Statement on the Proposed Cancellation of the Initial Teacher Training Bursary for Music
We write, as music learned societies and the voice of conservatoires in the United Kingdom, to strongly protest the cancellation of the Initial Teacher Training bursary for Music for 2026-27. This is a deeply frustrating, disappointing and counterproductive development for the study of music in the UK, and for the UK arts and cultural sectors more generally.
As extrapolated from Department for Education data, music education in schools is facing difficult, complex and protracted challenges. According to the DfE, targets for the recruitment of music teachers have been missed by significant margins in five of the last six years (between 2019-20 and 2024-25); 433 fewer musical teachers were in post in 2024-25 than in 2011-12 (7610, against 8043); and total music teaching hours went down by 5634 over the same period. Ofqual statistics also reveal that GCSE and A-level applicant numbers have decreased by 40% and 48% respectively since 2008. This state of affairs confirms that there should be no let-up in support for attracting music teacher trainees through the bursary scheme. Indeed, it suggests that these bursaries should be increased financially, rather than reduced, or – worse still, as currently proposed – eliminated entirely.
At the General Election in July 2024, the Labour Party made a pledge to boost teacher numbers, and several prominent Labour politicians (including Keir Starmer) explained the importance and impact of music education on their formative development. The Government’s decision to cut Initial Teacher Training bursaries for music is, therefore, completely at odds with a principled position and a practical pedagogical and cultural reality. The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Music Education has criticised the decision to eliminate the music bursaries as detrimental both to recruitment to the profession and to teacher morale, and a backward step in the pursuit of equal access to Key Stage 4 and 5 music, including GCSE and A level, for all students. We at the Royal Musical Association, the Society for Music Analysis, the British Forum for Ethnomusicology, and Conservatoires UK wholeheartedly agree.
The health of the UK music industry as a whole depends on the existence of a robust music education system, with deeply committed and highly motivated teachers from primary through tertiary education and beyond. Indeed, the health of the nation benefits from such a system, with proven links (for example) between music pedagogical experiences and positive mental health, as well as between physical and mental illness and the benefits of music therapy. We urge the Government in the strongest terms to reverse its decision to end the initial teacher training bursary for music in 2026-27 and to redouble its commitment to encouraging and facilitating prospective music teachers’ entry into the profession.
The Royal Musical Association
The Society for Music Analysis
The British Forum for Ethnomusicology
Conservatoires UK
In 1991, when I was Head of the School of Strings at the Royal Northern College of Music and a member of European String Teachers’ Association’s Executive Committee, I was encouraged by Sir John Manduell, (then Principal of the RNCM ), Christopher Yates, (Vice-Principal), and Dr Colin Beeson (Dean of Development), to apply for Leverhulme Trust funding to develop a Junior Strings Project at the College, loosely modeled on a scheme at the University of Texas at Austin, directed by the redoubtable Phyllis Young, and also one in Helsinki, led by Geza Szilvay. Postgraduate students were recruited to the RNCM to study for both a PGDip in performance at the College and a PGCE at Manchester Metropolitan University nearby. Tuition involved not only principal study lessons, but also an introduction to Kodály and Dalcroze Eurhythmics. In addition students were required to study unfamiliar string instruments and to achieve Grade 3 ABRSM on at least one. The MMU provided elements of the PGCE course for which the RNCM was not qualified.
Children with no previous musical experience were recruited from the region and paid a modest fee to participate in the scheme which was directed by Penny Stirling who was appointed Head of Music Education at the College. The children were taught by the students who were in turn monitored by experienced tutors. Parents received instruction in a different room and were advised how to help support practice and instrumental discipline. All students in the School of Strings were obliged to observe JSP classes at some stage of their studies, many developing an interest and understanding of teaching in the process.
The JSP, when I retired from the RNCM in 2001, had been awarded two major Leverhulme Trust awards and had won a coveted Queen’s Anniversary Prize (1998), the first ever to be awarded to an organisation in the arts world. Several hundred children had passed through the scheme, the most gifted progressing to the Junior RNCM or elsewhere; most of the postgraduates currently work in schools and/or privately, or are playing professionally.
At a time when international morale is at a low ebb and the music industry faces great challenges if it is to survive at all, the training of high quality teachers must surely be of paramount importance, possibly even more so than in the 1990s when the JSP was devised to address a national shortfall in well-informed instrumental tuition.
Astonished by this decision. We were so hopeful when labour came in, particularly knowing that Keir had, in the past, so benefited from the brilliant expertise this country offers musically. We are seeing a dearth of teachers coming through and this is causing huge issues in Music education and basic in equity in different settings. The arts so evidence the social divide in this country at the moment and labour should be doing everything it can to diminish this gap.
As a Head of Music for over 25 years, I know how scarce music teachers are. I currently have an excellent student teacher, he would not have been able to begin the training without the current bursary. It is imperative that the bursary remains in place.
Music education is needed now more than ever.
The Model Music Curriculum and new Curriculum for Wales are an excellent foundation for young people but they can only be successful if they are delivered by knowledgeable, well qualified teachers at all points of a child’s education. This requires more Music teachers now and then a steady supply in the future as teachers retire or move on in their careers
As a music teacher who has been teaching music for 25 years I fully agree with the RMA. The benefits of music education far outway the costs. I would like to see the Government subsidising music education and the training of music teachers in any way they can.
Please keep the bursary!!
I am deeply saddened at this news. The future of Music education is extremely concerning – very threatened, from the ground roots up. Both the numbers and quality of ‘new’ Music teachers have been of major concern for a number of years. The U.K. Music Industry (as a whole) is a global leader, and one that we should (as a country) be supporting and celebrating for everything that it brings – not least the revenue that it earns. Please, please re-consider and change this decision, and bring about some positive change for Music Education.