In 2011, the government unveiled a National Plan for Music Education, setting out its plans for the teaching of music education in England until 2020. Its title: The Importance of Music.

It was the first time the government had published a National Plan for Music Education. A fact which Michael Gove (then Education Minister) and Ed Vaizey (at the time Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries) said in the foreword demonstrated their respective departments’ “unswerving commitment … to recognise the importance of music in the lives of young people and to ensure that we consistently give young people a music education that is of the highest quality.”

Based on this commitment, the plan outlined the government’s vision for music education:

“…to enable children from all backgrounds and every part of England should have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument; to make music with others; to learn to sing; and to have the opportunity to progress to the next level of excellence if they wish to.”

The plan also responded to recommendations made in the report Music Education in England, published earlier in 2011. Carried out by Darren Henley, Managing Director of Classic FM, the study had found music education to be “patchy” across the country.

Read The Importance of Music: A National Plan for Music Education.

Read Darren Henley’s report Music Education in England.

Campaign