EDUCATION Secretary John Swinney has urged all local authorities across Scotland to provide free music tuition for pupils.
During a debate at Holyrood yesterday, Swinney said that although decisions over how to deploy resources were a matter for councils, the Scottish Government was committed to working with partners to preserve and enhance instrumental music tuition.
The committee published its report on instrumental tuition for pupils earlier this year, concluding it should be provided free of charge. Although some councils, such as Glasgow City and Edinburgh City, continue to provide free tuition for pupils, others have brought in or raised charges.
Swinney told MSPs on the Education Commttee: “The expressive arts are of great importance to Scotland’s culture and to our economy. Participation in music and the arts can have a hugely positive effect on our children, our young people and on their families. Instrumental music tuition in schools is an important element of that. It is up to each local authority to decide how it deploys the resources that are available to it but I would take this opportunity to encourage local authorities to provide instrumental music tuition to pupils within their locality at no cost to the pupils involved.”
Swinney said that a working group on the issue had secured a commitment from local government umbrella body Cosla to set a minimum standard of eligibility criteria for access to free tuition. Those eligible would include those in receipt of free school meals, as well as those undertaking SQA qualifications.
Scottish Labour’s education spokesman Iain Gray said: “The only possible way to fix the current postcode lottery of access to instrument tuition is to provide proper, adequate core funding overall for our local councils.”
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