Paul Kehoe
Question:108 Mr. Kehoe asked the Minister for Education and Science if there are grants or funding available for persons who wish to open a music school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24620/03]
Written Answers. - Schools of Music.
My Department does not provide any specific grants or funding to persons who wish to open a school of music. The revised primary curriculum music programme places a clear emphasis on the need to give children in all classes appropriate levels of experience of instrumental music, as listeners and as responders, as makers of music and as composers. Guidance is provided for teachers on ways of approaching such activity and a wide range of experiences is suggested. I have already provided all primary schools with a grant to support teaching and learning in the arts, including music.
At post-primary level, the revised syllabuses for both the junior and leaving certificates emphasise three main activities, namely, listening, performing and composing. Students studying these courses have the opportunity of availing of class-based tuition in an instrument and/or voice. Students may have lessons outside their school in a college or school of music, or privately. In the case of school-based tuition, my Department pays the salaries of the teachers, so there are normally no tuition costs to the students in these circumstances. In the situation where students learn instruments and/or singing outside their own school, some of these courses are run by vocational education committees, which my Department helps to fund, notably, County Cork, city of Dublin and the city of Limerick VEC.