Music industry shocked by Ofqual chair’s proposal to redeploy music teachers

Members of the music industry have expressed their outrage following a proposal from Ofqual chair, Ian Bauckham that music teaching in schools could be ‘suspended’ and music teachers redeployed to other subjects amid teaching staff shortages due to Covid.

Bauckham’s ‘case study’ was published on the Department for Education’s portal for headteachers and revealed in a recent Tes article. He wrote: ‘In cases where a specialist teacher rotates between classes to teach subjects that sometimes include for example PSHE, RSHE or music, it may be possible temporarily to suspend the teaching of that subject and use that teacher to teach classes whose normal teacher is absent.’

In a letter sent to Bauckham and schools minister Robin Walker, Deborah Annetts, chief executive of the Incorporated Society of Musicians, asked the Ofqual chair to ‘retract [his] proposals’ and pointed out that, if implemented, his suggestions would contravene government guidance and Department for Education guidelines.

Music educators are also shocked by Bauckham’s proposal. Roz De Vile is CEO of Music Masters, a registered charity founded in 2008, that aims to increase access to music education for children of all backgrounds. She said: ‘'Music educators are exhausted at the constant requirement, thanks to short-sighted suggestions such as Mr Bauckham’s, to defend music education as a necessary, integral and deeply valuable part of the curriculum.’

She added: ‘Clearly, there is a startling disconnect between policy makers – those who hold a level of power, responsibility and influence that can quite literally set the course of young people’s lives and futures – and the young people themselves.’

Maren Bosma, leader and associate artistic director of the Bath Festival Orchestra (BFO), which maintains a strong focus on training and education, described her experience of music’s positive impact on students in Orchestrate, the BFO’s educational programme: ‘I’ve had students tell me they look forward each week to making music together [and] I’ve seen them blossom up after a long and exhausting day of ‘normal’ school, just by playing their instrument together with other students.’

She added: ‘These are students who have been through an unprecedented period of limited social contact, limited learning resources and incredible amounts of stress and pressure from news and media. What we should be prioritising here is collective healing from the mental damage that has been done over the past two years… collective music making not only helps students develop a myriad of learning skills and personal assets, but it also heals and connects.’