The Erosion of Music Education in Quebec Schools: A Call for Action.

In the current system, schools are required to choose which of four artistic disciplines will be offered to students (music, plastic arts, drama or dance). And the music is there less and less.

« Music is not a compulsory subject. We have to justify our place each year to get a place in the subject grid. »

While some special purpose programs stand out, for all students in the regular program, music is losing ground. It has become the poor relation of the education network, noted the Federation of Associations of Teacher Musicians of Quebec (FAMEQ), which will table a white paper in the fall on the benefits of music on the overall development of young people.

Mr. Proulx sees colleagues from other schools reduced to walking from class to class with a trolley, which limits access to musical instruments.

Because, unlike the gymnasium, which must be part of a school’s plans, the music room is optional. Music is sometimes taught in the cafeteria.

“There is an erosion of music education, budgets and time allocated to music. »

Photo : Radio-Canada / Anne-Louise Despatie

Isabelle Héroux, who trains at UQAM those who will teach guitar in schools, believes that public schools are less and less of the right conditions to promote musical training.

A school may cut music teaching hours, may not offer music facilities, she illustrates. And sometimes there are teachers who learn that oops! their music period will be cut the following year. Instead of teaching an hour, it’s going to be half an hour a week. All of this is done between the class teachers; music teachers are not even aware of what is being decided.

And yet, she laments, music is as essential to the development of young people as physical activity.

In the large Harmonium room, Sylvain Caron directs the harmony of his secondary school.

Photo : Radio-Canada / Anne-Louise Despatie

Sylvain Caron teaches high school in a brand new music department. The support of his school administration and the Center de services scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys made it possible to build a rather unique music department comprising a large rehearsal room, two classrooms and cubicles. What make students want to learn music rather than drama or visual arts.

Even if he feels protected from this arbitrariness in his school, Sylvain Caron also believes that there is an erosion of the teaching of music in the public network of Quebec.

We share the ARTS range with other colleagues in Fine Arts, Drama and Dance, and it’s up to school choice. The choice is made according to the staff in place and there are many variants.

He believes that in many schools, the music curriculum rests on the shoulders of one or two teachers. When they retire, there are not always successors to take up the torch.

The music department of École Dorval-Jean XXVIII welcomes around 450 students: those in the specialized program, but also all those in the regular program.

Photo : Radio-Canada / Anne-Louise Despatie

Lack of statistics despite evidence

It is difficult to back up FAMEQ’s fears with data. The Ministry of Education could not provide us with the number of schools that currently offer a music program in Quebec.

It is also impossible to make comparisons over time and thus to have an idea of ​​the number of schools that no longer have a music program. For any answer, the ministry limits itself to explaining the mechanics of the choices in arts.

Since this is a local educational choice, the ministry does not have data about the number of schools that teach musicunderlines Bryan St-Louis of the Communications Department of the MEES

But educator musicians believe that the decline of music is very tangible in schools. In a 2018 survey by FAMEQ, more than half of respondents said they did not teach the minimum time prescribed by the ministry.

The time pie and the budget pie are distributed among all activities. But I think we should ask ourselves what are the activities that we know, by conclusive data, that they have benefits on the development of young people, says Isabelle Héroux. She argues that this is the case with music and that is why a white paper will highlight the latest research.

Researcher and professor in the Department of Psychology at the Université de Montréal, Isabelle Peretz has been interested in music and the brain for more than 30 years. Science clearly demonstrates the link between learning music and social development.

The school band of École Dorval-Jean XXVIII performs Chanson noire d’Harmonium.

Photo : Radio-Canada / Anne-Louise Despatie

Music sculpts the brain and the research speaks for itself. In children, making music develops faculties such as concentration and attention. Mutual aid and the feeling of cohesion among those who make music together has been proven, especially among adolescents.

years, studies have shown that music helps to retain them. If they are offered musical activities, an orchestra, they will stay in the school system”,”text”:”Boys who tend to drop out of school around the age of 13 or 14, studies have shown that music helps them retain. If we offer them musical activities, an orchestra, they will stay in the school system””>Boys who tend to drop out of school around the age of 13 or 14, studies have shown that music helps to hold them back. If we offer them musical activities, an orchestra, they will stay in the school system, explains Ms. Peretz. She adds that the more schools are underprivileged, the more we should structure music education and make it accessible.

Benefits that many music teachers also measure.

We need a vision, a ministerial direction. We need every political actor to get involved, for management to support music teachers, for parents to name the importance of music in the development of their children, for colleagues to become aware of the pedagogy that there is behind music educationinsists Stéphane Proulx.

It is high time to bring music back to the fore, in all schools.