Scottish Labour has pledged to “unlock opportunities for every child” with a new music tuition platform.
The party unveiled plans to establish a National Online Support Platform to expand music learning amid fears that Scottish children are missing out.
High demand for lessons combined with the immense financial pressure on local authority budgets mean the SNP’s promise of free music tuition is “empty words” for many children, Scottish Labour has warned.
Hundreds of children are currently stuck on a waiting list for music tuition, with 27 out of the 32 Scottish Councils currently operating waiting lists for music tuition.
Scottish Labour has pledged to deliver a National Online Support Platform to supplement in-person lessons and enable music teachers to deliver lessons to large groups.
A similar platform has been utilised by the Welsh government, with every child in the country getting access to Charanga Cymru online platform.
The policy would be funded by making difference choices – Scottish Labour would end costly constitutional work streams and instead create a platform for our young people’s creativity.
Scottish Labour Culture spokesperson Neil Bibby, right, said: “For too many children, the SNP’s promise of free music tuition is just empty words.
“Hundreds of children are already stuck on waiting lists and things are at risk of getting worse still as the SNP-Green inflict yet more brutal cuts on Council budgets.
“We can transform music tuition in this country, starting by harnessing the power of technology to expand and support music learning.
“While the SNP prioritise their own futures, pet projects and constitutional obsessions, Scottish Labour would invest in opportunities for our young people to be all they can be.
“Scottish Labour is committed to unlocking opportunities for every child.”
- Scottish Labour will support existing instrumental music tuition with a National Online Support Platform to expand music learning.
- This platform would be used to help existing instrumental music teachers, but also to support non-specialist music teachers particularly in primary schools to provide music learning.
- This is not intended to replace in-person music tuition – it is intended as a support platform to supplement and support music tuition and widen access to it across Scottish society.
- This is modelled on the approach of the Labour government in Wales, which has established the National Music Service for Wales.
- In the Welsh example, every school child in Wales gains access to the Charanga Cymru online platform – a bespoke online platform which does not itself teach music, but which facilitates a) teaching by music teachers to large groups, rather than to a handful of students at a time (a key barrier to access); and b) the teaching of music by non-music specialist teachers.
- The estimated cost of this policy is £0.5 million per year. The cost of the SNP’s Constitutional Futures Division, which produces its pro-independence papers, is more than £2 million per year.
Only five local authorities could offer places in instrumental music lessons for all pupils who were interested.
For the other twenty-seven, waiting lists are in place, as the number of interested pupils outstrips their ability to provide lessons. […] Dumfries and Galloway Council had 787 pupils on their waiting list; Angus Council had 260; In South Ayrshire Council the number of interested pupils was three times the number participating; Renfrewshire Council could accommodate one third of those who were interested. https://www.improvementservice.org.uk/research
Local authorities receive ring-fenced funding from the Scottish Government to make free instrumental tuition available in schools. However, this money does not cover the entire cost, meaning that local authorities must use their own budgets to supplement it. Most local authorities in fact spend more of their own budgets on music education than is covered by the Government grant.
Top of page pictures: Young children who are taught to play a variety of instruments and to sing and dance. Picture 2: Nicola Benedetti who excelled as a violinist from a young age.