Lord Shipley
Main Page: Lord Shipley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)(1 day, 16 hours ago)
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Lord Shipley (LD)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, for the opportunity to hold this debate, and I very much look forward to hearing the maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Debbonaire.
First, I acknowledge the important work of the 43 music hubs as well as organisations that partner with state schools, such as the Church of England. I also acknowledge the excellent work of the many cultural organisations that promote young people’s participation in music, such as The Glasshouse, Gateshead—close to where I live—which makes an outstanding contribution.
Nevertheless, the evidence is clear: music is part of the national curriculum only to key stage 3. We need more secondary schools to teach music at GCSE level, because 42% of secondary schools did not have any GCSE entries in music in 2024. Worryingly, the vacancy rate for music teachers increased sixfold between 2010 and 2023, and teacher recruitment in music over the same period dropped by half. The result is that there are fewer students studying music at secondary level. In addition, over the last two years we have seen a drop of one-third in vocational qualifications in music achieved at level 2.
As the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, reminded us, in 2019 the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee found that the introduction of the English baccalaureate—EBacc—had resulted in fewer students studying music at secondary level, because only GCSEs in English, maths, the sciences, one humanity and one language are measured for the proportion of students reaching grade 5. As the Select Committee said:
“We remain deeply concerned about the gap between the government’s reassuring rhetoric and the evidence presented to us of the decline in music provision in state schools, for which the Ebacc is blamed and which affects students from less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds disproportionately”.
What can the Government do about that situation? I hope that the Minister will tell us what plans they have to reverse the trend.