The Sun Herald backs quality music education and Music Education: Right from the Start’s targets for NSW primary schools
On 31 July, we were proud to join friends, colleagues, and collaborators to amplify our voice for music education, providing evidence during the first of three days of hearings before the Joint Select Committee on Arts and Music Education and Training at NSW Parliament House.
Our submission to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry, chaired by Julia Finn MP with cross-party support, emphasises the quality and effectiveness of music education. We aimed to identify barriers and constructive ways forward, and proposed a five-part framework for the Committee's consideration.
Our submission and its recommendations were highlighted in an editorial by The Sun Herald on 4 August, backing the call for quality music education in NSW’s primary schools. The article states:
“A quality education would mean that children are taught music in every term, rather than in rotation with other arts subjects, such as visual art and drama.
The Sun-Herald commends the NSW government for keeping its election promise and conducting a parliamentary inquiry into arts and music education.”
The Sun Herald explicitly supports Music Education: Right from the Start’s recommended targets for half of all NSW public primary schools to offer a quality music education by the start of the 2027 school year, increasing to 75 per cent in 2029 and all schools by 2031. We suggest this education should be delivered by a teacher (generalist or specialist) who is both confident and capable of providing high-quality music learning. It writes:
“The above targets are reasonable, given music is on the primary school curriculum, and the evidence in the inquiry’s submissions that some children never experience any formal tuition in it.”
Highlighting the many challenges facing education in NSW in a separate 4 August article titled, ‘When I was at school we all had a recorder’: Calls to mandate music lessons’, reporter Mary Ward of the Sydney Morning Herald wrote:
“Thousands of children are leaving primary school with no formal music education as schools cut back on band programs and teachers struggle to find time to include the arts in classroom lessons…
Several submissions have called on the state government to mandate hours of music instruction and introduce music accreditation for primary music teachers. These describe a ‘crisis’ in schools where access to the curriculum depends on the enthusiasm of individual principals and teachers.”
Alberts executive director and head of Music Education: Right from the Start, Emily Albert, and project lead, Eric Sidoti, were invited to appear before the Joint Select Committee on Arts and Music Education and Training in NSW on 31 July 2024 to provide evidence to support our submission. Our team’s senior advisor, Dr Anita Collins, also presented.
Our submission also calls for the NSW Government to define an explicit standard as to what constitutes a quality, sequential and ongoing music education, and provides a suggested approach for meeting the demand for primary teachers who are confident and competent in delivering a quality music education – conscious that NSW education faces significant workforce issues.
Research shows that quality music education addresses major challenges in contemporary schooling, including academic attainment, retention, engagement, well-being, and personal and social development. It is crucial for achieving a better and fairer education system.
Furthermore, success in delivering a quality music education opens the space for the Arts. It is our conviction that music education is best placed to provide strong foundations for a deeper understanding and appreciation of the value of Arts education more generally.
We are encouraged by the Parliamentary debate in introducing the motion establishing this Committee – promised before the 2023 State Government election – and the cross-sector collaboration on submissions. This collective effort demonstrates a shared commitment to elevating music learning in NSW to ensure all primary students receive its many academic, social and wellbeing benefits of a quality, sequential and ongoing music education.
We’re hoping to see the Committee putting forward clear and strong recommendations when its report is delivered later this year.
