Austrian music lessons in danger
The Austrian Music Council has announced that the country's Ministry of Education has issued a decree stopping all school experiments at Austrian elementary school. This also affects the approximately 430 primary school classes with a musical focus in Austria.
In May, according to the Music Council, a parliamentary mandate was issued to the two responsible ministries (Education, Arts and Culture) to sound out possibilities for stimulating music lessons. Although the current government program also provides for the expansion of cultural focus schools, the Ministry of Education, Science and Research decided by decree 12/2018 to discontinue all school experiments at Austrian elementary school.
This affects around 8,500 pupils in 430 classes with a musical focus across Germany. Just a few weeks before the new school year, there is now great uncertainty among the teachers affected and the parents of the registered children as to what will happen next. Some federal states are now providing for a fall-back solution so that music focus classes can continue in the 2018/19 school year. However, there is an urgent need for a continuing solution, as the funding for the focus classes is not secured beyond the coming school year.
According to the Austrian Music Council, the measure will result in a further deterioration in the situation of music teaching, although "the government has committed itself to improving it". In any case, music lessons in elementary school are currently not guaranteed across the board, as there is a lack of music-specific training for primary school teachers at teacher training colleges. The ÖVP's culture spokesperson, Maria Grossbauer, is planning a first specialist dialog on music education at the end of September.
