PLEA TO WENDY ON MUSIC TUITION

Opposition mounts as pupils join the protest over Renfrewshire Council’s proposed cuts in music tuition which will mean lessons reduced to once per fortnight and the axing of seven full time equivalent staff.

Local politician Wendy Alexander said:

“Congratulations to the senior pupils in Renfrewshire schools sticking up for future music students. It’s time for Renfrewshire Council to abandon this musical madness. Massacring musical tuition is simply wrong. When it comes to music ‘practice makes perfect’ and cutting lessons to once a fortnight just won’t do. The question is no longer if the SNP reverse this cut but when.”

Click here to view concerns expressed to Wendy from pupils/parents/teachers

Here is evidence that local music instructors are being threatened with disciplinary action for merely suggesting a lesson once a week is better than a lesson once a fortnight. Council leaders should hang their heads in shame. I am calling on them to offer an immediate guarantee that any music teacher who offers a view on these plans will not face disciplinary action. They should offer that guarantee now and in writing.

Secondly, I am calling on the Council to guarantee there will be no compulsory redundancies in support of a policy that has rightly attracted the vocal opposition of parents, pupils and teachers.”

One teacher’s plea to Wendy this morning:

”My colleagues and I have been warned not to speak out – or even mention to pupils – for fear of disciplinary action, and feel very frustrated that the excellent service provided is going to be decimated by short sighted budget cuts. Having seen the anger/ astonishment and subsequent resolve of pupils/parents who have ‘found out’ what’s happening, I believe that once people become aware of exactly what the council are trying to push through ‘on the quiet’, a great number will fully back you in campaigning for the proposals to be dropped.

Please do everything possible within your position to oppose these cuts.”