Sir, - As a professional music educator, I welcome the interest in music education manifested in your recent articles and correspondence.
One of the goals of music education is that all young people will continue to be involved in music and music-making into and throughout adulthood. Instrumental performance is one way in which this can be achieved. However, vocal performance and informed listening are other modes of participation which, together with composition, are major components of the new schoolbased music programmes which have contributed greatly to the democratisation of music education at primary and secondary level in recent years.
There are many who believe it is essential is to employ specialist teachers of music at primary level. However, I believe that with the new, more teacherfriendly syllabus, resources would be better used in setting up a particular type of in-service provision for primary school teachers, whereby specially trained primary music consultants would provide ongoing support for teachers in their classrooms, demonstrating good practice and helping to devise appropriate lesson-plans and year-long schemes of study.
The Junior Certificate music syllabus has been successfully implemented for many years, and has resulted in greatly increased numbers of pupils taking music successfully at Junior Cert level.
The new Leaving Certificate syllabus has been examined only twice and has been broadly welcomed in that it offers all pupils - and not just those fortunate enough to have private instrumental tuition - the opportunity to take music successfully at Leaving Cert level and to engage with music through a combination of listening, composing and a range of performing activities. I hope that this programme will be reviewed once it has "settled", to ensure that it is meeting the needs of all those involved in offering music education, including third-level institutions.
Another school-based music activity which deserves a mention is the Department of Education's annual choir and orchestra examination system for second-level schools. This unique undertaking involves large numbers of pupils, for whom these exams are often the only music-making available. They provide a motivation for both pupils and teachers to work towards as polished a vocal or instrumental performance as possible, and as such must be highly valued. - Yours, etc.,
Gabrielle McCann, Lecturer in Music Education, Trinity College, Dublin 2.