“We will not accept a deletion in silence,” says Jannick Schatz, music teacher at Parsevalstrasse elementary school. This has been offering its students a music profile for decades; the currently around 280 children receive at least two hours of music lessons per week from the first grade onwards from trained staff.
In addition, they can take part in voluntary musical activities in the afternoon program at the all-day primary school.
Freelance workers do not receive any money
Ann-Kristin Martens helped build the music profile at the primary school. The music teacher works at the school eight hours a week on a fee basis – but has been unpaid for the past three months.
“I continued with the prospect of an interim solution, but am now considering how to deal with it,” says Martens. The reason for the lack of remuneration is the budget freeze in the education department. This also meant that the funds for the Musus (music and school) program were frozen.
Open letter to Senator for Education
The State Conference on School Music, as an interest group for musical education in Bremen, wrote an open letter to Education Senator Sascha Karolin Aulepp and pointed out the already precarious situation of music lessons in Bremen primary schools.
A complete cancellation of Musus funding would affect 34 primary schools in Bremen.
Music is not a compulsory subject in Bremen
“In Bremen, music lessons are not compulsory,” says Elmar Luksch, former head of department and trainer of music trainees at the State Institute for Schools (LIS) and part of the state conference.
Unlike in other federal states, music is offered at primary schools along with sports and art lessons as part of the aesthetics framework plan. If there are no music teachers, then there are no lessons, says Michael Warnken from the state conference, also a former head of department at LIS.
However, with the help of external teachers, for example from music schools, musical education can also be offered via Musus if specialist teachers are not available.
Hardly any offspring
“The need in schools is great and teachers are needed and deployed more as class leaders than as music teachers,” says Warnken. He and Luksch warn that musical life in Bremen schools is slowly dying out.
The state conference is therefore calling for mandatory two hours of music lessons in primary and secondary schools. If the funds for Musus remained frozen, the teachers would reorient themselves. Martens is also thinking about this.
According to State Education Councilor Torsten Klieme, a decision will be made by the end of next week as to what will happen next with Musus. The education department is aware of the importance of the funding, says its spokeswoman Patricia Brandt. However, the full day at the 34 affected primary schools is not at risk.
