Joint letter calls for action on music teacher recruitment

The government has frequently spoken of its ambition to revitalise music in schools, but schools urgently need more music teachers if they are to deliver the government’s ambitions for music education. The Department for Education (DfE) has missed its own recruitment targets for secondary music teachers in 12 out of the last 13 years and the number of music teacher trainees has fallen by 51.3% between 2010/11 and 2024/25. Despite this, the DfE has reduced its target for secondary music teacher trainees and withdrawn the £10,000 music initial teacher training bursary for 2026/27. Today,  Music Mark, the Independent Society of Musicians (ISM), and the Music Teachers’ Association (MTA) have written jointly to the Secretary of State for Education, urging the government to reverse these decisions. Read the full letter below.

Dear Secretary of State

 

We are deeply troubled by the recent drastic cut to the DfE’s target for secondary music initial teacher trainees (ITTs) in England. We urgently need more music teachers in schools to allow government to achieve its ambitions for music education, and cutting music ITT targets directly contravenes these plans, placing further weight on an already stretched workforce.

 

The Independent Society of Musicians (ISM), Music Mark and Music Teachers’ Association (MTA) are the three subject associations for music. We represent thousands of music teachers in England, in addition to the music hub network and hundreds of associated partners.

 

Secondary music teacher recruitment has been in crisis for many years, largely due to education policies that have devalued music as a subject since 2010. The DfE has missed its own recruitment targets for secondary music teachers in 12 out of the last 13 years and the number of music teacher trainees has fallen by 51.3% between 2010/11 and 2024/25.

 

The government has frequently spoken of its ambition to revitalise music in schools, with Georgia Gould recently affirming that it is ‘critical’ to the DfE’s agenda. It is not possible to achieve this without more specialist music teachers, yet the music ITT target has been severely cut over the last two years, from 820 in 2024/25 to just 260 in 2026/27. This is despite the government’s ITT census showing that only 40% of the target for music trainees was met in 2024/25 and only 65% of the reduced target was met in 2025/26.

 

The methodology for the DfE’s recruitment targets focuses on replacing current teacher numbers. This approach at best maintains the status quo, which is already failing to meet existing demand. With the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill due to make music a compulsory subject in all schools until the end of Key Stage 3, demand will increase significantly. Yet schools are struggling to recruit specialist music teachers, and the pool of applicants for even the most desirable music teacher positions has shrunk. In addition, the decision to axe the £10,000 music ITT bursary for the academic year 2026/27, already significantly below the offer of £29,000 for other subjects, will have a further negative impact on recruitment, reversing the limited progress made since the bursary was reinstated in 2023.

 

We urgently need more music teachers to deliver the government’s ambitions for music education. While the new enrichment benchmarks strengthen the message of music’s value, it will require increased teacher workload to provide enrichment activities, and the success of the investment made to introduce the new National Centre for Music and the Arts is reliant on there being a sufficient pool of teachers to upskill. We urge you to reinstate the music ITT bursary for 2026/27 and provide a detailed strategy to recruit the specialist music teachers that schools so desperately need.

 

We look forward to your reply.