Aberdeen Music Centre has confirmed it will not host extracurricular lessons at the start of the new academic year – despite previous promises the service would not be affected by cuts.
The lessons have been suspended due to ongoing discussions over staffing at the facility, according to the local authority
However, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), the country’s largest teaching union, claimed it had happened as a direct consequence of the city council seeking to make cuts in funding to its instrumental music service.
The union’s general secretary Larry Flanagan said: “I am sure that when Aberdeen voters cast their ballots in the recent local government elections, they weren’t voting to cut the funding for instrumental music tuition, and in particular the popular service offered through the Aberdeen Music Centre.
“Councils should be continuing support for instrumental tuition, and indeed looking for ways to expand it.
“Instead, across the country, we see a penny-pinching cuts agenda slicing away at the service, as in the case of the Aberdeen Music Centre.”
Over the years, the organisation has produced a number of musical stars, including globally-renowned superstar, Annie Lennox.
In February, the city council’s former finance convener Willie Young stated no cuts would be made.
He said at the time: “We will not cut the music service. That’s not going to happen, we will not take that cut – that’s a cut too far.”
A spokesman for Aberdeen City Council said yesterday: “Aberdeen City Music Service runs a number of extra-curricular groups on a weekly basis which are open to children learning a musical instrument in city schools.
“These groups are taken by music instructors.
“The service is in the process of negotiating the inclusion of these ensembles as part of the Music Instructors Working Time Agreement.
“Due to the timescales involved in this process, it has been decided these groups will not run at the beginning of the 2017-18 academic year.
“We will endeavour to have the ensembles re-established as soon as possible in the new school year, and will release updated information as soon as it is available.”