EVERY CHILD in the country should have a chance to learn how to sing or play a musical instrument, the organisers of a music scheme part-funded by U2 have said.
Music Generation, the national music education programme for young people, hopes that 10,000 children who would otherwise not have received a musical education will be able to do so over the next three years.
U2 contributed €5 million towards the €7 million cost of Music Generation. The rest will come from the Ireland Fund.
The band stepped in after it was revealed that a successful State-funded pilot which operated in Ballyfermot and Co Donegal could not be rolled out nationally because the money was not there to do it.
The money will go towards a series of local music education partnerships which will involve established music teachers, musicians and administrators.
Collectively, they will be able to offer music lessons to schoolchildren either in or out of the classroom free of charge or at a subsidised rate. It is hoped that a dozen partnerships will be set up nationwide through the Music Generation fund. Each must have the support of a statutory body, particularly a local authority or a VEC, to qualify for up to €200,000 a year in funding over the next three years.
The Department of Education and Skills has made a commitment to publicly fund the scheme after 2015. Organisers hope the scheme will be established enough by then to offer every child who wants one a chance of a musical education.
Music Generation director Rosaleen Molloy said Ireland was trailing far behind the European average with only 1 per cent of secondary school children receiving tuition in instrumental or vocal performance. The European average is between 6 and 8 per cent.
She described the lack of commitment to a musical education in Irish schools as “shocking” and rejected the widespread belief that music education is a luxury.
“Not only does it give you the technical skills of learning how to play an instrument, a music education gives you skills that you need for life, a great sense of confidence, discipline and team-working,” she said.
“The gift that U2 and the Ireland Fund have given to our young people goes way beyond musical skills. It is giving them an empowerment and a belief in themselves.” None of the members of the band was at yesterday’s launch, but in a statement, guitarist The Edge said they had been lucky to have been in a position to have learned music at school and the scheme would prove beneficial even to children who did not intend to pursue music as a career option.
Music Generation chairman Dr Tony O’Dálaigh said the fund would not have existed without the support of U2.
He spoke to the band when funding for the scheme was announced in New York during the summer and they were keen to replicate the type of musical education they received at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin. “They came from a school that was very liberal so it came as a shock to them that only 1 per cent have access to a musical education here,” he said.
