Researchers call for more music teacher training

February 09 2009

Music teachers in primary schools require more training, according to a new piece of research.

A team at the Institute of Education in London conducted a survey of 116 infant teachers in England.

And they found that many of these fail to cover the key stage 1 music curriculum for four to seven-year-olds.

This was attributed largely to a lack of time and training for these teachers, almost 40 per cent of whom could not read music, while many were not confident enough to sing in front of their pupils.

A shortage of musical instruments in many of the schools surveyed also contributed to a failure to provide a proper music education, the report found.

Lead researcher Professor Sue Hallam stated: "If the quality of a child's music education depends on whether he or she has a classroom teacher who happens to have some basic musical expertise, this is inequitable."

A report calling for improved music teaching in both primary and secondary schools was published by Ofsted last week.

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