Tories propose national music week

The Conservative party claims that there are “some worrying gaps” in music provision and little clear sense as to how they will be addressed, in a report by its Music Education Taskforce, ‘Schools in Harmony’. The report celebrates the achievements of the current government but says that while “over 2,000 teachers were supposed to benefit from the £2m music teacher training programme”, only 304 have done so. It proposes an annual National Music Week, a “festival of music throughout the country, focused but not exclusively targeted on school music”. The initiative is broadly based on the ‘Fête de la Musique’, a local music festival launched by the French Ministry of Culture over 25 years ago. Acknowledging that this is just one initiative amongst many, especially within education, the report suggests that a National Music Week could be a focal point for other plans being considered.