Last year, students finally moved into the gleaming new Cork School of Music - but there is already unrest over planned cutbacks, writes Michael Dervan
IT'S LONG BEEN established that music education in the Republic is unrivalled, but not in any positive way. In spite of recent developments here, we're still at the bottom of the league. In no other country in Europe is the availability of music tuition to pupils at primary and secondary levels as poor as it is here. Nor do we yet have a national conservatory.
That's not to say that no first-rate music teaching goes on. But it often seems to do so in spite of rather than because of the Department of Education. Most of the instrumental, vocal and choral activity that takes place here is the result of private initiative rather than state nurturing. It requires parents who can afford to dip into their pockets to provide for the musical education of their children. As one wag memorably put it, it's a case of class in the music room rather than music in the classroom.
The widespread absence of music education from our regular schools has made the contributions of our limited number of specialised music schools (also one of the lowest tallies in Europe) even more important. The integration of the Dublin College of Music into what is now the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) has, over time, brought a radical reduction in places for students working at first and second levels.
The DIT has focused energy and resources on students working towards degrees. A similar process of resources leaching away from younger music students seems now to be underway at another institution, the CIT Cork School of Music (CSM).
Last September, after a protracted and exceptionally rocky public-private partnership process, the teachers and students of the CSM - who had spent years in temporary accommodation - moved into a new, much-praised, €62 million state-of-the-art building. The design, by architects Murray O'Laoire, was recently shortlisted for this year's Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland Awards.
FACED WITH PUBLIC unrest about cutbacks at the School of Music, Cork Institute of Technology's position is quite blunt. It has issued a statement saying, "Regarding speculation about budget shortfalls at CIT, the Institute will, in fact, receive an overall budget increase of 2.5 per cent for 2008, which is most welcome. Any changes which are being planned are in the normal cycle of review and planning for next year. These will have a minimal impact, particularly in the case of CSM. There is no question of not providing the full range of music tuition currently available.
"Enrolment for 2008 will proceed normally."
The facts, however, seem to suggest otherwise. The aim, according to CIT, is to shed 20,000 teaching hours for the institute as a whole, with 2,000 of those hours to be in the school of music. This represents just under five per cent of the total teaching hours in the school and, given that most music tuition has a pupil-teacher ratio of one-to-one, it certainly seems possible that up to 100 fewer pupils will be able to secure places at the school next year.
A CIT spokesperson tells The Irish Times that "any student who's a student at CSM and who in the staff's professional opinion should continue, will be and are being accommodated".
"No students," she says, "will be discontinued." Cuts "could be applied to group areas and need not affect one-on-one teaching," she asserts, although she did confirm that "the final position has not been decided". Given the proportion of one-to-one teaching involved, it's hard to see how the situation could be resolved without a reduction in enrolment.
It's no wonder that parents are concerned. As Declan O'Toole of the newly formed Cork School of Music Parents Association puts it: "There's an information deficit. The more questions we ask the less information we're getting. We want facts, not spin. I have seen an instruction issued from the President's Office in CIT on April 1st as part of a review that states there would be no enrolment in September of either existing or prospective part-time students. The School of Music, to our knowledge, is the only constituent school in CIT where the demand for places is increasing and cannot be met. We have no intention, having agitated for a number of years for the provision of the facility, to stand idly by and allow it to be taken from the children of Cork."
The current Minister for Education, Batt O'Keeffe, has multiple connections to the situation. He is the TD for Cork North West, and is a former lecturer at CIT, from which he retired on pension some years ago. One of his first tests as minister is turning out to be a most unexpected political hot potato - parent-led agitation against cutbacks at Cork's gleaming new School of Music. And it will also be interesting to see if the two ministers with specific responsibility for the arts - Martin Cullen and Martin Mansergh - will allow themselves to be seen to stand idly by.