Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of all secondary school age children in England were learning a musical instrument in (a) academies, (b) community schools, (c) free schools, (d) primary schools and (e) other schools in each of the last five years.

The information requested is not held by the Department for Education. A recent report[1] published by Arts Council England shows that in the academic year 2012/13, 437,975 pupils in years 1-9 received free whole class ensemble teaching. This is 8.6% of the national cohort. 430,998 pupils were in years 1-6 (12.4% of the cohort) and 6,977 were in years 7-9 (0.4% of the cohort).

Many other children learn instruments in and out of school, but these figures are not collected or held centrally.

[1]http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-funding/funding-programmes/music-education-hubs/