The United Kingdom (UK) has made a conscious decision to enhance music education by announcing an £88 million investment. The fund will go towards a number of schemes and programmes, from youth clubs, Scouts, and Guides to music, sports, and art activities.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, in an interview on Classic FM noted that the skills young people gain from a musical education are valuable beyond just their academic studies. They also learn vital life and communication skills.
“You know, with Beethoven, the master, bringing together voices into a symphony for the first time ever. And here we are in Milton Keynes with children who are 7, 8, 9 years old playing the chorus with their fingers. That is brilliant, and we should do more of it.”
“As everybody who’s ever done music will know, you’ve got to work in a team. You have to play your note or your instrument at the right time, you’ve got to have eye contact.
“Those are skills that go way beyond music. I don’t know how many businesses say to me: ‘Keir, we can do the technical skills they need for our business, but what we lack with young people is the eye contact, the confidence, the working in a team,” he added.
The education system in the UK, per reports, has recorded a stark decline in the provisions of creative subjects for more than a decade. According to a 2024 report by the Cultural Learning Alliance, half as many students were studying the arts in 2022/23 compared to the 2009/10 academic year, and 42% of schools no longer enter pupils for music GCSE.