Photos: Cooking
the books
Is there really a shortage of qualified
music teachers, asks Susan Collins
18-19 L14 Classroom 13/6/07 10:15 Page 1
T
he number of trainee music teachers
is on the rise. According to the Training
and Development Agency for Schools
(TDA), 659 new music teachers are being
trained this year, up from 626 last year.
However, music (along with seven other
subjects) has now been classed as a Secondary
Shortage Subject by the Department for
Education and Skills and the TDA. So why
is there this perceived shortage?
Music has been classed as a Secondary Shortage
Subject thanks to some very complicated
formulae involving national vacancy figures
and the number of teachers recruited,
based on a projection of future workforce
requirements. However, the shortage hardly
constitutes a national emergency: yes, the
vacancy rate is double the national average but
that’s still only 1.4 per cent. But it’s enough for
the government to have started throwing money
at the subject in order to reverse the shortage.
Training grants of £9,000 have gone down
well with this year’s cohort of PGCE students in
England (£7,200 in Wales) and the thought of
a £2,500 ‘Golden Hello’ (known as a teaching
grant in Wales) at the end of the first successful
year of teaching is a nice incentive, even
though it is taxable. Even after a year of
earning, all teachers are glad of some extra
cash for a holiday or replacement car.
However, this clearly isn’t enough to entice
some musicians into the profession. One
reason cited by music graduates is the
perception that they will spend all of their
time on ‘crowd control’ rather than making
use of their musical skills. Newspapers are
full of eye-catching headlines about the
deterioration of behavioural standards in
schools. Barely a week goes by without
news of problem pupils, lack of discipline
and bullying hitting the press.
But is it really that bad? Like all other teachers,
music teachers do spend some of their time
dealing with poor behaviour but this is
eclipsed b