Nowadays a large number of students miss out on effective music education because of the lack of equity of access, insufficient quality of provision and the poor status of music in many schools so that Music education in our schools is at a critical point where prompt action is needed. That is why this project aimed to: • contribute to enhancing music teacher in-service education and have more adequately educated specialist teachers; • help to improve the equity of engagement in school music for young students; • specify ways to support productive partnerships and networking with music organisations and the cultural institutions in terms of developing and promoting good practices; • identify and develop some relevant, good practices based on competent music teacher experiences and build an understanding of the e-readiness of music educators as well as bring together examples of best practice and innovation in use of digital technologies and disseminate widely with suggestions for local adoption; • highlight the importance of collaboration and professional relationships with colleagues to improve their teaching repertoir by helping music teachers connect to support each other through peer professional and psycho-social support.
There were some valid reasons for involving music teachers in such project work. First, it can help attract more attention to teaching music as today less and less music classes are being offered in school systems. Many schools even began to exclude music from their curriculums to make room for other subjects. As music is removed from educational institutions, children can no longer receive these benefits unless they enroll in private lessons, which is much too expensive. Improved music education practices are bound to be responsive to community needs, foster cognitive development, increase creativity, improve self-esteem, and promote better health of both teachers and students. They can also promote a sense of shared culture and community belonging, and be a valuable and enriching part of general education. Most of the existing projects are confined to schools-based music activities. That means it has not explored the important world of children ’s music-making beyond the connections of the school. Besides, we intended to reveal more about partnerships in music education and the ways in which arts and cultural organisations are developing valuable relationships with educational institutions.