Ms Harriet Harman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ms Harriet Harman on 2014-03-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the three most popular instruments are for secondary school children in England who are learning an instrument in school.

Elizabeth Truss

The information requested is not held by the Department for Education. A recent report[1] published by Arts Council England shows that in the academic year 2012/13, 437,975 pupils in years 1-9 received free whole class ensemble teaching. This is 8.6% of the national cohort. 430,998 pupils were in years 1-6 (12.4% of the cohort) and 6,977 were in years 7-9 (0.4% of the cohort).

Many other children learn instruments in and out of school, but these figures are not collected or held centrally.

[1]http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-funding/funding-programmes/music-education-hubs/

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