Contents
The Australian school system, by Richard Letts (MCA)
Thus far, with the National Review of School Music Education, by Richard Letts (MCA)
By Richard Letts (Music Council of Australia).
Last updated: 13 March 2007
- Introduction
- Levels
- Recent research and politics
- Education systems
- Live musical performances in schools
- Associations connected with school music education
- Publications and resources
Introduction
In Australia, there are three school sectors: public, government-owned and -operated schools; private or ‘independent’ schools; and a Roman Catholic sector. Other church or religious schools are included in the independent sector.
A good number of the private schools are very wealthy and charge fees that exclude all but the rich – except that most also have means-tested scholarships available. Commonly, there are special scholarships available for musically talented children. Many of these can be found on the MCA website.
The music education provision in Catholic schools varies. On average, it probably is lower than for government schools. However, some Catholic schools charge high fees and their musical offerings are comparable to other affluent private schools.
The public schools are operated by the state governments. They have about 70% of the student population. Most legislation governing school education is state legislation.
However, the Commonwealth is wealthy and in addition to providing the states with the funds to operate the education systems (and most of their other functions), provides some direct funding itself. It is inclined to give the latter funds to the state systems on conditions that it decides and with which they may or may not agree. Such conditions in recent years have included e.g. inception of assessment systems for the effectiveness of teaching or the relative performance of schools. A current issue is agreement to a national curriculum to allow students to make easier changes between state systems and probably to permit imposition of greater accountability for academic outcomes.
There are various divisions within systems between pre-school, primary and secondary levels. The traditional plan is for kindergarten plus six grades of primary, followed by another six of secondary. However, among the systems there are variants in the middle years.
Early childhood music education will have a separate section in the Knowledge Base.
The main strengths of school music education are found at the secondary level. The main failing overall in school music education is at the primary school level.
In all states except Queensland, primary school music teaching falls mainly to generalist primary classroom teachers. The argument for this practice is that music learning is then integrated into overall learning. Music can be introduced as content or as a teaching device in history or mathematics or any other subject.
The theory has merit but generally the practice is deeply flawed. New South Wales has such confidence in the approach that it has made music a mandatory subject throughout primary school. But its primary school teachers are not trained to teach music. Depending upon which tertiary institution they choose for their ‘pre-service’ training, they will receive between zero hours and perhaps 30 hours of music and music pedagogy training in the course of their entire undergraduate years. Research has shown that the effect of this training can be simply to confirm in their minds how little they know and to remove any naïve confidence they may have had in their ability to teach music. The consequences in the classroom are as might be expected. The generalist teachers who are capable of teaching music mostly depend on prior music training received privately.
At the secondary school level, all subjects, including music, are taught by specialists. A major difficulty for teachers in the circumstances is the wide variance in musical preparation among entering students; those who have depended upon primary school music instruction have won or lost in the lottery of teacher competence, those who have had no real primary school instruction have won or lost in a separate lottery of whether parents have arranged private instruction. Nevertheless, many secondary schools somehow find their way around these difficulties and produce good musical outcomes.
In some states, subsidised instrumental music lessons are offered through the schools. These include Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. The programs may include instrument rentals.
In many primary schools, principals may have the financial means and prerogative to bring in music specialists. In Victoria, for instance, the decision to employ a music specialist is taken by individual schools. It is a prerogative delegated by the state government.
Indeed, in Victoria for instance, such is the decentralisation of authority that the Department of Education has not been able to provide information on how many schools employ music teachers. It once was the case that all state education departments included a music section which supervised music in schools. This is the case now only in Queensland. It is interesting that Queensland has the most developed and comprehensive school music program among all the public school systems.
Very often, parents will raise funds to pay for or subsidise music programs. These usually are after-hours ‘co-curricular’ programs for instrumental instruction, school bands or choirs. As might be expected, this is more likely to happen in more affluent areas than in economically disadvantaged areas.
In most states, there are state schools specialising in education of the musically talented. Search for information on the system websites listed below.
The National Review of School Music Education
This was initiated by the Commonwealth Government and published in 2005. It found that music education in Australia is in crisis. In particular, the provision in primary schools in most states is patently inadequate. Of course, there are fine programs in some schools. In the state schools, these usually are at the secondary level. The more affluent private schools may have programs of great depth and diversity. On the other hand, the majority of children simply miss out at primary level and enter the secondary level as musical illiterates.
Implementation of the recommendations of the report would be costly. It would require, over time, that all primary school children have access to a music education provided by specialist music teachers. It would be necessary to invest considerably more at the tertiary level in teacher training.
At the core, these improvements can be implemented only by the state governments. They have to agree to recommendations formulated under a Commonwealth inquiry. There is general resistance, not to say sensitivity, to such propositions. The Commonwealth could arouse a more sympathetic response with a promise of abundant funding and that is genuinely an option that it has. Whether it will be inclined to take it has yet to be seen.
The National Music Workshop
The Commonwealth Minister of Education called for a national workshop to consider the recommendations of the National Review, and propose how they might be implemented. The workshop was held in August 2006 (see report). As of March 2007, there has been an initial response from the Minister, but as yet no commitment to implement the findings except for small allocations of funds to a curriculum development project, to awards for excellence in music teaching, and to a campaign to raise the status of music education.
The Stevens Report
Prior to the National Review of School Music Education, the MCA commissioned a review of the trends in school music education. It was conducted by Assoc. Prof. Robin Stevens with funding support from the Australia Council Music Board and the Australian Music Association and published in 2003. It provides a great deal of statistical information, most of it unflattering. The trends could not be established because for the most part, the data are not collected or if collected, are not retained. The one area in which data are collected by all states is the number of students sitting for final secondary graduation examinations in music. The Stevens Report was a precursor to and stimulus for the National Review.
Government Departments of Education
- Commonwealth of Australia Department of Education, Science and Training
- Australian Capital Territory Department of Education and Training
- New South Wales Department of Education
- Northern Territory Department of Employment, Education and Training
- Queensland Department of Education, Training and the Arts
- South Australian Department of Education, Science and Training
- Tasmanian Department of Education
- Victoria, Department of Education
- Western Australian Department of Education and Training
Catholic Education Offices
There are offices in the major cities, and a national website.
Independent Schools
The independent schools do not operate as a ‘system’. Each school is independent except possibly for its affiliation to a religious order. Information about independent schools is available from a voluntary association, the Independent Schools Council of Australia.
Many such services are offered. Commonly, they are subsidised but usually the schools must contribute to the fee for the performances. Usually, the musical groups devise special performances that in some way address the school curricula in music or indeed, in other subjects. The programs also may offer special training to the school teachers so that the impact of the performances can be extended into subsequent classwork.
The MCA website has a directory of providers of live musical performances for school children.
MCA itself offers a program called IGNITE. This takes bands into selected disadvantaged schools for a series of five visits. They perform for the school and lead a class in devising its own songs. Usually the children have had no prior music instruction.
The program is funded generously by the Freedman Foundation and newly by the Fairfield City Council for schools in its own area.
Australian Society for Music Education
ASME is Australia’s only affiliate organisation of the International Society for Music Education (ISME), which exists under the auspices of UNESCO’s Music Council. ASME also represents music education on the National Affiliation of Arts Educators (NAAE).
As an Australia-wide organisation, ASME operates under a National Executive and representative National Council who work through Chapters in all of Australia’s States and Territories. The membership is comprised mainly of school music teachers and music education academics.
Association of Music Educators (Vic) Inc. (aMuse)
Formerly known as the Victorian Schools’ Music Association (VSMA), this subject association, open to all music educators and those interested in music education, is affiliated with the Council of Professional Teaching Associations and supported by the Victorian Department of Education and Training. aMuse organises professional development programs for primary, secondary and instrumental music teachers, organises student performance activities including master classes and festivals, and can provide independent advice on curriculum matters.
Australian National Council of Orff Schulwerk
An organisation promoting Orff Schulwerk (meaning music for schools or groups of children), developed by the German composer Carl Orff.
International Society for Music Education
Established in 1953 under the auspices of UNESCO, ISME leads and supports music education worldwide. The headquarters are in Perth, WA.
The Kodaly Music Institute of Australia
Music education method based on the research of Zoltan Kodaly.
National Affiliation of Arts Educators
Has a membership of the main national organisations for education in the various art disciplines. NAAE is concerned especially with ensuring that the arts maintain and improve their position in the school education systems, and with related curricular and professional issues.
International Journal of Music Education
From the International Society for Music Education (ISME, see above)
Music Forum
Quarterly journal of the Music Council of Australia. It always includes sections on music education and on Music.Play for Life. See index on MCA website.
Music in Action
A magazine for school music teachers produced by the Australian Music Association. Delivered free to all school music teachers. Music in Action is a magazine developed and produced in Australia for music educators. It aims to enrich, empower, support and inform music teachers in their work. There are five major topics covered in each issue: advocacy, technology, profile, nitty gritty and project.
Music.Play for Life
MPFL is the ongoing campaign of the Music Council of Australia in support of school music education and music-making generally. A free monthly e-newsletter is available. Register on site.
Music scholarships
A list of some 250 scholarship sources available to Australians, including many music scholarships in schools.
Music teacher employment, opportunities
The Music Council of Australia weekly email bulletin service offers an enormous amount of current information about jobs available, financial sources, competitions, conferences, workshops and much much more.
Music Teacher International Magazine
Australian based publication, mostly for studio teachers.
Music Teachers OZ
This project aims to bridge the gaps between research and teaching in music teacher education. We also hope to decrease isolation between academics, teachers and pre-service teachers.
Thus far, with the National Review of School Music Education
by Richard Letts (Music Council of Australia)
Last updated: 27 August 2007
This paper is slightly adapted from a keynote address to the conference of the Australian Society for Music Education, Monday July 9, 2007, Perth, Australia
The report of the National Review of School Music Education dates from 2005 and unlike the multiple previous reports of its kind, stretching back over decades, it is actually the subject of discussion and action two years after it was published. It is 280 big A4 pages and is full of facts and insights about music education as it is, and vision and detail about music education as we want it to be.
The review was instigated by the then Minister for Education, Brendan Nelson. It seems to me that there broadly are two reasons by governments for commissioning reports like this. When there is a hot issue that the government wants to cool down and maybe get out of the public eye and off the agenda, it can commission a review, make sure it takes a long time, bury the report and hope everyone has forgotten. Alternatively, when a government has a genuine interest, it can help to have a report because in a sense it gives currency to the issue and a better basis for successful action. But above all, it can be used as an advocacy document.
We had never managed to make a hot public issue of the poor situation in music education, so the government didn’t need a study to take it off the boil. That takes us to the second motivation. We already had a series of studies and their recommendations were remarkably consistent. We didn’t really need another one. So unless I miss my guess, this review of school music education was never intended primarily as a study. It was intended as an advocacy document.
And therefore, I am going to address the issue of advocacy.
At any music education conference, the papers and the discussion are mainly about the curriculum and the classroom. This is an interesting and also essential focus. It is essential not only because new information, new ideas are presented, but because it maintains the vitality of the profession.
However, the fact is that if there were no more curriculum research, no more discussions, no more conferences, music education could continue at a competent level. The people in this theatre already are expert.
The main obstacle to an adequate music education is not the need to invent the perfect curriculum. The main obstacle is the inadequate provision of resources. We have the evidence that most schools, especially primary schools and especially in the public sector, don’t have sufficient trained teachers, or facilities, or budgets, or some combination of the above, to do a good job.
The Steering Committee for the National Review called it a crisis. If we don’t want to live forever with this crisis, we have to persuade our political and bureaucratic masters to provide the resources so we can fix it.
Advocacy can take place at various levels. A school teacher can persuade parents to help to persuade the principal to hire staff or provide time or materials. Then there is another level of advocacy where for instance we try to persuade the State Education Ministers to put in the funds needed to pay for primary school music specialist teachers. A school teacher can write letters or submissions, join in an advocacy campaign such as Music. Count Us In, by having the students perform the campaign song, or even take a leadership role.
The teachers’ professional associations definitely can take a leadership role.
The work involved here is not necessarily more complicated. It’s just different. But getting a positive outcome is much more difficult.
Basically, there is no-one else to do this work but us chickens.
Frequently I am told that ‘We teachers are just so overworked. We don’t have the time or the energy to become advocates too.’
I have no doubt whatever that many music teachers are exhausted by the end of the day, just in keeping up with the school’s expectations, the students’ expectations, the parents’ expectations, often with little support from anyone at all. That, of course, is one symptom of the problem of under-resourcing.
But if we accept that no-one has the time or the energy to work for a change, then we won’t have any change and we are defeated. Are we willing to settle for that? Forever?
So I am here making a proposition to you and to our professional organisations: and that is that for the next few years, we set as our highest collective priority, advocacy to achieve a satisfactory provision of music education in schools, especially public schools.
Let me point out to you that while we are by no means home and hosed, that the position of school music education has moved forward over the last couple of years and at the very least, it is now on the public agenda and on the Federal Minister for Education’s agenda. And there is no question that our advocacy has been a factor.
Be encouraged. It can work.
Let me take you over some of the contributing events.
As I have noted, the National Review of School Music Education is one of a series of studies going back to at least 1968, with the report by the Australian Society of Music Education (ASME) stalwart, Dr Graham Bartle. Basically, the response has been lip service, as is daily evident.
The present National Review is of course a very well produced, well considered description of the music education we have and the music education we want. But as I have said, I think it was intended by the then Federal Minister as an advocacy document.
It is a document that was born out of advocacy and is being followed at every step of the way by advocacy. That is brand new.
The process began with the Music Council of Australia, with support from the AMA, ASME and the Music Board, commissioning Associate Professor Robin Stevens to undertake research to see whether there were any trends in the provision of music education in Australian schools. We suspected that the trends would show declining provision and that the study would produce evidence that could be used in advocacy. The results were published and also presented to then Federal Minister for the Arts Rod Kemp and Minister for Education Brendan Nelson.
Robin did an excellent job, but the study as conceived was impossible to bring to fruition because with one exception, national trends could not be shown. The reason was that the various state education systems did not collect the statistics in any but a fragmentary way nor did they retain them over some years. Maybe they didn’t feel proud of them. There was great variability between regimes.
The Catholic systems collected even less. Of course, the independent schools are not actually a system, so there are very few statistics for that sector.
Well, statistics schmatistics. Who cares about statistics anyway? But how could we have claimed that only 23% of state school students have access to a specialist music teacher, except by having access to Stevens’ data? We really need those numbers. You can see why.
For all the deficiencies, the Stevens report does include some arresting data. For instance, it verifies that pre-service music training for primary school classroom teachers is in many cases so minimal as to be laughable. I mean, how can you teach music every school week for six years on the basis of 12 hours of pre-service training?!
Ian Harvey, the head of the Australian Music Association and MCA Treasurer, managed to extrapolate two statistics I would like to cite here: only 23% of public school students have access to a specialist music teacher in school. On the other hand, 88% of students at independent schools have such access.
23% to 88%. That is a very interesting comparison. Independent schools of course have the prerogative of charging to parents the costs of music instruction. On the other hand, they are not going to do so if the parents are not interested in paying.
Could we not assume that if the parents of public schools were asked, they also would want their children to have access to a music education — and that if governments funded the public schools to meet this demand, 88% of public school students also would have access to a specialist music teacher in school?
Interestingly, this 88% figure lines up with a study called Australian Attitudes to Music, commissioned by the Australian Music Association. Here are two questions from this very extensive study. Respondents were asked whether they agree or disagree:
All schools should offer instrumental instruction as part of the curriculum.
87% agree, 11% disagree. 2% don’t know.
Music education should be mandated by the states to ensure that every child has an opportunity to study music in school. 74% agree, 16% disagree. 10% are confused. Maybe they didn’t know the meaning of the word ‘mandate’ or thought it meant dinner and drinks.
The Stevens report created a context of information in which advocacy could take place. Other lobbying followed. Chris Pearce MP, a former music teacher, wrote a private members bill in support of school music education, which was passed by the House. Various people got to the Ministers. Ian Harvey and the Australian Music Association have done an enormous amount. Richard Gill pointed out to Rod Kemp that music education these days is far less thorough that it was a century ago. Kemp took him to Brendan Nelson to repeat the story.
Brendan Nelson was personally interested in the issue and gave a receptive ear. He instigated the National Review of School Music Education. Robin Pascoe and a team from Murdoch University here in Perth were appointed to run the study.
Word came through to the Music Council via the AMA that it was very important that when the Review called for submissions, there were many responses. The Music Council and our campaign for music making, Music. Play for Life, encouraged the field to respond, as did ASME and the AMA. The result was nearly 6,000 responses. This was by a factor of nearly 4, the greatest number of responses ever received to any study initiated by the Federal government. It let the pollies know that the issue is of interest to more than just a few self-interested school teachers.
Brendan Nelson and Rod Kemp accepted the completed report with some enthusiasm. Nelson announced that he planned to have a summit to recommend how the recommendations should be implemented. At the same time, he announced a small commitment of funds to a curriculum plan and the ASME music teacher awards. Then he was promoted to Minister for Defence and we anxiously hoped that his replacement would be similarly positive.
Julie Bishop eventually took over, but had to find a staff and her feet and forward movement ceased for some months. Eventually the summit was organised for last year by the AMA. Its recommendations went to the Minister and as you have seen, she has made some small commitments to implementation, hopefully as a down-payment to the major commitments that we so much need.
Let me touch briefly on the recommendations of the Review and the Workshop. I will be very brief. My colleagues will have more to say.
One reason for brevity is that there are 99 recommendations, grouped into 16 strategic directions. It would be a long paper that attempted to summarise them. There is an excellent literature survey, a research framework, a snapshot of current school music education in Australia. There are guidelines for effective music education, to set standards, benchmarks; these could be the basis not so much of a national curriculum but of some sensible national coordination. There is a set of issues, challenges and opportunities.
From all of this plus a couple of days discussion, the National Workshop drew out some priorities and made recommendations for moving forward with implementation. The priority area for all concerned is to fix primary school music education. There are recommendations for better training and resourcing of primary school generalists. But what many of us really want are primary school music specialists. Queensland and possibly Tasmania have specialists, so it’s not actually impossible. It could be done, even in Australia. But obviously, it would cost a lot of money.
The states control the government school systems, so they have to come to the party. So far, we are not seeing any paper hats and party whistles. Indeed, a colleague told me the other day that her Minister told her bluntly to ‘Back off’. His government was not going to respond to initiatives from the Commonwealth. Oh yes Minister? That moment of macho is more important to you than providing for the needs of your citizens?
We don’t know how the Commonwealth is going to handle this problem nor indeed, whether it intends to come to grips with it at all. A lot of the messages coming from the Commonwealth are about better sharing among the states of resources such as curricular materials. That’s certainly worth while but it’s a bit like ‘Bobby, share that sardine with your brother and sister!’ We want the full can!
The Federal Minister has made some modest commitments. You know about the music education portal, the curriculum project, Musica Viva, the Children’s Music Foundation. And she has responded to the recommendation that the status of music education should be raised by instigating the Music. Count Us In campaign.
In the unlikely event that you do not know about it, the idea for Music. Count Us In is borrowed from a project in Canada called Music Monday. A song has been commissioned from a pop musician, John Foreman of Australian Idol fame, and has been recorded in a performance by John and some Victorian school children. Arrangements have been written for various school ensembles, along with curricular materials. These have all been made available free of charge to schools. The idea is that at 11am on Thursday August 30, the song will be performed by children in schools and communities all across Australia.
In the time until August 30, Music. Count Us In will seek all sorts of media coverage boosting school music education. And of course, it will attempt to make August 30 a big media day.
So Music. Count Us In is not itself a program of dazzling educational worth, but it could be something that captures the public imagination and also gives the Minister the opportunity to make the case for music education. The more positive an atmosphere we can make, the more awareness we can create, the easier it will be for the Minister and the government to see the breadth of positive public interest and to commit to music education the funding we so desperately need.
I am very pleased to note the accumulating response from schools. Some hundreds have already signed up to participate but we want to get up to at least a thousand. As with the submissions to the National Review, a high response will be persuasive of the interest in school music education. And where there is high interest, there are votes. In this case, music teachers can be advocates simply by including the song in their curriculum and performing it at the appointed time. That’s familiar territory. Not much time to do it, but we are stuck with that. Begin, or continue, your new life as an advocate by joining with Music Count Us IN. Easy schmeasy.
