25th September, 2026

NSW Minister for Education, Pru Car, has released the highly anticipated 10-Year Plan for music education in NSW, Time For Music.

Read the plan

Music education advocates including the AMA and Music Education Right From the Start have been calling for a 10 year operational plan, rather than standalone initiatives, a parliamentary report or strategy. This plan delivers on a key recommendation from the Joint Select Committee on Arts and Music Education and Training in New South Wales, and addresses some of the issues raised in that report.

Time for Music has eight headline commitments, each with an implementation plan across a 10-year timeline. Several commitments will not commence until part way through that period.

The plan says:

We know that NSW public primary schools offer students high-quality musical experiences through the syllabus and a wide range of co-curricular performance opportunities.

We believe that every child is entitled to access diverse musical experiences within a vibrant, equitable, and sustainable music education system.

We commit to ensuring that our teachers are well supported and confident in delivering this high-quality music education for every public primary and preschool student in NSW.

To meet this commitment, the department will:

1. Ensure that music education experiences are broadened to include Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander music and music from diverse and local musical contexts.
2. Provide a clear framework for high-quality, sequential and ongoing music education by developing professional learning for the implementation of every part of the Creative Arts K-6 Syllabus and support for the delivery of quality music education experiences in NSW public preschools.
3. Support the delivery of 20 hours per year of high-quality classroom music instruction for each year of primary school through the provision of a comprehensive set of teaching and learning resources.
4. Expand the music teacher mentoring program to work with teachers in more schools to build skills in teaching classroom and co-curricular music, including innovative delivery models for different contexts.
5. Support teachers in developing their own musical skills and confidence and support the delivery of vocal and instrumental learning and musical literacy so that every student has the opportunity to play an instrument during primary school.
6. Expand the range of opportunity for high-quality co-curricular musical experiences and performances in schools and across communities of schools by sharing centralised expertise and resources.
7. Explore the development of a credential for musicians and music tutors to work in schools alongside classroom teachers, increasing student access to music programs, particularly in rural, regional and remote areas.
8. Create a music education provider catalogue in the NSW Department of Education Marketplace to ensure that schools have the highest quality external support for student music programs, resources and professional learning.

A select group of advocates and organisations has been involved in the consultation process, particularly the Music Education Right From The Start initiative led by Alberts, and including the Australian Music Association.

‘This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make real changes in the NSW public school system that can lead to a quality music education for all students,” said Alex Masso, Executive Officer of the Australian Music Association. “This is a significant project that will require the full commitment of the the Department of Education, Minister, schools and the industry. We are ready to support this work every step of the way.”

Unpacking the Plan

Initial analysis, by Alex Masso

This is a mostly optimistic reading of Time for Music, explaining what it tells us and what it could mean. This does not address every detail and focuses towards the end on implications and opportunities for the industry.  We should acknowledge that there are enormous challenges in implementing some of these goals, not least the sheer size of the NSW public school system and the lack of structure around key elements such as co-curricular music programs and specialist music teachers.

The best we can do now is overlay some content and interpretation of the plan based on our involvement in this process and current understanding of the issues. This is not a set of predictions but an attempt at providing insights.

The clearest, most ambitious goals, with the strongest alignment to the AMA’s position on music education, are expressed in the goals for 2035 and 2036. While these are not expected to be fully realised in the early years of the plan, all elements of the Time for Music plan should build towards these outcomes:

2035

• Every public primary school has access to a teacher who has participated in music teacher mentoring or equivalent music specialist.
• Every NSW public primary school is delivering 20 hours per year of curricular music to every student in every year of primary school.

2036

• Every student in a NSW public primary school has the opportunity to learn a musical instrument for one year in primary school.

The plan contains eight commitments, each with a timeline and implementation plan across 10 years to manage a staged implementation of the different initiatives. Some will begin (or continue) immediately, others are scheduled for implementation several years from now, others are exploratory.

The development of the workforce of music specialist teachers is an important opportunity, embedded in several parts of the implementation plan but not included in the wording of the eight headline points. There is no commitment to employing more music specialists, but there is a commitment to find solutions in the employment of these teachers. Successful implementation of these dot points alone could bring about one of the most significant systemic changes for music in NSW public primary schools. Two particularly relevant actions commence in 2027 (

• Develop support for schools for the flexible employment of music specialists (2027)
• Pilot alternative models for employing music specialists (2029)

The goal by 2035 is that all schools will have access to either a music specialist (potentially employed at the school, or shared under these alternative models) or a teacher that has been mentored. Measurement of that 2035 goal, and the plans set to commence around 2027-29, would presumably require data collection on the number of music specialists in the system and where they are working, something that is not yet tracked by the Department of Education.

The current situation is that music specialists are employed in NSW public primary schools but on an ad-hoc basis, based on the discretion of individual principals rather than the Department or a community of schools. Developing different models of employment for music specialists is a promising part of the plan but perhaps the most important shift is that the plan actually refers to music specialists at all.

The time commitment of 20 hours per year, throughout the primary school years, is a pillar of the plan. This is not a major change from the expectation already set out in the syllabus, and it contains flexibility to deliver music education for only part of a year rather than year-round, but it provides a clear commitment to minimum provision of music education.

The development of resources to support teachers and music teacher mentoring are extensions of current work by the Department and others. These both involve investment in workforce capability, both can be delivered by the Department and/or industry partners, and putting these initiatives in the context of a substantive 10-year plan has the potential to amplify their impact.

The 2036 goal, that every public primary school has access to a teacher who has participated in music teacher mentoring or equivalent music specialist, puts the two typical delivery models for classroom music together in parallel. One cohort is generalist classroom teachers, who will need sufficient training, support and confidence to teach music, the other is specialist music teachers that typically work across a whole school. The tension in approaching systemic change for music education has always been that deploying music specialists across every school (as is the case across most of Queensland) would almost certainly ‘work’, but is very expensive and would take some time to develop a large enough workforce. The two approaches can co-exist as practical ways of delivering a subject area where the generalist classroom teaching workforce lacks confidence (according to a survey of teachers in NSW).

An important part of Richard Gill’s vision and legacy, to develop the music teacher mentoring program now known as Music in Me, is effectively now at the heart of the 2036 goal for Australia’s largest school system. Specialist music teachers are at the heart of the music teacher mentoring model, being the mentors for other teachers, so both parts of the goal will require specialist music teachers in the primary school system.

The commitment to develop a credential for musicians and music tutors working in schools (those that are not accredited as classroom teachers, but working in a school environment in some capacity) is an example of exploratory work, with a purpose and an idea but no specific indication of what this will look like. It could potentially take the form of qualification, perhaps a micro-credential, and/or a recognition and verification of existing skills and qualifications.

The commitment to create a catalogue of providers has a clear process in place within the NSW Department of Education, some retailers are familiar with these proceses, but the implementation will need to consider whether registration is a requirement or an option for providers working in schools, and whether there is any adjustment for small businesses where the full procurement verification process may be too onerous. External providers of music education programs in schools range from large national organisations such as Musica Viva through to sole trader musicians working part time in schools as part of their portfolio career.

Opportunities for the Music Products Industry

The plan as a whole presents an opportunity for growth, aligning with our goal for more children to learn music in schools and this being the largest school system in Australia.  We would expect a successful implementation of the plan to increase participation in music making at all levels, but do not have the data or detail to really estimate by how much.

The NSW government has committed to completing an audit of musical instruments in schools with a view to sharing resources between schools. This presents an opportunity for collaboration with the music products industry to ensure that schools have the resources to realise the vision set out in Time for Music.

Two parts of the plan commencing in 2031 specifically relate to instruments and instrumental learning:

• Develop student focussed resources to support co-curricular instrumental learning (to complement teacher resources) using content from diverse musical traditions.
• Expand access to Arts and Initiatives musical instrument hire program.

The Department of Education already has an instrument hire program and presumably its expansion would involve purchasing and maintenance of common musical instruments (more of what they already have). The Arts Unit’s current list of instruments and other resources available for hire include brass, woodwind and stringed instruments, an expansion could potentially involve more instrument types. The initiative both competes with hire schemes in the industry, supports participation in music, and creates the potential for sales (and repairs) for the school system’s hire inventory and to the musicians after being supported initially by the hire scheme, Two thirds (26/39) of the instrument types available for hire currently have a waiting list as of September 2026 so there is presumably unmet demand for musical instrument hire. This demand will only increase if more children learn a musical instrument, particularly as the cost of purchasing instruments can be a barrier to participation, some instruments require different sizes as children grow, and ensemble programs often provide larger, more expensive and less common instruments to encourage students to take up those instruments.

The procurement (‘provider catalogue’ / Marketplace) process and credential for musicians and music tutors could each present a regulatory burden and/or a new opportunity, depending on implementation and your point of view.

The goal of every child learning a musical instrument by 2036 refers to the opportunity to learn a musical instrument for one year. The implementation of this goal sits more with classroom music resources and workforce capability than it does with co-curricular programs, which are part of the plan and do provide opportunities to learn a musical instrument.

It presents an opportunity to use more instruments that are suited to that form of classroom music learning in primary school (recorder, ukulele, violin, potentially keyboard, guitar and certain wind & brass instruments). If those one-year (minimum) classroom programs are successful and combined with co-curricular opportunities, there is an opportunity for increasing instrumental learning in greater numbers and at a higher level.

The AMA will keep members updated as the plan is implemented.