The Department of Education published a new national plan for music eduction in the UK yesterday in an 83 page document named “The power of music to change lives: a national plan for music education“.
In it the DOE outline their vision for music education and how it can be achieved through partnerships with schools, music hubs, and the creative sector. It’s main goal as per the government website is “to enable all children and young people in England to learn to sing, play an instrument and create music together and also have the opportunity to progress their musical interests and talents professionally“. It also notably promises a new £25 million fund to help schools purchase new instruments in order to provide thousands of pupils around the country a gateway into music. This will include adapted instruments for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in an effort to provide equal opportunity for all.
For some this may come too little too late, after all it’s only a year and a half since the government released a campaign of posters around London and the rest of the UK suggesting people in the arts should retrain due to the pandemic. Causing much outrage at the time and further distancing themselves from an artistic community that already largely loathed them, Rishi Sunak didn’t do the government any more favours when he continued to hammer home the message on ITV news. When asked whether arts workers should simply try and find another job in a different sector, Sunak said: “I can’t pretend that everyone can do exactly the same job that they were doing at the beginning of this crisis“, before going on to say that everyone will have to “find ways to adapt and adjust to the new reality“.
@BreesAnna @SueC00K a concert pianist friend had just shared this. An HM Government poster. The government’s blatant plan to destroy the Arts. Last week the Chancellor (I think) was saying that people in the Arts should retrain and get a proper job. How low can they stoop? pic.twitter.com/dqp52s6pyG
— Richard Winzar (@RichardWinzar) October 12, 2020
How widely and effectively this new pledge from the government will help the UK’s music scene is up in the air. It’s hard to ignore the sneaky suspicion that the money might be better spent reviving the hundreds of venues around the country that were forced to close during the pandemic, or rebalancing the wholly inadequate way streaming royalties are paid to artists. Only time will tell, at least there is someone somewhere that cared enough to type up all 83 pages. You can read the plan here.
