Three-year funding package will see music opportunities embedded into primary schools.
There has been widespread delight among music educationalists and campaigners in response to the announcement by Education Secretary Ed Balls of a £332m investment from the Department for Children, Schools and Families in primary school music. “Every child from all backgrounds should have the chance to perform, play an instrument or sing and I want every school to become a musical school,” said Mr Balls, as he unveiled a scheme allowing, among other things, every child to have one year of free instrumental tuition.
The funding includes £10m a year for three years to purchase musical instruments, ranging from African drums to orchestral rarities such as the bassoon. £10m a year will also go to the National Singing Programme, launched by Singing Ambassador Howard Goodall and singer Jamelia. This scheme will bring a web-based song-book and a termly ‘singing magazine’ to primary schools, training for teachers in how to lead singing and a media campaign to support the programme. “We already know that young people who are lucky enough to learn music and sing from an early age develop better social skills, memory, ability to listen, and have more confidence,” said Mr Goodall, the composer and broadcaster who is working with Youth Music on the campaign. “There are proven links between productive music lessons and a better all-round development of young children. Singing, in particular, is brilliant. It’s a positive, life-affirming activity that builds a child’s self-esteem, promotes teamwork irrespective of age, gender and background, celebrates diversity, facilitates self-expression and is just plain fun.” The School Funding Settlement of November 2007 will include £82m per year for the next three years, which will go to local authorities to provide music education. Unlike some previous schemes, this money is ring-fenced for music and cannot be spent elsewhere. This has been warmly welcomed by Music Service providers, including Graeme Smith of the Croydon Music Service: “We have been given a once in a generation opportunity to embed all the benefits that music can bring for young people and for our society,” he said, adding that the announcement gives “security of funding for us to build on the work of the last few years”. [[the government has proved that it really does mean business with this massive extra commitment towards music education]] A further innovation will be £2m each year to train teachers to use the Sistema method, developed in the Venezuelan favelas, to encourage ensemble playing in deprived areas. The performance by the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra at the 2007 BBC Proms raised awareness of the huge achievements of the scheme, which has resulted in a flowering of orchestral talent over the past 30 years. Around 250,000 young Venezuelans have benefitted from its work, including the star conductor, Gustave Dudamel. Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber voiced the opinion of many in the music education world when he said that he had not originally signed up to the Music Manifesto “because there seemed to be too much wishful thinking without the wherewithal to deliver its promises”. Today, he says, “the government has proved that it really does mean business with this massive extra commitment towards music education”.