Music in educafion
of England and Wales. Although it would be most unusual to find a
school which did not try to include some music in its curriculum, never-
theless no school is actually required to include it; and the time spent
on it, and the type of work done, will vary according to the school
and its available staff.
So far as Wales alone is concerned, the problem of the rural school
is little different from that of its counterpart in England. But there are
one or two special factors which must be recorded. The most impor-
tant of these is bilingualism, the Welsh language retaining predomi-
nance in the rural areas of Wales. In the recent census 21 per cent of
school pupils in Wales between the ages of 5 and 15 were said to speak
Welsh regularly as their first language; and this percentage occurs
chiefly in the thinly populated rural areas. Even those Welsh localities
(such as South Pembrokeshire and Radnorshire) whose native speech
is English protest their allegiance to Welsh culture, and at least pay
homage to their patron saint in song, dance and verse of traditional
Welsh origin. The reproduction in printed form of traditional music
(both sacred and secular) to Welsh words is steadfastly pursued, and
copies regularly flow into the schools. Similar publication of non-
traditional music has hitherto eluded solution, mainly on economic
grounds; but the recent grant of 6216,000 by the Ministry of Education
for the preparation and distribution of books in Welsh may be assumed
to include the publication of music to Welsh words.
Considering England and Wales together, there are no fewer than
8,631 small schools with no more than three teachers on the staff,
including the head teacher. The special problems of such schools arise
from their small size, and their often remote situation. Many such
schools, though not all, combine both these factors.
The small school inevitably has a very limited staff. Such schools are
practically always primary schools, dealing with children aged 5 to 11.
In a school with two teachers, one of them will be engaged with the
children of infant age (5 to 7), the other with the remainder. The prob-
lem of large classes, therefore, which is so troublesome a feature of
urban schools, rarely arises. But with so small a staff, the likelihood of
finding a teacher with any musical ability is limited; indeed, it must be
said that because many younger teachers find such posts unattractive,
it is not easy to staff them at all, all musical considerations apart. The
remoteness of such schools means that musical experiences beyond the
classroom are mainly inaccessible to the children. Almost the only
common one now available is membership of the parish church choir.
For example, the village may be too small for a group of girl guides to