report concluded that between 50,000 and 60,000 young people in Scotland take part in music activities each week, but about 100,000 more would participate if given the opportunity. The report surveyed providers of music tuition from independent organisations as well as Local Authority Instrumental and Singing Instruction (LAISI) Services, and the majority of respondents perceived financial barriers to be one of the main deterrants to young people wanting to take part in music. And 53% of those singled out fees for LAISI.
However, the report concluded it was impossible to statistically prove whether fees were responsible for excluding potential participants, due to demand for instrumental and singing instruction outstripping supply and the absence of data such as waiting lists, not kept by local authorities.
The fact that both the fees and the ways in which music tuition is provided vary widely from one local authority to the next is among the issues the SAC needs to address, according to Knowles.
‘It’s not a simple, straightforward apportioning of money on a per capita count,’ he asserts. The initial work that needs to be done, says Knowles, is to determine exactly how many teachers there are; what kind of tuition is offered in each local authority area; and also examine what kinds of facilities and instruments are available.
‘It’s great to be able to teach those kids, but you’ve got to have the guitars and flutes and so on to teach them with,’ Knowles adds.
In regards to teachers, he predicts a gap which will need to be addressed with the predicted upsurge in demand for tuition. ‘We suspect from the kind of figures and information we have at the moment, that there will be a requirement for more teachers and therefore a requirement for training more teachers,’ he says, adding that the instrumental tuition, although made available through the schools system, will be above and beyond classroom activity.
Knowles points to the number of independent organisations giving music lessons as one possible solution to draw in additional tutors, while highlighting those professional musicians who also teach as another. He suggests that training professionals musicians who currently don’t teach is another option, but emphasises: ‘Again, we don’t know, we have to do the research to find out.’
With the funds only announced just over one month ago, planning at the SAC is still in its very early stages. The first round of the grant, £2.5 million, was made available at the beginning of this financial year (April 1), with a further £5 million to be released in the next period, followed by £10 million in the final year.
Knowles explains that the responsibility for planning and co-ordinating the scheme lies with the SAC, which will work closely with local authorities and other providers in order to deliver results. It’s not a question, he says, of ‘imposing’ the plan, but working with those organisations which will implement it.
According to Knowles, a steering group is being pulled together, as well as the establishment of a music education department at the SAC to address the scheme. With the receipt of the first round of funding, Knowles says work on the research is immediate. ‘We hope to have some pilot ideas or projects to spend the first allocation of money on before the new school term arrives in August,’ he affirms. ‘Basically, we don’t want the grass to grow under our feet.’
