JOHN Swinney has urged Scottish councils to provide free music tuition to pupils, after MSPs warned some were charging “prohibitive” sums.
However the Education Secretary rejected claims that inadequate Scottish Government funding levels were to blame, and said councils were responsible for their own decisions on deploying resources.
Holyrood’s education committee recently published a report on instrumental tuition which concluded it should be free of charge.
Although some councils, including Glasgow and Edinburgh, still provide free tuition for pupils, others have either introduced or raised charges, leading to a decline in pupils learning an instrument in school.
After West Lothian introduced a £350 charge of per pupil per instrument, 70 per cent of primary age pupils dropped their tuition.
In a debate on the report, SNP committe convener Clare Adamson said: “Some local authorities do not charge at all, whereas others charge for instrument hire, for the tuition itself or for both.
“In one local authority area, pupils are charged £524 per annum for tuition, with no discount for their siblings, which is a prohibitive sum for many families.
“Local authorities spend about £28m a year on instrumental music tuition and collect roughly £4m in fees from parents and carers, and those local authorities that do charge apply a plethora of different exemptions and discounts.”
Council umbrella group Cosla, which says fees are propping up music tuition, recommends free tuition for pupils eligible for free meals and those taking SQA examinations.
Mr Swinney said he shared the concerns of young people and parents over any reduction in the “quality and reach” of instrumental music services.
Insisting councils were funded fairly, he said: “Choices are made at local level by individual local authorities.
“It is up to each local authority to decide how it deploys the resources that are available to it and 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.”
He said the “expressive arts” were of great importance to Scotland’s culture and its economy, and taking part could have a hugely positive effect on children and their families.
He said: “It can have a hugely significant positive effect on their mental, emotional, social and physical well-being. Instrumental music tuition in schools is an important element of that.”
Labour MSP Iain Gray pointed to cuts to core council budgets as a factor affecting the provision of free music tuition.
He said: “We cannot ignore the financial circumstances which councils find themselves.
“Core council budgets have decreased in real terms by £1.64bn since 2011-12.
“The only possible way to fix the current postcode lottery of access to instrument tuition is to once again provide proper, adequate core funding overall for our local councils.”
Tory MSP Liz Smith said music should be at the heart of any curriculum as it could “transform lives”.
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