This is a question which I have pondered
quite a lot in the last year or so, from the perspective of the visiting music
teachers because they are an important part of their income.
Let’s face it the public schools in the UK
have survived two world wars and although many went bust there are a number
that have survived since the time of Henry VIII, but maybe the Internet is a
bigger threat than Nazi Germany! Technology has already managed to dismantle
the music industry, and also the world of the newspapers; it is also doing a
good job taking on the world of publishing!
I read a little while ago an article by
Lorena McKennitt, about the effect that technology had on the music industry
with open full-scale piracy being the norm now for public schools. It’s not so
much piracy, but the fact that education can be undertaken on the Internet for
very little money. Schools have become part of the childminding industry as an
unintended consequence for some, they have developed this as a side-line
business with breakfast clubs and after school activities. What would you
do with your children when you go to work everyday? If you can have a school
activity to put them in that solves the problem.
So what I’ve seen recently is a squeeze on
lessons from the point of view of cost, and of time; these are some of the
games that are played on the peripatetic music staff.
The cost of lessons is increased to
the parents, but remains fairly consistent to the music teacher. Now I experienced this
first hand with one of the fee paying schools that I worked where the rate was
only going up (if it did go up) by a percentage point per year , but the
parents were paying significantly more each year. The cost reached £50 an hour of which the music staff were
only getting (with
everything included such as pension payments and petrol and supposed holiday
pay) £30 an hour maximum. Now the reason behind this I fully understand from a
business perspective, because the school suddenly had an unexpected increase in
costs from the Church of England. They owned the land that the buildings sat
on, took the pepper corn rent thousands of pounds in a year, adding this to
costs of government guidelines on child protection and the increase in the
employers contribution to the teacher pension fund they were looking for as
many soft targets as possible.
Time that staff contribute for free
The other game that is played is when the
pupils cannot have lessons, so that could be the whole of the lunchtime, church
services and if the school is attached to a cathedral et cetera that becomes
even more pronounced. Lessons where the pupil is taken to play sport or there’s
a school trip, and often in these cases the teachers are never advised in
advance. So like a zero hours contract if you are not teaching, you often are
not being paid.
Streamlining timetables
The so-called streamlining of the school
timetable where the lessons have to coordinate to the timetable which will mean
there could be up to 10 minutes lost time per lesson; the academic lesson is 40
mins the music lesson is 30minutes which means there is 5 minutes for a pupil
to arrive at the beginning and 5 to leave. This results in a significant drop
in the income of the peripatetic teacher.
Now I’m not sure whether the streamlining
effect is something to do with inspection bodies suggesting better use of time
et cetera, and then the school tick boxing by doing this sort of thing. But I
feel this all comes from a perspective of desperation on the part of the school
administration, because even a successful school with plenty of staff still has
to take these jobs to already stretched employees in order to cut costs.
Often these schools are in old buildings
Most of these independent schools are in
old buildings which brings with them a significant problem of upkeep. This is
part of a problem that in some cases they may also be in listed building, which
increases the costs considerably.
Who is paying the fess?
So now factor in who are the people paying the
fees at these schools, and if these people are also under pressure financially
because of problems in the workplace
You only need to have one highly successful
state school in the catchment area of a public school and they are in real
trouble because if that school are getting results that exceed the public
schools, which they often do, and they are not a grammar school (although the
effect of the grammar schools in the Kent is significant) and there is no
bullying, and there are no fees it’s a bit of a no-brainer.
Back in the day being educated in a public
school had real kudos the ‘Old School Tie’ effect, and it was an important way
of getting into seriously good employment because of the connections that your
school offered, but unfortunately that does not exist anymore. For those people
reading this in the US that is similar to being able to state that you came
from an Ivy League College
So, we
will wait to see what will happen! I no longer work within this sector, however
many of my friends do and they are already saying that the numbers are dropping
off for lessons. We have already got quite a heady cocktail, so for those
of you who are involved in education and teaching in schools it might be
advisable to find a few more baskets put your eggs in, just to be safe!
Vic
Three days of rocking and rolling playing
the blues and reggae and jazz and funk, what more could you ask for!?
