NSW Government Commits to 10 year Music Education Plan

23rd May 2025

The New South Wales Minister for the Arts, John Graham, recently addressed the launch of a report revealing new insights into music education in NSW. The report, commissioned and published by the Music Education: Right From The Start initiative and conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), found that teachers clearly and overwhelmingly understand the value of music in schools but the majority are not confident teaching the subject.

Speaking at the launch, Minister Graham referred to the NSW Government’s broader policy response to the recent Parliamentary Inquiry and emphasised the need for equitable access to music education: “It found that too often, economic, geographical and cultural barriers prevent equal access to a quality arts and music education. So, in response, we’re developing a 10-year Music Education Plan to build on the high-quality offerings of the public education system, and to make sure that all public-school students can access quality music education.”

The report found that 55% of teachers received less than 10 hours of music training in their Initial Teacher Education course, which is consistent with the findings of a recent report that the provision of music in ITE has declined and is below 10 hours on average.

A quarter of teachers had attended any professional development in music since their Initial Teacher Education, and almost three quarters (73%) rely on pre-recorded music lessons rather than delivering one themselves.

The survey was conducted using a representative sample of NSW schools, balanced by geographical area and socio-economic indicators, and had respondents across the range of professionals in schools including music specialists, (generalist) classroom teachers, and principals.

The NSW report is the second in what we hope will be a series of comparable reports from different jurisdictions, the first being South Australia. Comparing the two states surveyed so far, the proportion of music specialists with ‘high confidence’ teaching music was slightly higher in SA (84%) than NSW (79%) but the proportion of non-specialist teachers with high confidence was substantially higher in SA (45%) than NSW (30%). More South Australian teachers agreed they have access to high quality professional learning, both among music specialists (75% in SA, 48% in NSW) and even more so among non-specialists (55% in SA,15% in NSW).

Members of the Music Education: Right From The Start Advisory Group, Working Groups and Staff: (rear) Dr Rachael Dwyer, Dr Anita Collins, Louise Barkl (front) Alicia Neil, Emily Albert, Alex Masso, Anne Frankenberg, Dr Jason Goopy, Bernie Heard, Judith Bowtell

AMA Executive Officer Alex Masso attended the launch of the report and has closely followed the process of the NSW inquiry, wrote an extensive AMA submission and gave evidence at the inquiry, and supports the work of Music Education: Right From The Start.

“This report confirms many things we already knew or suspected, and provides valuable data to identify and solve some problems through this Music Education Plan”, said Masso. “I have spent most of my life interacting with music in NSW public schools, first as a student, then as a professional music tutor and as a parent. I was one of the lucky primary school students whose Principal and multiple classroom teachers were capable musicians and confident music teachers, developing a culture of music making throughout the school and providing a range of opportunities which laid the foundation for my life in music. We know that not all students have this opportunity, but a 10 year Music Education Plan is a chance to turn that around and give all students access to a quality music education.”

The AMA is a longstanding supporter of the Music Education: Right From The Start initiative and sits on its Advisory Group.