Music in Schools (NL)

In The Netherlands music education has a formal place in the curricula for all the children at the age of 4 – 15 year. In the Primary Schools (age 4 – 12) music education has to be educated by the generic teachers, in the Secondary Schools (age 12 – 18) music is taught by specialists who are trained in a conservatoire.  At this moment there is a big discussion about the quality of music education in the Primary Schools, because very often the generic teachers don’t own sufficient skills to teach music in a proper way. Different solutions are coming up: the education level of the generic teachers should be improved in a strong way, another solution is to delegate music education to specialists or even music education should be posted in a wider perspective of culture education. From society there is a strong wish to improve music education, but there is not a clear direction for a common solution to realise this wish. In the first three years of Secondary Schools there is an obligational amount of teaching hours for music, in the second half of the program pupils can choose for a more extensive program of music education. In the music schools pupils can get music lessons (instrumental and vocal) in all kinds of settings. In the past years there is a growing collaboration with generic schools and music schools. From the music schools all kinds of initiatives are taken towards the ordinary schools to collaborate in projects and events. This kind of initiatives are being encouraged at this moment as well as from the politics as from organisations in society.