Piloting new partnership proposals

One of the first questions participants at the music education seminar are likely to fire at the speakers from Donegal and Dublin may be something like, "How come you guys got pilot schemes and we didn't?"

It's a question Martin Gormley, an adult education officer with Donegal VEC, is well able to answer. "When the 2003 report was published, one of the things in it was that there was going to be a call for proposals for local music partnerships," he says. "To be honest with you, we didn't wait for a call. We put a proposal together and we said to the Department of Education and Science, 'Look, we can do something if we're given something. So try us'." The results have, undeniably, been impressive, with some 750 children throughout Co Donegal now enrolled in the programme. The Donegal School of Music, which had always offered classical music tuition, was expanded to include other genres of music - traditional, jazz and rock/pop. The school's voluntary committee has also worked closely with statutory bodies and other educational agencies to maximise funding opportunities and add to their €100,000 grant from the DES."

How does it all hang together? "Well, we have the Donegal Education Centre, Udarás na Gaeltachta, Donegal County Council and community representation, and it's all supported by the Letterkenny Institute of Technology - so we have quite an array of partners," says Gormley. But they have no intention of resting on their laurels, he says.

"What we'd like to do is try to give more support to the existing curriculum and expand the support for music in the classroom. The problem is resources. We welcome what we've been given but I think, in fairness, we've used it well. And if we had more, we could do more."