UK education cuts mean no more Sheku
mainThe Guardian’s subhead reads: Cuts to courses could endanger the supply of performers and teachers and make music elitist again
Sample text:
Sheku’s school, along with many others across the country, is being forced to make budget cuts – and music is often first in line. In addition, the government’s decision to exclude arts subjects from the Ebacc – the GCSE subjects by which school performance is judged – has made them a lower priority, music teachers say.
It means talented students such as Archie Ttwheam, whose teachers predict he will get 99% for composition in his music GCSE this summer, are being forced to drop the subject. Archie, who wants to study music at university, has been told by his Wiltshire school that the A-level will not be offered in September, nor at other local sixth forms.
Music A-level was one of the subjects with the biggest falls in popularity last year, down from 7,089 UK entries in 2016 to 6,428, a fall of 9.3%. Over the past decade entries have plummeted by 39%, while GCSE entries fell by 31% over the same period to 42,507 last year….
Read on here.
The crisis is real.
See also: Barenboim warns music education has all but disappeared from school curriculum
Where is Sir Simon?
Is the cello to Sheku what the ivories are to Yuja what the baton is to Mirga?
In 1971 there was no O or A level in music in my Convent Grammar School in east London but was allowed to do O level in my lunch hour, failed the two A levels I did take but the education was far more valuable than bits of paper.. Went to Colchester, got Grade A music London University in eight months and took Grade 8 piano on the same day as A level, and now have two MAs from London University after a scholarship to the RNCM and a good solo singing career. All before the internet and from a poor family in tgecrest end of London who supported me in spirit the whole way and valued education, so.a very happy childhood!
This is so appalling. When I was at school in Scotland (back in th 1960s!) I got free cello lessons and did my O level music in a class of one, then went on to do Higher Music in a class of two with one other girl who had come from another school. The school had three music teachers and we were taught by all of them. I went on to study English rather than than music, but I learnt more in those lessons than in any other subject at school.