Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design

Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts

Thursday 3rd December 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

As I have said, this is not a matter for government. But I am very sure that the university will take note of what has been said this morning.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, does the Minister accept that music teaching in schools is a very important part of building resilience and self-confidence and improving self-discipline, and that cutting state schools’ provision of music—the number of music teachers is currently going down—is a major step back for precisely those state schools that need to build all those qualities in their pupils?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I entirely agree with what the noble Lord says about the value of music and the enjoyment that pupils can get from it. But as I have said, in 2015, GCSE entries for music were in fact 3% higher.