I READ with alarm about Cornwall Cabinet’s vote to force Cornwall’s Music Service teachers into self-employment. Several rural councils tried this route unsuccessfully, and both children and teachers are suffering.

The council is under tremendous financial pressure, and changes must be made – including the Music Service. But quality education and children’s safety are at stake, and the council must make careful decisions.

If rural and low-income councils are disproportionately disadvantaged in real terms under this new funding formula for Music Hubs, these councils, including Cornwall, should speak with central government to remedy becoming potentially a “postcode lottery” for education.

Music education is not a “service”; it is education. Instrumental teaching is provided as a centralised, peripatetic “service” because it is more economical, given the need for specialised teaching.

Since music improves academic test scores and builds those all-important social skills, discipline and emotional intelligence needed for true success in the workplace, we should invest in music education. Research shows that children having a proper go on a musical instrument improve in reading and maths and "wire the brain" with tremendous positive academic impact.

It’s not teaching a few “elite” children; the Music Service provides equal access for all children on classical and rock music instruments. All children benefit from music education in the early years, whether or not they continue on.

Not all musicians can teach; we need quality teachers. There are huge safety concerns about people who don’t know how to teach technique and how to correct children’s hand, arm, neck and shoulder positions, as bad habits in posture and fine motor skills can cause children life-long, very debilitating injuries.

Self-employment won’t work in Cornwall. Other rural Music Hubs are flailing. When they cut loose teachers into the abyss of self-employment, the new “free market” resulted in an oversaturation of inexperienced and low-quality musicians with no teaching experience marketing themselves as “teachers”. Now many former peripatetic music teachers whom I know, graduates of top London conservatoires and excellent Music Service teachers for many years, can’t make ends meet. Since Cornwall is so remote, music teachers can’t supplement a part-time teaching with professional performing either.

Cornwall’s Music Hub must work in the real world, not hypothetically, if we are to ensure the best educational and safety interest of the children.

The Isle of Wight, as a rural and low-income economy, is considering creative solutions. But realising that this needs thoughtful consideration, the island is funding its Music Service this year, despite horrendous financial pressures similar to Cornwall’s. I would encourage Cornwall not to make hasty decisions in children’s music education, and instead ensure quality and viability as top priority in any further actions.

Kirsten Xanthippe,
Isle of Wight