Let it be music to everyone’s ears

Teaching music as part of lifelong learning has never been in the limelight as much as it has been during the past three weeks. Education Minister Dolores Cristina’s announcement regarding the teaching of music and the Johann Straus School of Music during the launch of the adult learning courses for the year 2010-2011 has been misunderstood.

On that particular occasion, Mrs Cristina announced two projects in connection with the Johann Strauss School of Music. The first project referred to the building of the school of music in Old Bakery Street, Valletta, which needed structural works and an overhaul. Through such works, the learning environment of the school would be more conducive to standards of music teaching in the 21st century. This enhances the potential of the school and its contribution to the development of the creative industry.

Following the reports submitted by the acting head of the school of music and the assessments carried out by an engineer and an architect, it was evident that the building needed extensive works. For the safety of the students and staff, it was decided that the school’s activities and courses would temporarily be hosted in a few centres close to ­Valletta.

The second project establishes a network of branches in various regions – ideally, one school in every college. These centres will provide courses in music appreciation and music tuition at basic levels in various instruments and music theory under the direction of the School of Music. Accomplished students will then have the opportunity to audition and move on to the central school to pursue their studies at more advanced levels.

With reference to the second project, Labour MP Owen Bonnici wrote in The Times (September 2) that “The opposition firmly believes in the need of democratising the teaching of music and will unreservedly support the concept of community teaching of the arts”. Therefore, one concludes that there is a general agreement with the second project mentioned above.

However, in the same article, the Labour Party spokesman on culture did not make a similar categorical approval of the first project, that is the refurbishment to the building housing the school of music.

Last May, Dr Bonnici tabled a parliamentary question (no. 17764), in which he asked whether the government intended to relocate the school of music to a more suitable location. The question evidently implied that the Member of Parliament saw the present location of the school as not adequate enough. Yet, he stopped short of expressing approval of the planned refurbishment project in his recent article.

Furthermore, he implies that Mrs Cristina misled the House in her reply to the question referred to above. On the contrary, the minister was honest in her reply when she said that, at the time of replying to the parliamentary question, there were no intentions to relocate the school. After receiving and analysing the aforementioned report by technical experts, the intention now is to temporarily hold the lessons elsewhere while the much-needed works and refurbishments are carried out. This allows the facilities offered at the premises in Old Bakery Street to become more “adequate”.

The sole aim behind the refurbishment project at the Johann Strauss School of Music is that of offering the best learning environment for all our schools, including those in non-compulsory education.

The Directorate for Lifelong Learning has been working on this project since it was launched in June 2009. In fact, the acting head of school had presented me with a report on June 19, 2009. Since then, options were evaluated and a plan of action was developed. To my knowledge, the plan has remained consistent for the past months.

There shall be a complete refurbishment of the building in Old Bakery Street. In the meantime, all music lessons shall take place in a limited number of venues in the ­Valletta/Ħamrun area.

As from October, the Directorate for Lifelong Learning will continue to expand its programme of community learning so that there may be more participants in the lifelong learning programme. As already stated above, the music lessons taking place in the community (in one school in every college, provided that enough suitable adult educators are available) will be limited to those learners applying for the first time this year.

Let’s dedicate our energy and efforts to offer more opportunities to those who wish to learn music.

The author is director of the Lifelong Learning Directorate.