Moray MP Douglas Ross brought music to the House of Commons last night (Monday) to raise the importance of ensuring that children continue to have access to affordable instrumental tuition in schools.
Douglas said: “I secured an Adjournment Debate on instrumental music instruction to highlight the proposals by the SNP administration on Moray Council to raise instrumental music tuition fees by a staggering 85 per cent. I know that, as a result of the public outcry, the council has backed down and now proposes a 20 per cent rise in fees, but that still risks a big drop-out from the service that reaches more than 800 young people in Moray. This misguided rise in tuition fees threatens to cut short many of our young people’s joy and passion for music.
“The saddest part of this debacle is that John Mustard, Moray’s valued, talented and hugely respected Head of Music Instruction, resigned from his position after 30 years’ of dedicated and loyal service.
“I was pleased to use the debate to publicly thank John Mustard and his team of dedicated school music teachers for the work they do, going above and beyond to inspire the talented young people in Moray to develop skills and a love of music that will stay with them for a lifetime.”
Closing the debate at the Dispatch Box, Nick Gibb, minister for school standards, said: “I wanted to thank John Mustard on behalf of the rest of the House of Commons for all the work he has put in and his dedication to teaching, helping hundreds of thousands of young people to acquire a real love of music.”
Douglas said: “Policy makers and budget leaders need to wake up to the crisis we are facing. Our young people need their representatives to stand up for musical instruction, not see it cut time and time again. We can’t let it become available only for those who get tuition for free, and those from rich enough families for whom staggering increases matter less. If we did, there is a huge spectrum of talent and potential who could miss out. They will suffer because of that, and so will we.”