The National Curriculum and Strategic Advocacy For Music and the Arts

A paper for the music education community

Richard Letts
September 10, 2009

Advocacy to governments on behalf of music education has been, in a sense, unfettered until recently. However, with the decision by the Commonwealth to include the five artforms, dance, drama, media, music and visual arts/design, in the National Curriculum, governments must now consider all five together. There is a need for collaboration and mutual consideration among the artform advocates. The alternative could be public dispute and failure.

A number of national artform and arts education organisations form the alliance, the National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE). Together, the developed a proposal that the National Curriculum should be written on the basis that throughout the compulsory school years, every school should offer continuous, sequential, developmental education in at least two artforms and rich but not necessarily continuous experiences in the other three.

Some in the music education community are dismayed that this would seem to mean a step back from the aspiration for universal provision of continuous music education. However, the NAAE members do envisage that every artform is free to persuade schools to choose their respective form as one of the two primary arts subjects.

Read the paper