Crowdfunder to pay for judicial review of musical instrument lesson charges reaches £15,000 target

A community musician is to begin his court battle against council charges for instrumental lessons in Scottish schools after reaching his £15,000 crowdfunding target to pay for the case.

Ralph Riddiough believes charging for musical instrument lessons is unlawful.

Ralph Riddiough, from Ayrshire, launched the campaign last month to generate enough money to pay for a judicial review of the lawfulness of fees for musical instrument tuition in Scotland's state schools.

He said: "The hard work starts now. This ruling will be a landmark in the wider campaign against the erosion of music education in state schools, and will shine a light on the various ways in which budget pressures are twisting principles out of shape. Children should be taught without fees in state schools, and should be provided with all the materials they need without charge."

Parents and young musicians have campaigned against local authority cuts for the past year. Some councils have raised existing tuition fees for instruments - some to as high as £524 a year - while others have introduced them for the first time or started charging for the hire of local authority instruments. Others, like Midlothian, unveiled plans to axe instrument tuition entirely for those not taking a Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) exam in the subject - but made a u-turn following strong opposition.

Section 3 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 states that local authorities shall not charge fees for the provision of education. In January, an investigation by Holyrood’s education committee stated that music tuition in Scotland’s schools should be provided free of charge. It recommended children should not have to pay fees to learn a musical instrument “in principle”, but admitted it could not force local authorities to change their policies.

It emerged in November that 1,200 fewer children were learning an instrument in Scotland than a year earlier. According to figures from the Improvement Service, the national organisation tasked with driving up standards in local authorities, there were 60,326 pupils learning an instrument in Scotland in 2017/18, down from 61,615 the previous year.