I note the Midlothian Council document says one measure is to remove the delivery of instrumental music offer to all and only provide this for SQA pupils for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher music and that this is estimated to require three full-time equivalent music instructors and would reduce the remaining complement by approximately eight.
It further states that if the number of young people taking music instruction reduced even further parents would have to pay more to meet the full cost of providing this service.
READ MORE: Anger over Midlothian Council plan to ‘privatise school music’
In other words, this means the council is going to provide instrumental lessons only for those from well-off families. This is an absolute disgrace.
I conducted an event at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall this week with Nicola Benedetti and over 1,000 musicians from state schools. It was a triumph and a moving sign of what could continue to be the jewel in the crown of Scottish education.
Why would the political class allow poorer children to miss out on such a vital ingredient of their education? It’s as if their sanctimonious mantras about inclusion, access and diversity get thrown out of the window as soon as they are asked to do something about it.
READ MORE: 100,000 Scottish pupils missing out on school music tuition
A large number of those children, especially from low-income families, receive free instrumental tuition.
At a time when Scotland’s government has increased spending on education it seems perverse to cut back on such an important subject. Might it be time for the Scottish Government to take control of music education before it’s too late?
Sir James MacMillan is a Scottish classical composer and conductor
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel