30th December 2009 9:00
By Blue Tutors
The EIS (Educational Institute of Scotland) have implored the Scottish government to increase the provision of musical tuition in schools, the BBC has reported. With the budget for education at an all time high, despite the global financial problems, the EIS would like music tuition to be more prominent for every student.
Playing an instrument is claimed to increase a student’s confidence and ability to work in a group, improving their performance at school in other subjects. Ronnie Smith, the EIS general secretary said “Developing an understanding of music is beneficial to pupils in many ways, and can have a profound effect on the personal and social development of children.”
However, although there is no denial of the benefits of musical tuition, the Scottish government have guarded against committing too many resources in one particular area. A spokesperson said “But we need to be realistic, much as budgets have been protected to this point in time, council’s record levels of education expenditure are unlikely to be sustainable in face of the forecast budget cuts and we must debate how to prioritise these increasingly scarce resources in an open and mature way.“